10 Email marketing tips to boost your sales

There are a ton of strategies you can use to boost your sales, but none are more effective than a simple email. Email marketing is the so-called granddaddy of digital marketing channels. It has been around forever. Its long history of usage is a testament to its power and effectiveness. 

I have been doing digital marketing for a very long time.  In my experience, there is no channel more effective at growing sales than email Marketing.  Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.  That being said, I have compiled a list of 10 tips that you can implement today that will really boost your top line.

1: Always personalize your emails for email marketing

For the most part, everyone feels that their problems are unique. And because of this people prefer solutions that appear tailored to the specific problem. So your emails have to be personalised.  As a matter of fact, personalization is one of the most important goals you need to strive for in your email campaigns.

Personalisation makes it more likely that a recipient will actually open an email.

Always anticipate your subscribers’ needs. This goes without saying the needs of your subscribers should be first and foremost. 

In addition to that, avoid general salutations like “hello entrepreneur”.  A reader is more likely to feel engaged with the email if it comes across as addressing him/her specifically.  So always use a customer’s name in the email salutation.

On top of that, your emails should be segmented according to the relevant parameters.  This will ensure that the right people get your email.  Don’t blanket send your emails to your email list.  For example, if a user subscribed to your list to get product information on motorcycles don’t send them an email about beauty products.

Here are some tips that will help you;

1: Use dynamic content

Dynamic content allows you to determine which element actually displays what in an email.  This saves you from creating different versions of emails to send to different recipients in your segmentation. 

2: Integrations are a superpower

By integrating your email platform with other platforms such as your CRM and e-commerce,  you are able to build highly robust profiles of your recipients. This will make your emails much more relevant thus increasing your efficiency.

2: Use promotions sparingly

I’m sure we all have that one friend who only contacts us if they need something from us.  In business something similar.  These businesses only contact us when they want to sell to us.  They tend to feel disingenuous and their upfront salesy push is a turn-off.  We often feel that they don’t care about us.  That they only care about the money they could make from us. 

 As a  smart marketer,  you don’t want to come across as described above.  Your recipients will associate your email marketing with feelings of annoyance.  Your goal with emails is to Delight your recipients.  It is to make the day better.  They should look forward to getting an email from you.  This will only happen if you go beyond promotions and focus more on value creation.

You should strive to nurture and establish healthy relationships with your recipients. It is these relationships that make the customer more comfortable buying from you and they will stay a customer for life.

3: Automate everything

Your time is valuable.  How you spend your time will determine your profitability.  Don’t waste your scarce time on mundane activities that can be automated by software. Automation will enable you to give your recipients consistent, one on one journeys throughout the customer lifecycle.

Time-saving

For example, you could see schedule your campaigns early in advance so that your time is better spent on other projects 

Increase your productivity

Automation frees you from performing repetitive tasks and liberates your brainpower to brainstorm and come up with new ideas. 

Personalization

 Automation has the added benefit of enabling you to create tailored and unique customer experiences

Consistency

By unifying all your marketing platforms and channels you are able to create consistent campaigns that best leverage your brand guidelines and values

4: Segment your recipient list

Segmentation is all about grouping recipients with similar attributes together.  An obvious benefit is that it allows you to send relevant emails to your recipients. The more relevant the emails are the more likely the recipient will engage with the content.  

In addition to that, you can optimise your frequency of sending emails with segmentation. Identify which of your recipients are most engaged and respond well to your emails and have them in a separate category.  This way you can engage them with more emails without annoying everyone else. In addition to that, the less responsive recipients in your emails can get emails at a lower frequency

Ultimately your goal is to make money via your email marketing. By sending more relevant emails you’re most likely to convert the prospect or recipient into a customer. Another thing to watch out for is that you have to make sure you’re segmenting the right part of your email list. You can segment your list based on the following factors for example;

• Based on their engagement level
• Their activity on your website
• Location is also a powerful way of segmenting your list
• Purchase history is also another key strategy to segment your list

You can use something like mailchimp for that purpose

Also, don’t segment just for the sake of segmenting. You just waste tons of time.

5: Utilize a/b testing

Guesswork will make you go broke.  Always make your assumptions based on concrete data.  The only way to get this data is by split testing or what we are referring to a/b testing.  Another thing to note is that with split testing small changes can make all the difference.

No two emails are the same and a better version of an email will put you that much closer to achieving your goals. 

What is it that you should be testing when you split test?

