[October 07, 2022]
“The money’s in the list.”
Maybe you’ve heard this and you already have an email list. I’m sure it’s a good one, but are your emails consistently getting opened? Are the links in your emails getting clicked leading readers to take the action you want them to?
You’re not alone if you’re stumped for answers. We’re going to help you change that. Just like sales revenue, gross margin or cost of customer acquisition, effective email marketing means knowing which metrics to track and how to track them.
We’ll show you how to get more of the right people to read your emails and how to properly measure your success.
Ready for your email list to start making you more money?
Step 1: Build a relationship with your reader
Emails are not meant to blatantly promote your products and services. Nothing kills your readership faster than sending ads disguised as emails. Email marketing is meant to be a personal connection to your prospects. You can still provide a sales pitch, but treat it like a suggestion that will help them solve a real-world problem.
When you do this, they come to rely and eventually look forward to your emails, making them more likely to open an email when they see it’s from you. According to getaresponse.com, the average open rate in the US is 20.54 percent. But at AKC Marketing, we know open rates greater than 50 percent are possible. We see them every day.
Writing emails that get more opens is what gives you an “in” to start building a relationship with your prospect until they are ready to purchase— whether that’s next week or five years down the road. Yes, five years! When you’re in it for the long haul, it pays off.
Step 2: Personalize and automate your messages
Who exactly are the “right people”? These are the readers who are more likely to take the action you want them to, whether that’s purchasing or just being moved along the sales funnel.
But how do you do that?
At AKC Marketing, we help our clients segment their email lists based on their subscribers’ behaviors. Which means, they are opening emails that sound like they were written just for them. Blasting the same email to your entire list, trying to appeal to all, will end up appealing to no one. Or at least to a lot less.
Have you ever received an email that put into words the exact problem you were experiencing and addressed a need so specifically that you wondered how they could possibly know your thoughts so well? That is the ultimate goal of email marketing but it takes time and data.
You might be wondering how much of your time it’ll take to build a relationship with all of your prospects sending consistent, personalized messages. Sometimes spanning a number of years.
At AKC Marketing, we help our clients get their time back by creating and automating their email sequences. That way, the right message gets sent to the right person at the right stage of the buyer’s journey. We’ll learn more about the buyer’s journey and how it makes communicating with your audience easier in a follow-up blog.
Step 3: Have a single, clear call-to-action in each message
When sending an email, you want to provide useful and relevant information. Don’t stop there. Provide the reader that next step they need to take on the path to becoming your customer.
A reader needs to be told what you want them to do. The more options you provide, the less likely they will choose the one you want them to.
Finish your email with a link to download a whitepaper for more information or ask them to schedule a call with one of your sales reps. When someone clicks that link, you’re increasing your “click rate.” The average click rate in the US is 3.33 percent [Source: getaresponse.com]. At AKC Marketing, we’ve seen click rates as high as 16.8 percent.
Why does it matter if someone clicks the link, goes to a landing page and downloads your offer?
Because that’s what pushes them further down the funnel, progressing from a prospect to a qualified sales lead. That’s what we’re going for here, right?
It also provides valuable information on each reader. What did they look at? What did they avoid?
Step 4: Analyze your results
We’ve saved the best for last. Analyzing the results of your email campaign is the only way to know how successful you were. It also provides insight on what to improve the next time.
Ok, how do you do that?
You need a way of collecting and comparing data. Marketing automation platforms make measuring these metrics easier and as they say, “What gets measured, gets managed.”
Inbound marketing in action
AKC Marketing clients have had great success applying the inbound marketing method to email.
Consider this: You send emails to a list of 20,000 subscribers and get an open-rate of 50 percent. Then 16.18 percent click through to your landing page. The conversion rate from a landing page is 5-15 percent, where conversions from search ads is only 2.7 percent.
You’ve got to get them to that landing page if you want to make more sales!
The truth about email marketing
Ignore what you’ve heard about email being dead. It is still one of the best ways to attract and retain customers.
Recent stats from wordstream.com confirm what we’ve known:
- 49 percent of businesses use some form of email automation
- For every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is made in return
- 59 percent of B2B marketers say email is their most effective channel for revenue generation
- 86 percent of business professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes
But if you can’t get your readers’ attention…Nothing. Else. Matters.
More opens and more clicks mean MORE SALES.
Let us share our email marketing secrets with you. Contact us today.