A suitably formatted newsletter connects stakeholders and stockholders to employees and customers.

The time it takes to create and distribute a high-quality newsletter can be overwhelming to entrepreneurs, founders, and small business owners. In a perfect world, everyone would write their own content for distribution.

We don’t live in a perfect world.

Digital agencies like yours can help with this marketing investment, but only if the essential knowledge is available to create this resource. For many, that journey starts with an effective WordPress newsletter plugin.

If you’re in the lead generation business, the following ideas can help you get more readers for your clients’ newsletters.

Best Ways to Improve the Read Rate of Client Newsletters

Newsletters are a straightforward communication tool. They’re used to share information and generate attention. They strengthen relationships while building brand awareness when structured and sent correctly.

A newsletter can even be an important educational tool that discusses policies and procedures.

If you’re ready to start improving the read rate of your clients’ newsletters, here are the steps your digital agency can take today.

1. Design the Content for the Reader

Businesses come to digital agencies because they feel their writing and composition skills aren’t making the grade. The first rule is simple when you’re in charge of putting together a newsletter.

Don’t waste the reader’s time.

The content should be designed for the person who subscribed to the newsletter. People want to know how their lives will be changed.

They don’t want to hear about a business’s problems or read about how their efforts can solve a company’s problems.

People ask one question repeatedly: what’s in it for me? That’s basic human psychology.

When designing content for the reader from an agency viewpoint, these elements should be the focus of the writing.

• Why Do People Subscribe to the Newsletter? You have an email list to use because your client offered something valuable. That perspective must get reinforced with each message to ensure the relationship between the customer and the company is strong.
• Appropriate Timing is Crucial. If you send an email during the busiest part of the day, it will probably be deleted. When the newsletter goes out in the middle of the night, it could get ignored. Think about when your client’s customers are active, and then schedule the distribution for that time.
• How Hard Is It to Read the Message? People have an attention span of approximately eight seconds. If your intro doesn’t hook the customer, your client won’t maximize their investment in this process. Each email should be short, to the point, and filled with useful and easily implementable information.

Would you want to receive the email that your digital agency is sending? If not, that fact alone says it’s time to implement the fixes outlined above.

2. Focus on Value Instead of Sales

People don’t sign up for newsletters to receive constant pitches. They want information that is helpful in their daily lives.

When someone trades their email address for newsletter access, discounts, and other benefits, they expect something valuable in return. They don’t want to see a constant stream of pitch notes suggesting that they’ll miss out if they don’t act now.

Think through the product or service your client offers.

• Does it help to boost productivity or create more efficiencies?
• How long would it take for someone to learn how to use their investment?
• Is it possible to respond to consumer questions within a set time?

You want the email to feel like a conversation. There should be some give and take in the content that shows you get the reader’s pain points while providing something relevant to use.

The goal should be to resolve issues for the reader while leading them toward a path where your client provides the ultimate solution that makes life easier.

Focusing on value instead of sales makes it much easier to see the journey.

3. Maintain a Professional Approach

Digital agencies don’t intend to create an unprofessional image, but this problem is extensive throughout the industry. Many pros don’t realize how others consume the content in newsletters, and that outcome affects the way people see brands and businesses.

Unprofessional etiquette in an email newsletter can look like any or all of the following issues.

• Not Being Direct. A newsletter is meant to be directive. Getting to the point starts with the subject line, which should be accurate and concise. Every bit of information a reader consumes should reflect what the message is about, even when more than 250 words are shared. If necessary, include an executive summary, use bullets, or organize thoughts into sections.
• Remove the Emotion. Digital agencies act as intermediaries between customers and businesses that don’t always get along. Newsletters should be fact-based emails that people can open with confidence. If you feel angry when writing something, sit on it for a few hours before giving it another edit.
• Don’t Be Too Available. When you’re always going, it’s much easier for a mistake to happen. If you need some time to organize your thoughts, tell that to your client. They’ll want the best content sent on their behalf, and spending some extra time to make sure things are right is an investment worth making.
• Check Spelling and Grammar. It might not be possible to find every typo, but there are plenty of tools available that can help you avoid the most obvious mistakes. One of the best ways to edit a newsletter is to read the text aloud. You’ll hear problems with rhythm better while catching more errors.

Professionalism should be the foundation of each communication effort a digital agency creates. Focusing on these elements from the beginning can help get your clients’ newsletters open and read more often.

4. Segment the Mailing Lists

Would your agency walk up to a random stranger to discuss all the benefits your clients offer? Although a cold-call approach might work, the social confrontation is more likely to drive people away than bring them closer to the desired goal.

It makes more sense to approach the prospects that are more likely to have a positive response to a newsletter.

Even though the interactions are digital, people still see inbox notifications as social interactions. If something isn’t valuable or desired, it’ll get ignored – that’s the best-case scenario.

The worst-case scenario is that your client receives negative feedback because of the unwanted material.

Start with the basics first. Use the demographic information that separates your client’s customers from each other. Age, gender, and geographic location are the most popular choices in this category.

Once you have those segments structured, here are some other ways your agency can personalize this email marketing approach.

• Organizational Scope. If your digital agency serves a small business owner, sending information that falls within the product or service structures they offer makes sense. Why discuss enterprise-level capabilities if that option isn’t available?
• Sales Funnel Progress. A newsletter reader at the end of your client’s sales funnel has different needs than someone who just started that journey. People who are ready to buy want that feeling justified and confirmed. The latter prospect might want introductory content that helps them familiarize themselves with the brand.
• Behavioral Changes. When people change their reading or buying habits, it means something happened to change the relationship dynamic between them and your client. Your digital agency can use the newsletter format to determine the issue and provide a possible fix.

5. Keep the Focus on a Single Topic

Conversations tend to ramble. Meetings end up going in unexpected directions. These elements are part of the human experience, but they still need to be avoided in newsletters that your digital agency sends.

When writing and content wander off the main point, the information becomes hard to understand or frustrating to read.

Every idea needs to relate to a single topic. Here are some of the best ways you can maintain that focus.

• Identify the Main Point. Does the subject thesis convey the information and hook that your client needs to entice readers to review their newsletter? Most people don’t read everything in an email, so try to convey the message’s purpose within a single introductory sentence.
• Offer Supporting Details. The best newsletters provide details that relate to the identified main point. If the order feels off or seems confusing, try reordering the format to see if the material is easier to read.
• Explore Each Paragraph. If a newsletter is 250 words long, it should have four or five paragraphs. The introduction outlines the value, while the conclusion reinforces it while offering a call to action. What data will the other three paragraphs offer? Without direct connections that explore the key points of the discussed subject, readers have a higher risk of losing their focus.
• Maintain Voice Consistency. If your writing voice jumps between casual and formal, a reader might feel confused or frustrated by the changes in tone. This issue also applies when the narrative goes from first, second, or third person to another structure. Even multiple switches from active to passive voice can make email marketing efforts feel unreadable.

In this section, your digital agency’s goal should be to adopt a logical pattern for each email. You want everything to feel organized according to importance, classification, or comparison.

6. Offer Unique and Helpful Tips

Unique content starts when you know your client’s goals, vision, and values. The newsletter must address this question: what do they hope to achieve?

Anything you send via email marketing software for agencies, even standalone pieces, must align with those essentials.

If you don’t care about the purpose of what you’re discussing in the newsletter for a client, neither will the reader.

When someone reads a newsletter, they ask “what if” or “so what” questions. Each idea should be expressed as a clear statement, framed in a way that makes sense to the casual reader. Each tip should provide appropriate examples and supporting data to ensure it feels relevant.

Here are some additional ideas that can help you improve the uniqueness and value of the tips offered to readers.

• Brainstorm on the First Draft. Many agencies try to maximize their profits by producing a single draft of each content item. Newsletters improve when the first effort is used for brainstorming and structure than a polished piece. Allow it to look and feel unstructured so that you are free to explore any idea.
• Write to a Single Person. Imagine that you’re writing to a single reader. The content should target that individual’s needs to ensure the information speaks to them on a personal level. This step can be as simple as writing while using “you” instead of “they.”
• Be Willing to Walk Away. Take some time between the first and second drafts of the newsletter. It’ll give you more time to think of new ideas, consult with clients, or revise concepts.

Great content begins with a viable headline. That means your newsletters need a catchy subject line to generate inbox interest. Try to summarize the information while avoiding common spam words that filters catch.

Take These Steps to Create Fantastic Newsletters for Your Clients

Newsletters provide numerous benefits when they communicate on a personal level with readers. Your clients trust your team’s expertise to connect these prospects to their brands so that a viable sales funnel forms from this content.

When newsletters don’t offer something valuable or informative, they’re much easier to ignore. If email etiquette isn’t followed as well, it can be challenging to encourage people to start reading.

These implementable tips can correct that situation quickly and effectively. Some agencies might look at all the ideas to reformat their approaches, while others might find that one missing detail to take their services to the next level.

You need to guarantee more readers. Implementing the ideas offered here can help you achieve that goal.

It’s not unusual for brands and businesses to invest in both options. Email campaigns reach people across multiple platforms and devices, while social media meets people where they are.

If you can only invest or spend time with one option, which is better? Should you create email campaigns, or would social media marketing provide superior results?

ROI Differences: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

When gauging ROI for your marketing investments, it is essential to set some clear definitions first.

