Email holds the power to inform, engage, influence, and ultimately convert target audiences. It is one of the oldest but highly effective digital marketing strategies.

Email marketing is effective because it offers a wide reach of customers; it is a direct line of communication that can be personalized based on data and preferences. It is also cost-effective and can be automated to drip emails triggered by specific user actions.

But, Getting meaningful results, however, is dependent on several strategies. You'll need to create compelling, personalized, and persuasive emails that captivate audiences—even with dwindling attention spans.

This guide highlights five strategies for better email marketing campaigns and how you can use them for effective email marketing campaigns.  

What is an Email Marketing Strategy?

An email marketing strategy is a course of action that you implement to successfully execute your email marketing campaigns. Email marketing is arguably one of the most effective digital marketing channels– with a return of up to $40 for every $1 spent.

To achieve the highest possible ROI, an email marketing strategy must outline your goals, target audience, content, timing, and even metrics for determining the success of your campaign.

For a successful email marketing campaign, your strategy must highlight:

1. Lead conversion- How you'll nurture potential leads and effectively convert them into paying customers. You can convert leads using lead magnets, segmentation, drip campaigns, etc.

2. Traffic generation- How you'll drive relevant and qualified leads to your landing page. The more the traffic, the higher the chances of converting them to customers. Traffic generation can be through opt-in forms, quality content, links.

3. Email funnel- This is the sequence you'll use to guide your customers at different customer journey stages. Will you have welcome emails, promotional emails, or just education emails? A sequence helps you keep your audience engaged with just the right information at the right time.

Let's look at the strategies you can use to ensure your email marketing campaign succeeds.

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5 Strategies for Better Email Marketing Campaigns

The average person receives up to 120 emails per day. Yes, that's a lot—and it means that with overflowing inboxes, attention spans are growing shorter.

Email marketing strategies help you cut through the noise and make a lasting impact. Below are five email marketing tips to help you cultivate and convert your audiences and achieve that substantial email marketing ROI.

1-    Personalize your messages

Generic, one-size-fits-all emails will be lost in your target clients' inboxes. Personalization means tailoring your messages to individual recipients. It helps you build deeper connections, build trust, and drive higher engagement.

Here are tips for personalizing your email messages effectively:

• Collect and use specific customer data- Get useful customer information about your customers, such as preferences, names, demographics, and purchasing history. Segment your customers into groups of similar behaviors and characteristics. Amazon does great with personalization. By segmenting their audience preferences, they only recommend relevant products.

• Diversify your content- Craft customizable content according to different people's characteristics. This way, you can show personal offers and suggestions with different interactions and interests.

• Customize pre-headers and subject lines- Craft attention-grabbing pre-headers and subject lines addressing individuals. Include their specific details, location, and names for their preferences and needs.

•  Use behavior triggers and automation- You can set automatic email marketing workflows from specific events or behavioral triggers. For instance, you can send welcome emails to a new subscriber. And send a follow-up email to a new customer after a purchase.

• Send personal offers and recommendations- Analyze your customers' behavior and history, then recommend related preferences. This helps you speak directly to the needs of each segment.

Email marketing software and tools like Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor can help you segment your audience and deliver customized, personalized emails to each subscriber.

Don't forget to include a professional email signature at the end of your messages, as well as enable BIMI record, it makes you look more professional and reinforce your brand image.

2- Bring genuine value

"Offering genuine value in your emails keeps your subscribers engaged and interested in your brand. It helps you build trust and credibility, making sales conversion easier. It also reduces spam and unsubscribes since your emails provide real benefits." 

Margee Moore, CEO of BigOrange Marketing and certified StoryBrand Guide

Providing genuine value is a continuous process that requires you to understand your audience profoundly and regularly improve based on their needs and preferences.

Here are tips for adding authenticity and genuineness to your emails:

• Think about your customers' needs- Take time to understand your audiences' needs, preferences, pain points, and goals. Share valuable information, educational resources, and how-to guides, providing actionable tips to help subscribers overcome challenges or improve their lives. With this approach, you become a trusted source of knowledge in your niche.

• Understand your audience deeply- Take note of their behavior, preferences, interests, and demographics. Then use the information to create your email list groups to deliver relatable information. You can also offer exclusive promotions and discounts, fostering a sense of loyalty.