The subject lines are the first place to start

Generally, these are one of the most prominent elements. Given its prominence you could do a split test based on the following;

• The length
• Word order
• Content

The other elements you could split test are the visuals 

The brain processes visuals faster than it does text. Different visuals work best for different sorts of people.  For example, should you have images in your emails?  Another thing is the style of your emails. The styles that work best are determined by the brand, the audience and the layout of the campaign in general. As you can see, guesswork is a futile endeavour.

The other element you could split test is the copy

People have very short attention spans. If you can’t quickly and clearly explain yourself,  you will lose out. As such it is important to test your copy to find which combination of words works well with your audience.

6: Keep your email database pristine

Trim your database regularly to keep it clean of unwanted email addresses. These are email addresses that can taint the reputation of your IP. People are constantly moving here and there and as a result email addresses sometimes can get lost Or forgotten. A common occurrence is one recipient for example gets a new job. In addition to that, some emails are just non-existent. This could be due to spelling errors or simply disinterest by your visitors. 

Failure to update your email list will lead to your emails being marked as spam. 

If you keep your email list clean the recipients also benefit.  Let’s be real,  who really wants to receive emails that they don’t want. Stick to the people who actually want your emails. 

7: Only hit send if you have something valuable to share

Just because you have an email list does not mean you should push something. Take the time and ask yourself,  will this add value to my recipient’s life?  Ask yourself, am I solving a problem by sending this email? 

If you’re adding value to your recipient’s life the recipient is more likely to be excited next time you send an email. This recipient also has a higher chance of converting. So whether it’s a new post or a must-have offer,  take the time to put yourself in your recipient’s shoes.

8: Don’t forget about your inactive subscribers

Although we went on and on about keeping your email list pristine, Sometimes people are dormant because they already bought from you.  Should this be the case you need to find opportunities for upsells and cross-sells. Look back on the data and try to find what they responded best to. Then send an improved version.  This is a quick and effective upsell opportunity.

But this goes beyond email marketing.  Constant improvement should be a core ethos of your business.  Have products and services that compliment your original offerings.  This will create a continuation and keep your customers happy. In addition to that, it is much cheaper and more effective to sell to people who already bought from you.

 It is imperative that you keep innovating for this specific purpose. 

Another type of inactive subscriber is the type that was disappointed by your products or services.  In such a case you should make it your mission to find out why.  If there is more than one such type of subscriber,  then you have a problem on your hands.

 Your competition will use such weak points to take business away from you.  You need to be proactive in contacting your customer.  Be humble and listen to them vent then come up with a solution.

If you do this right you will have a better product and/or services.  And you can do this via email Marketing.  Sometimes all you have to do is send a request for them to rate your services and products.

9: Use emotion to connect

Emotion is an important part of our lives.  It is often the primary consult that we use to make decisions. Every pain point that your customer has often traces back to their emotion. For example, they will hire an accountant just so they can get the peace of mind that they are in full compliance with the tax authorities. Another example is that people will use an Analytics platform simply to relieve themselves of the headache of coming up with reports.  at the end of the day, it’s all about what we feel.  We buy because of the emotional benefits sometimes.

You will get more engagement in your emails if you keenly target what your recipients are feeling. You need to address their fears, take note of your hopes and dreams,  and encourage their goals.

 This will help you create a deeper connection with your customers.  It is this connection that will lead to increased sales in your business.

That being said, a key skill you need to develop and cultivate in your team is empathy. To be able to address someone’s emotional needs requires you to put yourself in their shoes.  This is easier said than done. We all have that primary profit motive that guides us. Sometimes we need to ignore that instinct of making money and focusing on how to alleviate the pain of our customers.

 An empathic business is a business that will last a lifetime

10: Storytelling is a powerful tool

We all love stories.  They are memorable and compelling. Incorporating elements of storytelling in your email advertising will make you stand out. This is because everyone uses the same boring, almost robotic tone of voice. Everyone is just trying to get out as many words as possible.  Storytelling will make your emails more captivating.  They will make them more interesting to read. In addition to that, stories humanise you. It lets the recipients know that there’s a person behind the emails.  A person who is very much like them.

There are so many ways to do this;

For example, you can tell a story of your new product and how it came to be. You can also share a brief history of your company.  Or rather you could share the experiences of your employees.

Making money with email marketing is a possibility and a reality for many businesses.  follow the tips above as mentioned together with good old-fashioned hard work the sky is the limit.

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