Do you want to focus on profits on top of all your investments, the click-through rate, or reactions vs. an open rate when comparing email to social media?

If you look at the overall performance of each investment, email provides superior results in all three categories.

• The average click-to-open rate for a high-performance email campaign is at least 20%.
• Most email marketing efforts achieve an email open rate of at least 15%.
• The click-through rate (CTR) for WordPress email marketing is about 2.5%.

When investing in social media marketing, you’ll find a CTR as low as 0.07% on some platforms. That’s because your money is being spent to reach potential prospects that don’t know anything about who you are.

An email marketing list is filled with people who gave you their information to become part of your subscriber network. They know about your brand and want to stay connected with you.

From a monetary view, the average email generates around $40 for every $1 spent on it. Social media marketing still creates a profit, but the ROI is closer to $1.28 for every $1 spent.

Audience Reach Differences: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

About the same number of people use email and social media today. That provides you with a total potential audience of about three to four billion people globally.

Email and social media have similar problems when reaching out to an audience. You don’t know if the account is confirmed, duplicated, or fake.

That means a better measurement of audience reach is to look at the organic results that come from these two marketing investments.

People typically check their email more often than they review social media notifications. About 58% of people check their messages first in the morning, before checking on Facebook, searching for information on Google, or looking up a weather forecast.

Nearly 90% of people with at least one email account check their inbox at least once per day.

Social media algorithms are meant to maximize revenues and encourage marketing investments. Roughly 5% of people in the average fan base will see what gets posted organically. WordPress email marketing doesn’t have the same “pay to play” requirement.

The only disadvantage of an email campaign here is that you can reach people you haven’t already acquired.

Email lets you turn warm prospects into customers. Social media marketing provides a path that can convert strangers into leads.

Going Viral Differences: Email Campaigns vs. Social Medial Marketing

Emails and social media posts both have opportunities to go viral. Someone can send your outreach efforts to their network using either methodology.

Here is the one place where social media marketing could have an advantage. Many email servers are designed to prohibit spam and junk mail from being sent and received.

Social media posts don’t have restrictions to a specific follower network. When someone shares content, it gets seen by some of that person’s network. Others can share it directly from your page or indirectly from another account.

Emails can be forwarded or copied and pasted to be sent elsewhere, but the network reach for this sharing option is quite limited. It also relies on other people opening the message, whereas social media displays shared content right to each person’s news feed.

Although going viral isn’t for everyone, the results can completely change how a brand is perceived by the public. It delivers credibility through social connections, whereas WordPress email marketing creates the same result through transparent displays of your expertise.

Email doesn’t have the power of virality, but it does generate consistent responses from your targeted audience. If you want predictability, this option has more benefits.

Targeting and Security: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

Email beats social media for security without question. You’re the one who owns the email list, which means there isn’t a mechanism to have it taken from you. Although the platform you use could close, the addresses in your possession can transfer to another provider.

If you have a social media page, you’re at the whim of the platform. Your entire network can disappear instantly if it stops functioning or believes you’ve violated a policy. Many accounts have lost millions of followers because of information they posted that was deemed to break one of the rules.

Targeting is another component of marketing that gets overlooked today. Emails allow brands and businesses to segment lists in virtually any way to reach a particular demographic.

Paid social media ads provide sophisticated controllers and choices to limit who sees your promotion, but organic posts have virtually no targeting potential at all.

When you want to have more control over who sees your posts, an email campaign is the best solution.

Content Perception: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

People use emails and social media for business and personal needs. Depending on your specific industry, services, or products, either choice can deliver a distinctive edge that sets you apart from a competitor.

When looking at how people use these two communication mediums, email tends to be geared toward business and social media for personal needs.

That means, from a marketing perspective, it’s better to treat a social media investment as a way to connect with your audience. You can reserve email campaigns for those direct pushes that bring people to your products or services.

Since everyone on your email marketing list opted in to receive communications from your business, they’re less likely to become annoyed by a sales pitch. That doesn’t mean every message you send should try to sell something, but it does allow for more sales opportunities.

People subscribed to newsletters and email lists to receive valuable content. When you can offer this resource while sprinkling in the occasional offer, you’ll start a good conversation with your customer base that can often lead to more sales opportunities.

Gains and Losses: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

Email and social media are about equal here with this comparison point. Both mediums provide mechanisms for people to unsubscribe from posts and lists.

An email campaign has a slight advantage because unsubscribing takes slightly more effort than social media for the average person to complete.

When you scroll to the bottom of an email message, there’s some form of this comment: “If you no longer wish to receive messages from us, you can unsubscribe at any time.”

After clicking the unsubscribe button, you’re taken to a new page that confirms the information. Some providers allow people to resubscribe if an accidental click occurs, preserving the data from the list.

When you want to remove information from a social media news feed, you have the option to ignore it for 30 days. That means you don’t know who is seeing your messages as a brand. You could be sending content out to no one, and the only way you’d see it is through reduced interactions or changes in traffic metrics.

The goal here is to be as open and honest as possible. If you provide transparent mechanisms for reducing or eliminating contact points, staying in contact with the people who want to connect with your brand and business is more manageable.

Additional Pros and Cons of Email Marketing

When you approach WordPress email marketing or another platform’s options, you’ll find that this investment offers a few more advantages and disadvantages to consider.

Here’s a closer look to help determine if this option is the best idea for your brand and business today.

Additional Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing puts your value proposition in front of an audience where interactions are strongly encouraged. You can connect with people even when they haven’t heard of your brand and business.

Instead of using emails, some companies might find these additional pros and cons of social media marketing to be valuable.

Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing: Where Should I Invest My Money Today?

Most companies use a combination of email and social media marketing to drive results. These resources often work with search engine optimization to generate organic attention while generating more brand awareness.

There isn’t a specific solution that works for everyone.

When looking at the specifics of each solution, email campaigns come out ahead because of their versatility, affordability, and customization. You can segment messages to connect with specific audiences while providing valuable information to encourage readers to want more.

People also tend to be more receptive to trusted brands in their inbox than in a news feed.

If your business hasn’t tried an email campaign, now is the perfect time to consider this option. When you combine the best email marketing software for agencies with each message’s benefits, it often becomes easier to reach your brand’s goals.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or supplementing other marketing efforts, the power of email cannot be ignored. It has one of the best ROI ratios out there today.

How do you maximize your use of email marketing?

• Provide valuable content without an expectation of receiving something in return.
• Be consistent with the timing of your outreach efforts so that each message has predictability.
• Use customer-first language to place the focus on individual needs and problems.

Once you get those basics right, you can enjoy the many benefits of email marketing plugins for your brand and business.

Why the Best Email Marketing Software for Agencies Is a Wise Investment

Companies have several ways to communicate with potential customers or generate fresh leads. Why choose email marketing over direct mail, word-of-mouth advertising, or even PPC ads?

Outside of the ROI, most brands find it easier to build a larger audience by using email marketing plugins and similar tools. People are more willing to provide an email address in exchange for something instead of giving a physical mailing address. [[1]]

Subscriber lists can also be built at any geographic level: local, regional, national, or global. That structure gives a business the power to enter new markets, generate unique leads, and compete with the biggest corporations in their industry.

Email marketing provides personalized and customized content options. About two-thirds of people expect the companies they work with to provide this resource, so a great plugin can provide this resource.

The benefits of the best email marketing plugins start with the setup process. When you can import your data from your CMS or Excel, it gets your investment working for you faster. From there, you can pick a template, generate content, and create your first campaign.

Numerous platforms provide email marketing benefits that achieve these outcomes. Why pick a plugin instead of another distribution service?

Here are some of the reasons why that choice makes sense for today’s brands and businesses.

1. Plugins Let You Send Your Latest Posts

When using email marketing with WordPress, you can access the latest information you’ve published to create lead generation opportunities. The best plugins let you send your posts to your subscriber base, including products and event information.

The best plugins provide that service if you have a custom content campaign that you want to distribute by email. Every email and outreach type is available for automation, ensuring no one gets ignored.

Over 80% of customers expect a response from a prospective brand or business within ten minutes, but the average lead response time is closer to two days.

Email plugins help you improve that speed by generating helpful information while providing the infrastructure for an immediate response.

2. Data Compliance

Many email marketing plugins offer low-cost solutions that help businesses of any size achieve their lead generation goals. Whether you’re a one-person LLC or a multinational corporation, this resource provides invaluable outreach tools.

The question in today’s business environment isn’t whether your content is up to par when you’re getting started with email marketing. It is determining if you are meeting the current data compliance rules for each geographic region.

GDPR compliance is essential if you’re trying to contact European customers. In the United States, a patchwork of different rules exists at the state and federal levels. If you try to do all this work manually, will you be able to follow each regulation?

The best email marketing plugins for WordPress provide you with a compliance infrastructure automatically. You can send your messages with any provider, merge tags, or incorporate advanced segmentation while maintaining full data control.

When you have the best email marketing software for agencies supporting your efforts, you can worry more about generating leads and less about compliance issues that could lead to unwanted outcomes.

3. Immediate Outreach

Email is a straightforward resource to use after setting up your accounts and installing your preferred plugins. You can send and receive information rapidly while receiving feedback regarding your content in hours instead of days or weeks.

Instead of trying to have 30,000 individual conversations, the structure of the best email marketing plugins allows a company to structure messages that feel personal while using the advantages of mass messaging.

