Email marketing is a cost-efficient way to promote your business and connect with clients past, present and potential. The beauty of email marketing is that it reaches a wide audience at a negligible cost and can be curated for nearly any occasion.
Like most digital approaches, email marketing evolves with technology and consumers’ online habits. With that in mind, here are a few current best practices that can guide you as you curate your own email marketing campaigns and boost your business.
Think about frequency and timing
Sometimes less is more. Don’t make the mistake of bombarding clientele with endless emails. Your base wants to hear from you, but doesn’t want a constant play-by-play.
One email a month is a generally welcome rate of frequency, though many consumers don’t mind weekly updates.
Find a balance between those figures, but also consider timing on an hourly level. Sending your email blasts in a wisely chosen windows can make all the difference in luring readers to open your message.
According to CoSchedule’s, “What 10 Studies Say About The Best Time To Send Email,” the best days are Tuesday, Thursday and Wednesday in that order.
The best times to send an email are: 10 a.m., 8 p.m., 2 p.m. and 6 a.m. in that order.
Consider your own daily workflow, and imagine when you’d be most amenable to opening an email blast. Well-curated frequency and timing can make or break your email marketing open rates.
Provide quality content
The content of your email marketing matters. It’s not enough to touch base on the surface level by sending generalized form communication. Instead, be mindful about the material you include in your email newsletter.
Ensure that your email copy is error-free, organized into an easily read structure and is clear in its pitch. Above all, emphasize what’s in it for the client and why the information you’re including is worthwhile.
Whether you’re referencing a holiday, linking to a relevant article or timely topic, or promoting an upcoming event — it should be readily apparent to readers why this information applies to them.
Subject lines should be crafted with care because they serve as your email message’s opening. These brief headlines should be honest and intriguing. Engage emotions and ask questions, but aim to keep your subject line under 50 characters to account for inbox cut-offs.
You might also consider personalizing subject lines for added impact. Lastly, ensure that the content of your emails is mobile-friendly because a vast majority of users will interact with your messages on mobile devices.
Measure open rates
Just because someone is on your email list, doesn’t guarantee he or she will do business with you. An email marketing campaign is only as good as the business it generates, which is why measuring open rates and click-through rates are essential in refining your approach.
Email service providers can typically calculate these figures, but you might incorporate A/B testing to get a sense of what’s working best for your brand.
It’ll take time and many tweaks to find the right voice and approach, but the only way to ensure you are succeeding — or at least, growing — is to measure your results regularly and adjust your methods in response. Without this technical detail, your efforts will only be a shot in the dark.
Email marketing is a low-cost investment with endless potential, but it takes strategy and execution to make the most of it.
Apply these insights, be patient, and track your progress meticulously. Slowly but surely, you’ll be in steady command of the powerful digital tool at your fingertips.
Brandon Doyle is a Realtor at Doyle Real Estate Team — Re/Max Results in Minneapolis and co-author of Mindset, Methods & Metrics – Winning as a Modern Real Estate Agent. You can follow him on Twitter.