For years now, marketing strategists have pondered whether good old fashioned email marketing is going to fall by the wayside with all the various digital marketing options that currently exist. But never fear, emails are not going anywhere any time soon. 

Email marketing has only just begun to tap the surface in discovering how savvy it can be. 

A technology market research group has estimated that by the end of 2016, there will be:
• 4.6 billion email accounts
• 7% more emails landing in our inboxes

If email is still king, how can we cut through the crowd? How can your emails be seen, heard and effectively resonate with your target audience?

Across the board, analysts are responding to that question with the main ‘do it or die’ strategies to combat getting lost in the shuffle. 

The most common components to strengthen an email marketing campaign are:  

1. Ensure you have a responsive email template in your email campaign. 

a. Mobile devices are now the principal devices used in opening emails.
b. There’s a 23% higher click-through-rate with responsive templates.
c. 65% of total email opens occurred on a mobile phone or tablet in Q4 2015, compared to 54% in Q3 2015. - Experian “Quarterly email benchmark report” (Q4 2015) 
d. B2C emails get 57.4% more opens on mobile than B2B email, ranking 42.78% opens on mobile for B2C compared to 27.18% for B2B. - DDMA “Nationale email benchmark 2015” (2015)

*One thing to note is that there is a difference between a responsive email versus a mobile friendly email. Responsive emails respond to different devices by adjusting the text size and layout of the images. Mobile friendly emails do not change the design for smaller devices. This results in emails often having text that is too small to read on a mobile device, forcing the users to zoom in.

2. Segment your email audience.

a. “Batch & Blast” is out.
b. Focus on hyper-personalization. Go beyond “Dear First Name.” 
      • Use data analytics and CRM tools to gather more data about your customers.
c. Send different emails based on the unique qualities of your various subscribers.  
      • Where are they in the customer journey?
      • Group them by shared demographics.
      • Group them by differing buyer personas (psychographics).
d. Write emails that subscribers feel were made exclusively for them.
e. Click-through rates have said to improve 14%.
f. Conversion rates have gone up by 10%.

* You can segment for a variety of groups depending on what information you asked for on the sign-up form and what data is provided with your email analytics software.

3. Content is king. 

a. Make sure your email marketing messages are full of useful content and, if applicable, persuasive offers. 
b. A good balance is 90% educational and 10% promotional.
c. Subject lines are vitally important. Keep them short and sweet (less than 60 characters ideally).
d. Keep the look uncluttered. Keep copywriting concise and balance design with enough white space.

4. Test the open rates for what resonates with each segmented email subscriber group.

a. Test different subject lines – some shorter than others, some possibly humorous. 
b. Try different wording for Call to Action buttons.
c. Try testing with emails that include no images (plaint text emails).
d. Test who you want the email to come from – the sender name.

5. Budget for it. 

a. Allow for a budget to get the type of data collection and analytics information that’s best for your business. 
b. Budget for internal resources (staff) needed to implement and manage the technology and email communication.
c. The budget should also include allowances for testing to gain refined insights about your customers.

74% of surveyed marketers from 2015 said they still predict email communication to be one of the marketing channels that yields the highest return on investment. 

It’s been widely accepted that the return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is roughly about $44 back for every $1 spent. This healthy figure is mighty impressive, especially when you consider it’s factoring in many low-performing email campaigns to get the average number. 

So how are the super successful ones making that kind of return? 

The Direct Marketing Association says their best practices include “aggressive, smart spending on technology and services.”

Because of the increased demand for more personalized and relevant content, budget allocation for these advanced data analytic services is needed to keep companies earning an impressive ROI.

By creating dynamic content with a focus on customized emails, businesses provide their subscribers with useful information and ultimately develop strong relationships. Once this level of customer loyalty and brand recognition is reached, the less chances your emails have in getting marked as spam. 

BIS Designs offers customized email marketing services for clients in Mobile and Baldwin County, Alabama, to fuel their business through effective and well-thought out emails and newsletters. Download our free marketing plan and learn more about how to boost your business’ ROI with email marketing. You may contact us through our website or call 251.405.2535 to speak to one of our digital marketing professionals.