When brands receive immediate feedback regarding their messaging, they have a better idea of knowing if they’re connecting with people or driving them away. The value proposition can undergo a minor shift to ensure complete clarity within the conversation.

Although instant delivery can be a benefit with email marketing, there can be time zone differences and other factors that make it more or less likely that a specific message is seen.

The best email plugins for WordPress adjust for these factors to ensure an outreach effort gets delivered to an inbox when it is more likely to be opened.

For most people, the ideal time to receive an email is around 10 AM. That tends to be when the average person checks their inbox during the workday. Here are three other popular times where a business can start generating leads with confidence.

• Emails received before 8 AM help to capture the attention of potential leads who check their inboxes while starting their morning routines.
• Messages received around 1 PM give people an option to feel productive right after lunch without requiring an extensive effort.
• A note that gets delivered around 4 PM works well for individuals who look for a distraction while winding down their responsibilities for the day.

Email marketing plugins allow you to create on your time, then distribute information when it works better for each reader. That produces a win-win situation for everyone.

4. All-in-One Solution

The best email marketing plugins for WordPress give you one place to keep this outreach effort organized. Instead of jumping between different platforms or trying to juggle multiple software requirements, everything is accessible from your dashboard.

While you get that benefit, you can also use a dedicated email provider or server to ensure accurate and authentic deliverability.

Some WordPress users have concerns about how a new plugin might change their website’s performance. The best options in the industry today are built with this concern in mind, ensuring that the least amount of impact on loading speed occurs.

Life is already busy enough. By centralizing this aspect of your online business, you’ll maximize your time and creative investments for email marketing while having a low-cost approach for your information distribution needs.

5. Newsletter Capabilities

Some email marketing plugins let you send messages or information about your products, pages, or posts, but they don’t offer a newsletter option. You might not even receive any template choices.

That’s why Mailster is an exciting option to consider. You receive access to over 400 free and premium templates, integration with your favorite plugins, and availability in more than 15 languages. You can start birthday campaigns, initiate a drip approach, and easily create newsletters.

You even have the option for a public archive of your latest newsletters.

Why choose the newsletter approach for your email marketing investments?

It is important to remember that “experience,” “expertise,” and “authority” are different concepts.

Experience is a measure of how long a business has been doing what it does best. Being around for 35 years is an accomplishment, but that doesn’t mean that company has direct expertise or authority.

Expertise measures knowledge and wisdom compared to competitors. It suggests that your business performs better than others.

Authority looks at how your expertise stacks up against the competition. Are you the best at what you do?

Email newsletters address all three.

6. Data Collection

One of the best benefits of an email marketing plugin for WordPress is the ability to collect campaign data.

Most plugins provide data on how many subscribers opened your email. You can often see the number of clicks received with each outreach effort.

The various statistics and metrics that email marketing tracks can help brands identify whether or not their segmentation efforts are working. This information also lets a company know if its content is working, or if changes in communication are necessary.

Although numerous key performance indicators are available to track, here are some of the best options to consider when investing in lead generation for your brand.

• Email By Category or Label. This information lets you see the number of messages a person has with their account, including how many have been deleted or are in their inbox or other folders.
• Email Word Count. Concise emails tend to be more effective than lengthy ones. It takes less time to read a short message, and you’ll find it is quicker to write them. You can send content that is too short to be effective, so looking at this KPI can help you identify what efforts provide the best responses.
• Total Email Conversions. A conversion doesn’t need to be a sale. It can be any action taken that leads to more revenue or brings you closer to a specific goal. Some businesses have company contacts or form submissions listed in this category.

7. Simple to Use

To enjoy the benefits of email marketing with WordPress, you don’t need to be a coding wizard or a programmer extraordinaire. Even if you’re new to this world, the primary steps involve installing WP, downloading your plugin, and creating content for both.

The best plugins use this benefit to help you create the personalized content that people want today. You can address subscribers by using individual greetings, sending birthday wishes, or addressing them by name.

Mailster takes this benefit to another level by allowing users to expand the built-in merge tags or define custom ones for even more personalization.

Subscribers can even manage their own information through a subscription center with today’s best plugins. Instead of tracking this data yourself, you can delegate it to your subscribers.

Are You Using the Best Email Marketing Software for Agencies?

The benefits of email marketing with WordPress make it easier to connect with customers while providing time-efficient processes to create and distribute content. This low-cost option delivers an impressive ROI for many brands, communicates your expertise efficiently, and is easy to implement for companies of all shapes and sizes. If you’re not using email for lead generation today, you could be missing out on many opportunities. Download your plugin today and get to work!

Some plugins help you automate your workflows or optimize websites according to the latest search engine algorithms.

When a content management system is identifiable on a website, over 64% are using WordPress. That means around 40% of all sites use this platform, which is why knowing how to market using its plugins is essential for brand growth.

WooCommerce is the most popular plugin, used on one-fifth of the websites that install WordPress. Elementor (17.3%) and WPBakery (14.3%) are equally popular.

Elementor and WPBakery make it easier to build websites in WordPress, but they don’t necessarily help with the marketing work.

That means fewer than 1% of WordPress websites install a marketing plugin that gets used for marketing purposes.

WordPress and Marketing Is a Natural Relationship

WordPress websites get plenty of traffic each month, but that isn’t the only reason why this platform is successful for so many people today.

You can install a WordPress website in less than five minutes that already offers some optimization benefits. That means you can begin your SEO marketing journey right away since everything installs with a few clicks.

Once you start exploring the different plugins that are available for brand growth, you’ll have even more ways to expand your reach to current and future audiences.

With nearly 60,000 WordPress plugins available, it’s fair to say that some are old, and others are gold. How can you separate the best from the rest when you’re ready to do some marketing work?

The first step is determining the path you want your marketing to take. Are you looking to expand the natural SEO benefits that WordPress provides? Do you need to stay at the top of the mind of an existing customer base?

Is your goal to create or expand resources in the world of email marketing?

Steps to Follow to Create a WordPress Marketing Plan

Before you decide what WordPress plugins to use, it’s crucial to have a marketing plan available to follow. Here are the steps to follow to build this necessary foundation.

1. Define what you offer. Be clear about what you’re selling on WordPress, including the features of each product or service. Find out how what you do benefits your clients, and why your approach is better than the competition.
2. Create a brand mission, even if you’re a company of one. Why are you creating a WP site to reach out to potential customers?
3. Define the target audience for your website. Who do you expect to be marketing your products or services toward each day? You’ll want to consider different socioeconomic demographics, ranging from household income to personality traits. Find what people want or need within the scope of what you provide.
4. Conduct a thorough market analysis to define your competition and discover different trends. You might find a service gap where your company can find some space, but will customers want to buy what you have?
5. If you have competitors, look at their SWOT analysis. What steps can you take to differentiate yourself from what they’re doing?
6. Outline your goals and define your brand positioning. Your marketing efforts should target specific outcomes, such as retaining customers or increasing online sales.
7. Create the key points for your marketing strategy. Where do you hope the plugins will help when you’re ready to generate more traffic?
8. Set a budget for your marketing investments and stick to it.
9. Create a campaign that makes sense within your brand’s messaging while using the benefits of the plugins that you select. Try to be as consistent with your goals as possible when reaching out to others.
10. Define your key performance indicators and metrics to ensure you know that success is happening, or if changes need to be made to improve results.

Before Using Plugins, Help WordPress Market for You

Once you have a WordPress marketing plan for your brand and business, it is time to look at the content management system’s structure to enhance potential results.

Anyone can install a plugin and hope it will help meet their marketing needs. People create posts, focus on SEO, and manage calendars daily with mixed results.

If you want less of a hit-or-miss experience, try taking these additional steps to ensure you receive your envisioned outcomes.

Use Responsive WordPress Themes

Search engines prefer websites with mobile-friendly designs over those without them. If all things are equal and the difference is responsiveness, that site will typically rank higher.

When creating a WordPress site, look for themes marked as being “responsive” or “mobile friend.” That doesn’t mean they’ll be optimized, but it will put you on a path that can generate successful results.

After installing the theme, it helps to review your mobile traffic metrics to ensure the results are within your KPI ballpark.

Optimize WordPress Site Images

Speed is an essential ranking factor when looking at how organic search engine rankings break down at local, regional, and national levels.

With so many sites using WooCommerce, you can expect dozens, if not hundreds, of high-quality images for visitors to review. That means the files stored in WP can impact how quickly a page loads.

Before you start working with marketing-specific plugins, you might consider using an image compression plugin to reduce the file sizes of your images.

You can also use Dropbox to import to WordPress.

Build an XML Sitemap

Search engines want to index your WordPress site to rank it. One of the ways they accomplish this outcome is by looking at the list of all the pages on your site, which is called a “sitemap.”

WordPress creates one for you automatically, but that doesn’t mean it’s optimized or ready to support your marketing efforts.

You can use a sitemap generator plugin to optimize this process, track index pages, and tell search engines when your site receives updates.

Split Test Your Landing Pages

Although A/B testing is helpful, it can also be a process that involves a lot of trial and error. If you have two landing pages that don’t work great when you start, it’s like comparing two math tests that both received a failing grade.

When your initial analytics don’t provide many insights into why bounce rates are high or traffic is slow, the split testing process can offer the info needed to progress your marketing efforts.

