How to Make Email Marketing Work for Your Business

Email marketing has been a core part of digital marketing strategies for decades. It’s affordable, relatively easy to implement (thanks to email builders and mass marketing tools), and, when done right, has the potential to provide a 42x return on your investment. Unfortunately, everyone knows how cost-effective email marketing can be–and that’s why it’s just as easy for it to drain your advertising budget without producing results. 

With everyone sending marketing emails, it’s incredibly easy for yours to get lost in inboxes or, even worse–marked as spam. And even if they do open it, you still need to convince them to click your call to action. If you want to unlock your email marketing’s potential, keep reading for some quick tips to help you generate more clicks.

Start By Segmenting Your Audience

With billions of spam emails sent every day, the chances of anyone opening a generic email without any personalization are slim to none. People want to feel like you’re speaking directly to them, not just yelling out loud to anyone who will listen. That starts with figuring out who you’re going to be talking to and what they care about, then tailoring your messaging to those interests.

Segmenting your audience is the first step. Break down your customer or subscriber data into smaller groups based on things like demographics, purchase history, and engagement data so you can find similar contacts to target at the same time. For example, you can segment new and existing customers into two separate groups, focusing one campaign’s messaging around giving your business a try while the other convinces them to come back. 

Or, you can look at existing customers’ purchase histories and segment them based on the types of items they buy, creating one campaign for people who bought loafers and one for those who bought running shoes. The more you can narrow your groups with segmentation, the easier it is to personalize your emails.

Capture Their Attention With Attractive Subject Lines

When your contacts scroll through their inbox, they’ll mostly see your email’s subject. So, it needs to grab their attention, pique their curiosity, and, ultimately, convince them to open it. Your subject line should spark curiosity, offer value, or create urgency. For example, instead of something vague like “Big Sale This Weekend,” try “John, 24 Hours Only: 30% Off Best-Selling Loafers” 

This subject directly addresses the reader, creates a time constraint, makes an offer, and tells them it’s for something they’re interested in, creating a personalized experience that’s more likely to stand out. It’s also short, which prevents the subject from getting cut off on smaller screen sizes, and snappy enough to tell them exactly what to expect and why they should care.

Personalize Your Email’s Content

Once you’ve earned their trust and convinced them to open your email, don’t violate it with a spammy email full of unnecessary visuals, mismatched messages from your subject line, or cookie-cutter content that’s generic and impersonal. Start by addressing them by name, which you can usually dynamically insert directly from your lists with mass marketing tools. Then, tailor your introduction to the audience segment you chose so they know you’re paying attention.

Depending on the type of email, you can also mix the personalized intro into your offer or call to action. For example, if you’re targeting customers who placed a single order of a 1-month supply of your products but haven’t reordered yet, you can say: 

Shawn, it looks like you’re almost out of your GAINZ pre-workout mix. We don’t want you to lose those hard-earned gains, so here’s 15% off your refill to keep you going 💪

You can take it a step further with an integrated call to action: Looking for something that you can just throw into your gym bag instead? Check out our new chocolate pre-workout and protein bar to fuel up AND power up while on the go.

These examples are relevant to their purchase history and interests, address them by name, and create valuable context and incentive to make the offer more tempting, showing that you understand their needs.

Create Clear and Compelling CTAs

Now that you’ve captured your subscriber’s interest and given them a reason to check out your offer, you need to bring them home with an effective CTA. Strong CTAs make their next steps clear, set clear expectations, and encourage them to take action.

Use concise, action-focused language like ‘Claim Your Discount” or “Shop Now” that clearly states what clicking your CTA button will do. The button should also stand out visually, which you can accomplish with bright or contrasting colors to the rest of your email content. In your copy, instill urgency by setting deadlines or create a feeling of scarcity to encourage them to take action now instead of waiting with phrases like “only for the first 100 customers” or “last chance.”

Monitor Results and Make Adjustments

Email marketing isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. You need to track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to identify what’s working and what isn’t so you can make improvements. Experiment with different subject lines, designs, CTAs, and send times to see what resonates with your audience. A/B testing is a great way to compare variations and find the most effective approach, which many email marketing tools offer as a core feature.

By continuously analyzing results and tweaking your strategy, you can fine-tune your email campaigns to maximize engagement and achieve better results over time.

Watt Media: Expert Email Marketing That Drives Results

Email marketing can be an incredibly effective channel for growing your business–if you know how to stand out from the competition and drive home conversions.

At Watt Media, our team of digital marketing specialists makes it easy to build cost-effective marketing campaigns that stand out and deliver results. We can help you segment your lists, build compelling headlines, craft dynamic and engaging email content, and create CTAs that your subscribers can’t resist. Reach out today to learn how our email marketing solutions can help you get the most out of your marketing budget.