• Fill your database with their preferences and personal information: Encourage subscribers to provide feedback on your content or services. Ask them to share their interests and personal information via sign-up forms. The data you collect helps you offer more personalized emails. Remember to test and optimize your database continuously. 

3- Leverage User Generated Content

User-generated content is content created by your users and then incorporated into your email campaigns. It can be as simple as displaying ratings and reviews , user-submitted photos and videos, social media posts, or complex as user case studies and user-generated polls and surveys.

USG helps provide a genuine, authentic perspective on your brand and the much-needed social proof. It also encourages engagement and intractability in your emails because users will likely share your content on other channels.

Here's how you can leverage UGC for an effective email marketing campaign:

• Share your brand community content- Ask your social media followers and customers to share related content on your platforms. This information may include product reviews, testimonials, videos, photos, and other useful information showing their experience working with you.

•  Add UGC in your emails- Add UGC as images, snippets, or links to show real-life interactions and experiences with your business. This way, followers can see their peers' engagement which probably leads to conversion.

• Give engagement and interaction- Send prompting information to your recipients, asking them to share, like, or comment on your social media content. It helps to create a feeling of community to encourage conversations and conversions.

•  Request permission to give credit: Request permission to credit the content creators. This shows respect for their product ownership and builds trust for more contributions.

4- Track and measure performance

Track the success of your email marketing helps you understand the campaigns' performance and make possible adjustments. 

Source: Litmus

Here are some tips to keep an eye on your email campaigns:

• Set campaign goals- Your goals should contribute to your overall business marketing objectives. These may include conversions, click through rate, and engagement to measure and benchmark your success.

• Use email marketing analytic tools- Some email platforms give exclusive campaign performance data. This allows you to track performance rates like conversions, bounce, click-through, open, and unsubscribe rates. This enables you to analyze your marketing strengths and weaknesses.

• Track KPIs performance- Use email marketing tools to track your campaign goals against your set key performance indicators (KPIs). The achievement of your KPIs helps you determine your campaign achievements.

• Conduct A/B tests- Create different email styles to test them with part of your subscribers. Then compare their performance on which style works better for your audience for future use. You can use different content formats, subject lines, or call-to-action buttons. 

• Review your strategies occasionally- Regular reviews help you make the necessary improvements. By reviewing, identify patterns, trends, and improvement areas in your future campaigns.

• Apply your findings in your email strategy: From your results, apply your findings to meet your goals, like conversions, clicks, and open rates.

Tracking the performance of your email marketing campaign gives you insights into the effectiveness and driving better ROI, helping you make data-driven decision-making.

5-Improve your subject line

Your subject line is essential to your email marketing strategy. It helps to capture readers' attention and persuade them to open the emails. 

A compelling subject line can increase your email open rates and engagement, ultimately improving your conversions.

Here are valuable tips to help your emails stand out and get more clicks.

• Avoid misinterpretation- Use clear and precise language to reduce confusion and pass the message accurately. You should also avoid common spam trigger words and phrases. Words like "free" or "urgent" cab trigger spam filters, harming your email deliverability.

•  Keep it concise- One of the best email marketing strategies is keeping subject lines short and sweet. Aim for subject lines that are short and to the point, about 40 to 50 characters.

• Create urgency or curiosity- This email strategy helps to raise the interest and curiosity of readers to open your emails. Give exclusive offer hints, use valuable insights, and use questions with words like "limited-time offer" and "exclusive invitation." Also, give readers a point of anticipation to boost their engagement.

Credit: Constant Contact

You can use an email subject line tester to analyze the effectiveness of your subject lines. The tool scores your subject lines, performs a spam filter check, and helps you perform AB testing comparisons on different subject lines.

One More Thing!

60% of customers are likely to subscribe to your email list, compared to only 20% who are likely to follow a brand on social media.

But, marketers report that an email list can have inactive subscribers of up to 63%. Re-engagement can be a game changer in email marketing campaigns. Find a way to reignite your inactive subscribers with incentives and fresh ideas.

For successful email marketing campaigns, avoid mass undifferentiated emails by personalizing your emails and always strive to add value. Continually test and implement better while keeping an eye on the KPIs metrics. For example, you can try emojis in subject lines and see if the open rates change.