WordPress plugins let you implement the A/B testing structure without going through the work of creating duplicate designs with minor variations. You’ll receive insights into the areas that work and those that need improvement.

Use Exit Popups on Your WP Site

Interruption marketing has several advantages and disadvantages to consider. When a popup appears on a person’s screen, they get an opportunity to evaluate the offer.

Exit popups have a 2.9% conversion rate. Small businesses receive about the same percentage from their email marketing efforts.

Instead of blasting visitors with popups on every page or each time they switch away from a browser to a Word document, place this asset where your biggest returns are. When an exit popup is on your home page, there won’t be a disruption to the user experience.

Enable Comments

Sometimes, comments can feel like a mixed bag, especially when someone wants to troll your brand.

When you respond to comments, whether the information left is positive or negative, you’re showing people who you are. It’s a chance to build a community around the content you create, which typically leads to more traffic.

People want to trust the brands they include in their lives. Although spam can create slowing issues if it comes in large waves, you can install Disqus or a similar plugin that lets visitors log in and subscribe.

Akismet is a great tool to use in this category because it works to filter the spam from your posts.

Check for Broken Links

Search engines take note of any broken links found on your site. If you’re using WordPress plugins for SEO marketing, the results of their presence could cause the site’s rankings to take a hit.

Although you could check each link manually, a tool like Broken Link Checker lets you simplify the process.

After scanning your posts, you’ll receive a status report on each one. You can edit them from the dashboard, reducing the time it takes to correct this issue.

What Are the Best Marketing Plugins to Use?

If you’re ready to start taking your WordPress marketing work to another level, the following plugins have a proven reputation for delivering successful outcomes.

• Mailster
• OptinMonster
• AIOSEO
• SeedProd
• WPForms
• Uncanny Automator
• Revive Old Post
• AdSanity
• TrustPulse

Each marketing plugin provides specific benefits that your brand and business could find useful when reaching out to new customers.

How Do the Best Marketing Plugins Help Me?

Mailster lets you send a beautiful email newsletter while staying in WordPress. It’s super simple to get started since you can import CMS or Excel data for your list. You can even create a new one from scratch. Several incredible templates are available, making it a straightforward process to match your brand and tone. Collect leads, build campaigns, and send with one of several integrations.

When you incorporate OptinMonster, you’re adding a popup plugin that generates leads effectively. You can boost subscriptions, grow your email list, and develop your sales funnels. Several design elements are included, such as slide-in forms and floating bars.

AIOSEO (All in One Search Engine Optimization) is on over three million websites because it lets you take care of various technical enhancements without needing in-depth coding knowledge. Advanced features are included, including smart schema markup.

SeedProd is an interesting plugin because it helps you make landing pages quickly. It integrates with numerous email marketing services, lets you set up 404 or coming soon pages, and comes with several templates you can use right away.

When you incorporate WPForms into your WordPress site, you can build several forms that help you do everything from creating payment opportunities to registration documents. Over 300 templates are available with this plugin. You can find user journey reports, track abandonment, and gain geolocation insights.

Uncanny Automator lets you create potent marketing workflows on WordPress while reducing the time it takes to complete tasks. This plugin works with over 70 others, allowing you to integrate Zoom meetings, tweet posts, or send text notifications from WooCommerce.

With Revive Old Post, you can engage more people on social media by sharing previous content. The plugin automatically offers links to older posts, incorporates hashtags, and gives you scheduling options to manage.

AdSanity simplifies your advertising management. You create ad units that are groupable, rotatable, and schedulable to maximize your outreach and earning potential. You can use it to sell ads directly or with advertising programs from Google and others.

With TrustPulse, you receive social proof to boost conversions. It displays the latest customer interactions on the website, such as subscribing to a newsletter or purchasing a product. It adds the fear of missing out to your sales funnel when used appropriately.

Are You Ready to Start Marketing with WordPress Today?

WordPress plugins are an under-utilized marketing option. When you incorporate these tools into your campaigns and overall plans, they become practical tools that lead you closer to your goals.

When you use the correct tools at the right time, whether you’re building landing pages or developing SEO, your WordPress dashboard becomes a one-stop destination that helps your business grow.

Before downloading a WordPress plugin for your marketing, please remember to do your due diligence to ensure it meets your needs.

• Does it have the features and tools to help you accomplish your goals?
• When was the last time it was updated?
• How many users have rated it, and how high is the rating?

Some plugins require more updates than others, but a good general rule is to use those that received an update within the past six months.

When you have these tools available, you’ll find that WordPress plugins are great for marketing.

It’s important to remember that you’re becoming a guest in that person’s inbox whenever you send an email. Even when someone invites you to be there, they have the right to kick you out whenever they want.

Pitching this outreach effort gets complicated because of that fact. Why invest in something that could be short-term or temporary?

Here are some of the critical points you can cover to highlight the benefits of email marketing.

1. Provide the Facts

We live in an age of disinformation. When you quote facts or statistics, it’s not inconceivable for someone to think that you’re making stuff up.

When you provide verifiable facts and statistics about email marketing that a customer can independently research, it’s harder to deny the truth of the shared information.

Although you’d want to tailor your approach to each client based on their needs, here are some of the stats about email marketing that people need to know.

• 82% of marketers currently use email marketing as one of their outreach tools.
• 65% of marketing professionals use automated emails for contacting people.
• Over 320 billion emails are sent and received each day.
• Companies that utilize email marketing can expect up to $45 for every $1 spent in this category.
• The global click-to-open rate for emails was 14% in 2020.
• Automated welcome messages provide a conversion rate above 50%.
• 73% of online users say they’re comfortable accessing their emails.

Since every marketing effort can provide similar statistics showing the benefits of this investment, it’s essential to demonstrate its highlights.

Emails provide a one-on-one engagement channel, even if a message is sent to hundreds or thousands of accounts. Each one can be personalized to suit the interests of each customer while remaining easy to scale.

How can you ensure that the information you present in a pitch gets treated as real? That process starts by paying attention to the URL and domain – and sharing that information with your clients so they can verify it.

The biography section of a website or publication should use straightforward language. If it feels melodramatic, don’t include those statistics in your pitch.

It would help if you also looked for quotes in articles describing the statistics you offer to clients. Look for studies instead of personal opinions.

2. Trackable Results

Imagine that your company just spent thousands of dollars to book advertising time on local television and radio. How do you know if people saw your content?

When you have email marketing investments to use, you don’t need to rely on unverifiable third-party information to make decisions.

You can track data from each email campaign to see what works and what isn’t with almost immediate feedback. It could take days or weeks to receive similar information about traditional advertising and marketing.

When pitching email marketing as a viable solution, it helps to show clients the in-depth reports and detailed information from these campaigns. You can take that effort a step further by creating sample accounts to let them experience real-time reporting.

You can show clients that they can find and change it right away without experiencing high costs when something doesn’t work. That fact alone can save companies a lot of time and money.

Think about including the testing options that email marketing offers. You can show your clients that this investment allows you to keep pushing for better results while using a systematic optimization approach for each campaign.

3. Multiple Choices to Embrace

Some clients have tried email marketing in the past without much success. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the different bounces and unsubscribe requests that come along with this investment.

Others avoid email marketing because the system they tried was frustrating to use or difficult to manage.

When pitching this asset, it’s crucial to remember that email technologies are not the same across the board. You might enjoy using an intuitive platform that generates fantastic results, but some options out there don’t have that benefit.

What can you provide your client that reduces or eliminates their pain points? Here are a few suggestions to review to see if they might resonate during your pitch.

• Automatic processes work to remove all the tedious subscribing efforts out of a team’s manual efforts to ensure people can get onto the specific lists they want.
• The reports and statistics keep track of the emails that bounce with each campaign instead of requiring individual tabulation.
• Easy design principles, including drag-and-drop options, are available to simplify the process while allowing for high-quality content production and graphics inclusion.

Email marketing delivers a personalized approach while putting specific and valuable content in front of a potential consumer. Since what you see tends to be what you get with this investment today, it’s an approachable investment that makes sense when your pitch gets tailored to your client’s specific needs.

4. Focus on the Flexibility

When you purchase print advertising, you’re stuck with the final result. That product or service copy is out there until none are left.

If you invest in email marketing, you have a lot more flexibility. You can change the message at any time, including the product or service focus of the message.

With A/B testing, you can even work to refine the message. Those benefits should all be in your email marketing pitch.

Part of this process can include some low-risk efforts that could produce significant rewards. Which of the following options would be attractive to a hesitating client?

• Emails that feature special pricing or exclusive product or service access to subscribers.
• Case studies of consumers who already use products and services under the brand’s banner.
• List segments that target specific demographics with a proven interest in comprehensive or personalized content.
• Trigger emails that provide specific messages within the context of consumer behavior.
• Holiday or seasonal promotions that rotate throughout the year to generate excitement about the brand and business.

The goal should be to create excitement. When your clients hesitate on email marketing, it’s often due to investment uncertainty or past poor outcomes. If you can address those concerns with a compelling pitch, the odds get better that they’ll come into your camp.

5. Use Working Examples

Henrik Ibsen worked as a theatre director and playwright in his home country of Norway. He’s called the “Father of Realism” based on the plays he wrote at the time.

Outside of Shakespeare, Ibsen’s works are the most performed dramas in the world. In 2006, his work called “A Doll’s House” was the most performed play globally.

He once said, “A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed.” Over the years, that phrase has turned into the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words.

When someone receives an email about a specific product, service, or idea, they’re more likely to review the material when it is visually stunning. Your clients can include pictures, infographics, videos, and other visual elements to create an attractive click.

An email provides places for effective written content to supplement the visual materials that engage the reader.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your pitch, show people what email marketing can do instead of telling them about it. That visual image of success translates into a thought that says, “I need this for my business.”

Digital marketing concepts often feel theoretical until people see them in action. When someone can see their brand having success with an email campaign, it’s more convincing than a slideshow or graph that talks about past efforts.

6. Account for the Decision-Makers

You can research everything about a company, deliver an impressive demo, and still lose a contract to a competitor. If you’re not in touch with the decision-makers that approve this digital marketing investment, they can decide to bypass your ideas for something or someone else.

Before getting into the sales pitch, you’ll want to speak with the person who understands the business and makes choices for it. That process is a lot easier said than done with some clients.

It’s not unusual for the first person you contact to be the “screener” for the actual decision-maker. You’ve got to convince the initial contact before you can sell to the individual who can implement an email marketing strategy.

That means you might need to build trust and develop a value-based relationship more than once before earning the chance to pitch email marketing.

About seven people are now involved in the average business-to-business (B2B) purchasing decision. Each person could want an individualized relationship with you or your firm before they seriously consider email marketing.

How do you start building those relationships to get your foot in the door? Here are a few ideas to help get started.

• Show them your vision. A great pitch puts you into the role of a storyteller. Tell your clients where they are now, but then show them where they could be when following your vision. If you can get them to see problems from a different perspective while inspiring change, it can differentiate your relationship from competitors.
• Share personal insights. The purest form of sales is enchantment. It creates a desire to join a family or community that benefits from what you offer. Changing hearts and minds starts when you provide a path toward doing something better, even if it is a different approach.
• Overcome the objections. Your sales pitch needs to be ready for potential objections or rejections of the email marketing ideas offered. Most negative responses fall into four categories: time, need, authority, or budget. You’ll need to be prepared to address each one from all potential decision-makers in the room.

Many people go into a sales conversation ready to reply. Try taking a different approach by incorporating more soft skills into the process, like listening.

If you listen to what your clients are saying, it’s usually a straightforward process to identify needs because the decision-makers will tell you what is necessary.

You can also listen to the tone, speed, and volume of a person’s voice to find clues about what a person feels.

The goal should be to turn your pitch into more of a healthy conversation instead of a business presentation about individual business needs.

How to Improve Your Sales Pitch

Email marketing often sells itself, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to put any work into the process. Your clients will have tough questions that require answers. If you can’t provide them, the results could be less than favorable.

A great pitch starts with a lot of research. Each interaction you have with a client requires your expertise to shine.

You also need to be in a place where you can be honest about the challenges you face while creating results.

Buyers are different in today’s marketplace. Many companies want a trusted advisor that ensures expertise is behind each decision.

If you were to look at the problems that email marketing solves, what results would your client want?

• Does a business need more customer retention tools to keep consumers close to the brand instead of always reaching out to someone new?
• Is there a way to track the current marketing investments, or does the brand need help understanding where it stands with its audience?
• Does your client need an asset it owns instead of relying on something that could be taken away at any time?

Knowing what questions each client asks about email marketing makes it easier to deliver the answers they need. If that information feels current, relevant, and valuable, you’re more likely to close the sale.

A great pitch closes the deal. When you consider the elements offered in this guide, you’ll find the unique path for your client that delivers the best results.

When you have email marketing with WordPress, you have an effective way to communicate to your customers and prospects personally. That’s why this resource has one of the highest ROI ratios year after year.

Most businesses aren’t using email marketing because they feel like they don’t have the time, aren’t sure how to do it, or don’t want to invest time and money.

Using the right WordPress plugins can boost your online sales while expanding your outreach efforts. That’s a win/win situation, especially since the cost and time investments are minimal.

What Are the Benefits of WordPress Email Marketing?

WordPress plugins simplify the email marketing process. Although each one takes a slightly unique approach to the technical side of this investment, the benefits you receive from this process are the same across each platform.

Here’s what you’re missing out on right now if you’re not incorporating email marketing with WordPress into your outreach efforts.

1. Create Brand-Specific Content

Personalization is a critical need in today’s business environment. We discovered the benefits of online shopping during the pandemic, including the option to create specific orders.

If we want to order specific products or services, why would we want to read a generic form letter email?

You can segment customers into different lists when you invest in WordPress email marketing. It could be by demographic, personal preference, or even previous by previous orders.

Once you create these segments, email marketing through WordPress allows you to develop subject lines, content, and images that resonate with each audience. Each reader receives brand-specific material that pushes them forward through your sales funnel, even if they’ve already started that journey.

Most American adults say they want to receive promotional emails from trusted companies. That figure is similar to global statistics. You’re creating a platform where your brand stays at the top of the reader’s mind. When they encounter an issue you can solve, this investment puts you at the top of their content list.

2. Increase Brand Recognition

When people see your logo, read your content, or observe your crews working locally, do they know who you are?

Without brand recognition, it can be challenging to develop enough trust with your leads to generate positive attention. Email marketing through WordPress can help to correct that potential issue.

Email marketing allows you to brand each message with consistent colors and designs. You’re creating valuable content that lets people see who you are, building trust in the process.

Here are some of the additional benefits that come from having a strong brand.

3. Build Customer Relationships

Email marketing with WordPress sets the cornerstone for your customer relationship foundation. You’ve got opportunities to provide each person with the information they want in a convenient manner for their consumption.

When helpful messages get delivered to an inbox, a simple click is all it takes for readers to feel valued – if your content strives to achieve that goal.

Although some people will never be satisfied with your efforts, the average customer wants to know that you think of them as an individual instead of a commodity. What can you do to help their lives be a little better after they’ve read your email?

Here are some ideas that don’t require a massive investment in content marketing to create those connections.

• Send customers a coupon on their birthday or at another specific time.
• Offer free downloads or access to premium content.
• Provide rewards for referrals.

Over 60% of customers stop working with companies once they have a single poor experience. Most people don’t even write negative reviews. They just go to the competition.

You can use email marketing with WordPress to reduce that churn.

4. Establish Brand Authority

When customers see your company as being an industry expert, you’re more likely to earn their business.

People sign up for newsletters and email lists because they want to receive more information from you. They appreciate something about your products, services, or website and want to stay connected.

You can build brand authority by following these steps if you’re starting from scratch.

• Keyword Research. It helps to build a marketing strategy around the relevant interests of your audience. That information creates organic traffic that’s more likely to engage with the transaction process. Try to compile at least 30 different keywords relevant to your business with as much specificity as possible.
• Produce Content. Your fingers should be hitting those keyboard keys daily to show why you’re an expert. It helps to incorporate on-page SEO at this stage for your website while promoting value in each email. You can direct people to blog posts and other materials with this effort.
• Get Social. Direct your WordPress email marketing toward relevant social media platforms. If you want to connect with Gen X’ers, go to Facebook. If your focus is on Gen Z, try Snapchat. Once you establish a positive platform, consider branching out to other media.

People want to know that they’re working with the best. When you provide information through the right plugins for WordPress email marketing, you’ll take another step in the right direction.

It doesn’t matter what you sell or provide for services. These principles are universal. When you stay consistent with the value you offer others, the emails with WordPress give you a potential advantage over your competitors.

5. Collect Feedback

Although constructive feedback isn’t always easy to hear, it provides valuable information that lets you get better as a brand and a business.

Instead of receiving this feedback through reviews, use email marketing through WordPress to request this information.

You can send customer satisfaction surveys, ask specific questions, and read the responses to see where you stand. The key to this benefit is to avoid taking the negative information personally, even if the sender tries to make things personal.

Emails filled with judgmental comments can be ignored. “You never give me anything I need when I need it.”

A message with constructive feedback might say, “Please ship my order with a different service provider that communicates with me better because no tracking information was ever given to me.”

6. Drag-and-Drop Personalization

When you send emails to prospects and customers, your chosen template matters a lot. If the information isn’t easy to process for readers, they’re more likely to delete the message instead of trying to understand the content.

The best plugins for WordPress email marketing provide drag-and-drop design benefits to let you create customizable looks without needing to know how to code.

Some plugins let you build custom subscription forms you can embed in pages, posts, or widget areas.

You can include different templates or start from scratch.

This personalization benefit includes the data and metrics you prefer to track. You’ll have real-time statistics about each email blast, including click rate, open rate, conversions, and other information points that matter to your brand.

The benefit of drag-and-drop personalization is the ability to perform natural A/B testing. You can find the sore spots in your sales funnel where potential conversions disappear while testing the changes where they’re needed.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, you can refine it with these structures with the right plugin to boost online sales.

7. Faster Engagement

When you invest in traditional marketing resources, the time to engagement can be unpredictable. It could be days, weeks, or even months after completing your outreach efforts that you get returns.

With email marketing through WordPress, you can get responses within minutes. About one out of every five message opens occur within the first hour of them being sent.

About half of your opens typically occur within six hours.

That means you can get the word out quickly about something specific and valuable to targeted customer segments. It boosts your brand, demonstrates expertise, and shows concern for the consumer because you’re offering something valuable.

Many small businesses don’t want to annoy customers with frequent WordPress email marketing, but they end up not sending enough content. The average person who connects with a brand via email marketing appreciates receiving at least one message weekly.

The sweet spot for sending emails is about two or three per month.

Your audience wants to hear from you. Sending two or three messages per day is likely overdoing it, but you must send out something to stay connected. When you use the right plugins, you’ll know within hours whether or not your content connects with readers.

8. SEO Improvements

Email marketing with WordPress improves your SEO efforts. It’s one of the platform’s most overlooked tactics.

An email distributes your content while driving qualified traffic to specific landing pages. When you can boost visitor numbers, the higher traffic improves optimization.

To be clear, there isn’t a direct correlation between email marketing and search engine algorithms for search rankings.

What you receive with this marketing investment is an improvement in backlink growth to your domain. That outcome is an essential SEO ranking factor.

You can’t rely on other platforms to distribute your content. If you’re on Facebook, about 5% of followers see non-paid posts. It’s not easy to build trust when 95 out of 100 people don’t see your messages!

The right plugin can correct that issue.

9. Messaging Versatility

WordPress email marketing gives you options. When you install the plugin you prefer, it allows you to include text, images, links, and other content into the message. Some options let you have attachments, although that could increase the risk of getting the content sent to the junk or spam folder.

When you run a small business, you can easily promote your products or services with a quick video. That content could be embedded into the email to show your value and expertise.

If you need traffic sent to your site, the email can include a direct link to where it is uploaded.

Different filters and personalization commands ensure each reader feels like you’re putting together the email for their individual consideration.

That’s why email marketing with WordPress is such an effective option. You can take whatever approach is appropriate for the exact situation you face. If your circumstances change, the right plugin can adapt to your evolving requirements.

Are You Ready to Get Started with WordPress Email Marketing?

Email marketing with WordPress starts with a foundation of valuable information. What do you bring to the equation that no one else offers?

When the quality of a product or a service is equal in the mind of a consumer, their decision to work with one company over another is based on three core principles.

• What is the cost-to-value ratio of the transaction?
• How good is the customer service that I’ll receive?
• What kind of guarantee do I receive with my purchase?

You can answer these questions while providing expertise through each email. With the right plugin and your ingenuity, your brand can stand out.

Many businesses attempt to reach out to people by using email marketing, but they don’t see the positive results this investment promises.

Why do some tech companies excel with email marketing and others fail? The answer to that question might surprise you.

How Can Technology Companies Take Email Marketing to New Heights?

The primary reason email marketing efforts fail is that they never got started. When the speed of business is quick, it’s tempting to take shortcuts. Investing some cash to buy some email addresses seems to make sense.

There’s only one problem. You haven’t verified the interest levels of each person behind a purchased email list. Do you even know if those addresses are active?

Emailing information about your technology products or services and getting few responses indicates a lack of interest in what you offer. It can also be evidence that your communication structures aren’t suggesting an accurate message – or they’re getting filtered by spam and junk folders.

Shortcuts rarely work. It might take a little more time to develop your own email lists, but the work is worth it because you have more information about each address.

Here are some ways to improve your email marketing after establishing those lists so that your message gets heard by the right people.

1. Have a Plan Before Starting

When you want to know how to do email marketing yourself as a tech company, it makes sense to introduce yourself to the reader. Who are you? What are your values?

What is it about your business that makes you stand out from competitors?

When technology companies invest in email marketing, they often make the mistake of promoting themselves instead of what they do for clients.

It’s great that you’ve won awards, have global contacts, and generate tons of revenue. How can you help the email recipient today?

If you’ve won an award, talk about how your expertise in that area can help the reader find success or solve a problem. Your global contacts are great when they can help other small businesses grow with the experience those partnerships offer.

Your email marketing plans should show people the value you offer while delivering evidence that you can produce consistent results. If the content comes across as being a self-serving ego boost, that delete button gets hit more often.

Before sending your first emails, plan what you want to say. Get different opinions on what you’ve written to ensure you can evaluate a complete perspective.

2. Maintain Opt-in Lists

Someone might have downloaded marketing materials from your website in exchange for an email address, but that doesn’t mean they want to keep receiving messages. You could be doing more harm than good by sending information to someone who doesn’t really want it.

One way to manage this issue is to create suppression lists. If you’ve sent someone repetitive emails without anything being opened, they’re unlikely to be interested in the next one going out.

You can set a specific number that automatically removes an email address from your list due to inactivity. It can be anywhere from five to 15 unopened messages – whatever figure feels right to your tech company.

These additional ideas can help you streamline this idea to make your lists even more effective and responsive in the future.

• Send people who haven’t been responding an email that informs them they’ll be taken off the mailing list unless they opt-in again with a response.
• You can place them on a different email marketing list with reduced message frequency. Even once per quarter can be a practical resource for some businesses.
• Create email categories that let people choose the content and frequency of what they receive. Some recipients want daily communication, while others might be satisfied with a monthly newsletter.

When you make an effort to meet people where they are, your technology company will find more success with your B2B and B2C email lists.

3. Personalize the Signup Process

Everything seems to be automated these days. Businesses in almost every industry are looking for ways to simplify customer contacts, ranging from self-checkout registers to form-letter welcome emails.

You can create a custom opt-in form to join an email list, but does that experience communicate a personalized process to every visitor?

Here are some easy ways to add more personalization to the signup process to encourage more list development opportunities, even with today’s data privacy requirements.

• Get consent right away.
• Use lead magnets to express personalized offers.
• Comply with age verification.
• Limit explanation to avoid additional confusion.
• Provide choices whenever possible, especially if you maintain multiple lists.

Clients want tailored experiences with today’s best brands. When you can show people that your technology company offers it through email marketing investments, your investments will inspire more curiosity to follow up with everything else you offer.

4. Improve the Subject Line

The first thing an email recipient sees is the subject line of your message. It might be tempting to spice that information up with different emojis or an ALL CAPS note, but that approach doesn’t usually work.

The best subject lines tend to be boring and informative. Instead of trying to sell your tech company, create a description of the value a reader can expect by opening your message.

Spammy phrases and keywords can trigger spam filters. Even using an extra exclamation point in the subject line can screen out your email marketing efforts.

The best subject lines tend to include the following traits.

• Real Promises. If you can’t keep your word, don’t send an email that promises the world. Clickbait rarely produces long-term results.
• Be Precise. People scan their inboxes quickly. When you’re clear and concise with your subject line composition, it’ll make a better first impression. Think about how your content offers benefits, and then create a powerful statement that accurately describes what readers can expect.
• Use Action Language. When you treat a subject line like a call to action, it inspires more recipients to click. Use relatable verbs that translate to the message you’re conveying while avoiding passive grammatical structures.
• Test Your Outreach. Use A/B testing on different subject lines (or email formats!) to see what structures communicate authentically and accurately.

Your content might be incredible, but no one will want to see it with poor subject line structures. Improving this area of your email marketing campaign can deliver some amazing results!

5. Segment Your Audience

Every email marketing for small business investment creates readers who want to see specific messages.

Some subscribers are interested in different email types, including news, events, and coupons. Many might want one or two of those categories coming to their inboxes, but they might not want all three.

That’s why it is essential to understand who receives each email. You can achieve that outcome by creating audience segments.

You can create segments based on traditional demographics, client behaviors, or even where you believe someone is on their sales funnel journey.

Imagine that you offer a discount to retirees. Would it make sense to send an email with that promotion to young families?

When emails have more relevancy, the content encourages more engagement and fewer unsubscribes.

6. Use Your Data

Email marketing can produce results in most situations, but it can deliver something better when decisions come from the data your efforts generate. Although you can analyze multiple statistics and metrics, the open and click-through rates tend to be the most important.

Those statistics measure the percentage of list recipients who open emails and those who click on a link or call-to-action (or perform other specific behaviors).

Technology companies should monitor the results of every message sent. The information gathered from each investment refines the message to make it more effective.

Each business sets benchmarks to hit based on previous results. If you fall short of your goals, the first step should be to review your opt-in list and remove the non-engaged contacts.

You can also use data to evaluate your audience segments to streamline your messaging.

7. Make Your Message Mobile Friendly

Knowing how to create mobile-friendly emails can help technology companies reach out with more effective messages. When you take advantage of what tech can do for this marketing effort, you’re sending a subtle message to each recipient.

You’re proving that your company is on the cutting edge of today’s tech by creating an email that works well on the reader’s device.

About two-thirds of people read emails on a mobile device. When that information is easy to read, you’ll create a strong and positive experience for each recipient with clear structures to follow.

Here are the essential strategies that improve the mobile email marketing user experience.

• Use single-column templates when composing messages to avoid having the content appear condensed or difficult to read.
• Keep the email to a width of fewer than 600 pixels to take advantage of responsive designs.
• Use a font size of 13 or 14 to make the message easier to read on a small screen.
• Display small images to ensure recipients with slow or throttled data connections can still review the information they want to see.
• Include a distinctive call to action that prompts the reader to complete a specific task.
• Avoid using menu bars, and don’t stack links in the email.

Once you have the email structure where you want it to be for mobile devices, it helps to test it on multiple devices. You can accomplish this final step by using emulators, using paid services, or sending test emails to trusted recipients for feedback.

If you send an email to an older audience segment, you might even consider sending a text-only email to be mobile-friendly.

8. Avoid the No-Reply Problem

Most people open emails based on the person sending them. They don’t want to click on something that comes from a “no reply” or “do not reply” email address.

When your next campaign is ready to go live, have each email come from someone on your team. It could be a person in your marketing department, a customer service specialist, or someone in your C-suite.

Letting people know how they should respond ensures that replies don’t get ignored or rejected.

This step might be required to deliver email marketing content in some jurisdictions.

9. Send Messages at the Right Time

It’s easy to assume that most people in business respond to emails during regular working hours. The definition of a normal day for a technology company is quite different than it is for a blogger, a teacher, or an attorney.

When you want to know how to do email marketing yourself, try to align your messages with the times when someone is likely to be reviewing their inbox.

Some industries see significantly higher engagement levels in the hour before operations start. Others see more activity at lunch or near the end of the day.

It’s good to segment your email lists based on time zones to ensure each region gets your content at an optimal time. The United States has six standard time zones to consider alone, which is why paying attention to a specific hour is crucial.

A Final Thought to Consider About Email Marketing for Tech Companies

Email marketing for technology companies must place the reader’s experience above anything else. Even when information is interesting or informative, people don’t want to spend extra time deciphering what you meant to say.

The best emails provide concise messaging, responsive formats, and problem-solving benefits.

If readers cannot see or understand the action you want them to take, they are more likely to delete the email or unsubscribe from the list.

That means your goal as a tech company should be to build relationships with potential subscribers before the opt-in process starts. You can’t do that when you buy email addresses from lists that others have created.

Students have numerous options to consider after graduation or completing a GED. Even after earning an undergraduate degree, pursuing higher educational opportunities is sometimes necessary.

Email marketing strategies, when properly implemented, allow your institution to get noticed when a student is looking for a place to learn.

What Are the Best Email Strategies Educational Institutions Should Use?

When creating an email marketing strategy for universities and colleges, it helps to think about how you’ll manage engagement while focusing on enrollment.

It’s not just the students who will read or receive these emails. Parents are also highly interested in what you have to say and offer.

That’s why the following strategies are excellent examples of how you can evolve your educational email marketing efforts.

1. Handle Each Message with Care

The college admissions process is a highly stressful time for many students and their families. It can feel like the entire future rides on the decision to accept enrollment. That’s why each email must have empathy and be sensitive to the reader’s feelings.

Most educational emails take one of four approaches when contacting students or families.

• It is a congratulations message because the institution decided to enroll the student.
• There is news about a scholarship program, including an opportunity to apply for funds.
• Accepted students might receive emails about what the expectations are for class attendance, personal conduct, and other rules.
• It is used to communicate various deadlines, including when assignments are due.

When composing your email, think about who will read the article. Businesses often create fictional personas to represent users or customers. Colleges and universities can do the same with students.

Brainstorming the struggle each reader potentially faces makes it much easier to brainstorm ways to solve problems.

It also helps to think about what questions the reader might have when reviewing the email. If you can provide proactive answers with a straightforward tone, your point will come across with more accuracy.

2. Segment Email Lists

Email list segmentation is crucial for educational institutions because there needs to be a separation in the message types sent.

Students might want to see email reminders about on-campus events, midterms or finals, and expectations for different classes.

Parents are more likely to want information about different application deadlines, special events on campus, and cost expectations.

Educational email marketing lists might include prospective students, guidance counselors, high school teachers, school administrators, and others. Each group comes from a different background, has a unique household income, or wants to enroll in various majors.

The only way to keep each group happy and provide value through email marketing is to personalize the messages. By segmenting your list to personalize communications, you’re more likely to increase the number of applications and enrollments.

You can take these steps to start segmenting your educational email marketing lists right now.

• Send surveys or quizzes that provide information about what each reader wants to see with your communication efforts.
• Review your metrics and analytics, including the open and click-through rates, to determine what messages receive the most engagement.
• Separate people and households with geographic location data to ensure the information is relevant to the reader.
• Review the past interactions of readers with your institution, including purchases, applications, and communications, to spot patterns that can deliver potential insights.

Although segmenting won’t create a one-on-one communications channel because you’re still sending emails to each list, taking steps to focus on specific demographics helps readers to see that you’re interested in who they are as people.

3. Get the Subject Line Right

When adopting email marketing strategies for educational institutions, the subject line selected for each message is arguably the most important content you create.

If the subject line doesn’t invite someone to open an email, you’ve already lost the opportunity to engage with readers.

It doesn’t take long to see that overdoing the subject line with emojis, capital letters, and highlights often sends a message to the junk or spam folder. You don’t want that outcome!

Here are some proven ideas that can help your messages stand out, avoid spam filters, and generate clicks.

• Keeping everything short and straightforward. If you don’t get to the point right away, your subject line will either feel boring or make your institution seem unfocused. When it is too long, the information can even be cut off on the reader’s screen.
• Use action words whenever possible. The goal should be to inspire the reader’s curiosity with the subject line. Terms like “discover,” “explore,” or “review” increase the probability that you’ll earn a click.
• Think about the preview text that displays for some readers. The information should be relevant and engaging to encourage people to read the entire message.

Inboxes get very crowded these days. Many of the people on your educational email lists receive 100 or more messages daily.

If you want your email marketing efforts to stand out, you’ll need to cut through all that white noise. These ideas to improve the subject line can do just that.

4. Think About the Call to Action First

What do you want readers to remember after reading your email? Far too often, the call to action is the last thing created during the composition process.

Try shifting the focus to build each email around the call to action you’ve created first.

Every email should have a call to action. The best method is to use direct, command-orientated sentences that leave no room for confusion.

People have already clicked to read your message if they’re seeing your call to action. You don’t need to sell them again! What the reader needs is an instruction that lets them take the next step.

Here are a few essential tips to keep in mind while crafting this part of your email marketing strategy for universities and colleges.

• Avoid using passive language and grammar in the call to action. Although it isn’t always avoidable, you’ll encourage subscribers to click because the active voice encourages people to be in the present. Passive language describes the past.
• Turn your call-to-action solution into a button. People are accustomed to clicking on these items when they’re seen, so you’ll be feeding into that subconscious habit when your message feels valuable.
• Use contrasting colors to have your call to action stand out from the rest of the message. That helps it to get noticed, remove possible confusion, and encourage progress through your conversion funnel.

Your call to action doesn’t need to have a sales emphasis. Your emails might ask prospective students to finish an application or review a list of potential scholarships.

You can even use email marketing strategies like this to encourage more engagement with online lessons and classroom interactions.

5. Automate the Campaign

You’d send a letter to each student and family on behalf of the educational institution you represent in a perfect world. These personalized notes build trust, form relationships, and encourage positive emotions.

In our world, you don’t have the time to send out hundreds or thousands of letters each day by email.

That’s why it is essential for automation to be part of all email marketing strategies for educational institutions.

With automated emails, you have pre-programmed messages to send when readers meet specific criteria. One of the best options in this category is the welcome email.

If someone downloads a brochure or other information on your institution’s website, you could have your email marketing campaign send a note of thanks.

These messages don’t need to be overly complicated. When you deliver communications that respond to specific actions, it allows subscribers to feel like they’re part of your community. Most people don’t choose colleges and universities for one reason. They want a place that feels welcoming, offers a degree program they need, and delivers additional perks.

When you create responses that automatically go to an inbox, you’ll begin the trust-building process that can win people over.

6. Create Responsive Emails

About half of all Internet traffic occurs through a mobile device today. When you look at the statistics for how people read email, that figure rises to over 70%.

No one knows what device someone will use to access your email. It could be a 10-inch tablet or a four-inch smartphone.

The reader wants the email to be readable on whatever device they have in their hands. If it is difficult to read because the formatting isn’t responsive to their screen size, they’ll likely stop reviewing your message.

Even if the reader is interested in the information you’ve sent, an email that is challenging to read is often deleted.

Investing in high-quality email software and services simplifies this process enormously. You can focus on creating a subject line, message, and call to action that stands out to the reader when you know the responsiveness is already taken care of for you.

If your institution doesn’t take that path, there are still a few additional ways that you can send responsive emails to your subscriber lists.

• Choose an HTML email template from a safe website. Have your browser check the safety ratings of each site before downloading anything. It helps to work with recognizable names whenever possible to avoid installing a malicious file.
• Use coding to create a responsive email from scratch. This effort takes more work, but it also enables additional personalization options that display well on virtually any device.
• Some apps offer the option to send responsive emails from content you’ve composed within them.

Emails that load faster and look better on the screen size of each mobile device encourage more clicks. It also makes your institution look more professional because you’ve taken a little extra time to be considerate of the reader.

7. Add Relevant Images

People decide to read information because it offers a value promise. It’s the same reason you might pick up a book from one author, but not another. You want the story to be intriguing for the reader.

Although text delivers relevant information, it isn’t the best attractant to what you hope to share with your educational email lists. Humans are a visually driven species. That means your messages will receive more attention when they offer relevant images.

When visual graphics or photographs appeal to readers, you’ll get higher engagement levels. These visuals can even help your college or university promote a unique brand.

Each image in your marketing campaign should contain alt text. If an email provider doesn’t render the image, this information lets the recipient understand what was supposed to be there.

Here are some tips to ensure that your alt text makes positive contributions to your email marketing strategies for educational institutions.

• Describe what the image conveys without editorializing the material. Write what you see and nothing else.
• Don’t use the terms “picture of” or “image of” at the beginning of the alt text. If you have multiple images and someone uses a screen reader, imagine how frustrated that would be to hear the same term repetitively! That irritation would transfer over to their perception of your institution’s reputation.
• Use keywords minimally in the alt text. A top keyword or two is fine, but don’t stuff it. When text is part of the image, it helps to transcribe it as the description unless it forces you to repeat yourself.

A Final Thought on Educational Email Strategies

Once you’ve implemented these steps, don’t forget to test your emails to ensure that your readers receive the correct message. Optimizing them to be specific and accurate will help your click-through rates rise while encouraging more interactions with students, families, and industry professionals. Email marketing strategies for educational institutions are an effective communication avenue if your college or university goes about it in the right way. By implementing these ideas in ways that make sense for your school, you’ll be on a path toward creating a future campaign that gets your point across.

People love to travel.

Even though there haven’t been as many opportunities in recent months, times are also changing. By the end of April 2022, most jurisdictions plan to have most (if not all) of their pandemic-related rules lifted.

That means life is getting back to normal. That also means people are getting ready to travel once again. Running an email marketing campaign in that environment can lead to some huge opportunities!

Best Ideas for Travel Email Marketing to Try

The email types you send in the travel industry are like what other businesses offer to customers. When designing your campaign, you can include welcome notes, exclusive offers, newsletters, thank you messages, notifications, and confirmations.

Authenticity is crucial in all industries, but it must be an emphasis for those working in travel. Hospitality is a priority for many clients. If your approach doesn’t feel warm and welcoming, someone might work with one of your competitors.

That’s why these ideas are worth reviewing to see if they’re implementable with your email marketing efforts.

1. Start with a Cohesive Campaign

It’s not easy to convince people to travel. They have specific desires about their destinations, experiences, and itineraries. When you begin the contact process with a cohesive campaign idea, it’ll be easier to generate the results you want to see.

Although travel is an individualistic experience, people also love guaranteed results. If others have tried something similar and had fun, it is more likely for others to have the same outcome.

Here are some ways to implement this idea for your next travel email marketing campaign.

• Add Testimonials. About 90% of consumers in the travel industry and others say that online reviews influence buying decisions. Adding this information to an email marketing campaign through pictures, written information, or videos can increase confidence in your services.
• Suggest Destinations. These ideas should vary according to each time of year. Have items to consider for the shoulder, high, and low seasons to give people extra options to review.
• Offer Incentives. It’s easier to turn down a full-price travel package than it is when free or discounted offers are included in the offer. Everyone wants to stretch their travel budget as far as possible.
• Ask Questions. If it seems like your email marketing efforts aren’t generating results, it could be that your approach isn’t connecting with the audience as expected. Sending questionnaires can help you get on the same page.

Once you know that you’re speaking the language your customers want to hear, it is much easier to generate results with your travel email marketing efforts.

2. Create Subscriber Shortlists

When you create an email marketing list within the travel industry, it’s important to treat them as you would the process of making friends. You might have a significant group of people you enjoy being around, but you’ll shortlist the most reliable people who have earned your trust.

Creating subscriber lists is a process that starts by offering a prominent signup option on your site. You can also collect contact information from people when they visit your office, speak with you on the phone, or send correspondence.

One of today’s best practices in email marketing is to use a double opt-in form. This extra screening ensures that the people you’re speaking with through this investment want to hear your messages.

3. Use Visuals Early and Often

About 90% of the information the brain receives is visual. If you want people to get to know your brand and business, the fastest way is to include graphics and videos with your travel email marketing efforts.

It might be tempting to throw in a picture here and there, but the authenticity rule is still active. If the imagery doesn’t match the message, there’s a higher risk of losing a hot lead to a competitor.

These tips can help you increase your email marketing efforts’ chances of getting noticed.

• Images Should Pop. The image should be the first thing that someone notices about your email. If it intrigues the reader, they’ll take a closer look at your text.
• Keep the Scheme. Your email colors and branding should match. Adding contrast can attract a person’s attention with strategic placement, but don’t overdo it. When someone sees the same thing consistently, it becomes white noise to the brain and gets ignored.
• Use Responsive Templates. Over half of all emails are opened on mobile devices today. If your design doesn’t adapt to that activity, you can still lose people.
• Add Scarcity. People act quickly when they think they’ll miss out on something. If you add timers or countdowns to specific offers, your email marketing efforts can generate a better result.

When you have a short email to send, about two or three pictures that relate to the content are enough to generate attention.

4. Convince the Reader

Your email text becomes your brand’s voice. Although images create attention, it is the power of the written word that often closes the deal for readers.

The best email marketing for travel agencies takes a conversational approach with each contact. You want to keep the messages personable, as if you’re speaking directly to that person. When readers feel like what they’ve seen was meant for them, it allows more interest to build for the outreach effort.

“I’ve tried this approach and it doesn’t work.” It does work, but simple mistakes can cause readers to go elsewhere.

• Industry jargon that someone doesn’t understand can be confusing and frustrating.
• Spelling or grammatical errors lessen the positivity that readers feel about your brand and business.
• When the email marketing message is more about you than the reader, it stops people from participating.

Travel is about what that person needs right now. That information can change daily, which is why having flexibility and empathy in your email marketing efforts is vital for a successful outcome.

5. Implement Segmentation

Think for a moment about the last customer service experience you had. If it was a positive one, what made it that way?

If it felt negative, what triggered your frustration?

Those same triggers that create joy or anger in customer service exist when reaching out to people proactively. The benefits of email marketing are challenging to find when people see your messages in negative frames.

The two ways to correct a negative mindset about your travel emails are to segment and personalize the message.

When you start segmenting your email marketing lists, think about the essential demographics and criteria that influence your brand and business. These categories might include the reader’s age, interests, or even their travel history with you.

Additional demographics to consider can include household income, geographic location, social media interactions, family size, and destination preference.

It is easier to personalize each message after you group recipients into your preferred categories. Although you won’t be writing individual letters, you can still create merge tags for your subject lines and messages to individualize your approach.

6. Send Purposeful Triggers

The travel industry has unique challenges to consider. People often plan trips several weeks (or months!) in advance, but you can also find families that make last-minute decisions. A generic email won’t satisfy either group.

You won’t find as many benefits in segmentation either. Spontaneous or meticulous travel happens because of choices and behaviors.

That’s why the benefits of email marketing include trigger messages.

A trigger message occurs when a subscriber acts or behaves in a particular way. When someone signs up to join your email marketing list, a welcome note is a trigger to that action. You might include a specific discount or travel deal to encourage brand interactions.

When someone buys something from your agency, a confirmation or transactional email provides a natural follow-up opportunity.

You can even send an email after a completed trip to thank your customer for their business, request feedback about the process, or invite them to explore a future traveling opportunity.

7. Ensure Legal Compliance

Your email marketing lists can do more harm than good when they don’t include the current set of CAN-SPAM regulations.

According to that legislation, all commercial emails must follow these specific rules when contacting individuals.

• Not send messages that identify as advertising.
• Avoid subject lines that could be considered misleading.
• Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.
• Provide a valid physical or postal address.
• Offer recipients the option to opt-out of the email marketing list at any time.

Most businesses get those items right. The one place where issues typically occur involves the use of headers. They cannot be “fake” or “wrong” when contacting people.

Travel agencies that fail to abide by these rules can face various penalties. Since people want authentic experiences, the foundation of your relationship with each customer should take a similar approach. A false identity won’t do that.

You’re asked to honor opt-out requests promptly. That means within ten business days. Once the recipient is removed from the list, you are generally not allowed to transfer or sell information to anyone else.

What is a commercial email? It is anything that qualifies as an electronic mail message for the primary purpose of promoting products or services – or serving as a commercial advertisement. Sending transaction confirmations, warranty data, or membership changes follows a different path.

If you add any advertising to any email, it can fall under the CAN-SPAM regulations.

8. Focus on the Holidays

Email marketing makes sense at any time of year, but there are a few moments when a majority of people think about traveling. When you’re proactive with messaging around each holiday season, you’ll be more likely to secure some business.

The benefits of email marketing allow you to put out the right message at a suitable time. When people are already thinking about visiting family or friends, a note that makes it easier to accomplish those plans can dramatically improve your lead generation capabilities.

Emails that focus on the holidays work best when they include limited-time offers or themes that represent the occasion.

You can talk about the ideal destinations at that time of year, different promotions, or even alternatives to visiting family for those who want a getaway during the holidays. You won’t want to miss out on this chance to establish closer relationships!

9. Give People a Reason to Choose You

Business travel alone in the United States represents over 1.3 million trips and $110 billion in tourism spending annually.

According to IBIS World, over 70,000 travel agencies are currently operating in the United States. When you consider the global community, that figure more than doubles.

That means you’ve got a lot of competition out there, especially since tickets and travel experiences can be booked online. How can your investment in email marketing for travel agencies pay off in the coming months and years?

The first step is to build excitement about a trip. That emotion comes from individualization, so don’t be afraid to ask people what they’d like to experience.

You can highlight special offers that appeal to each group’s demographics to utilize your segmentation work.

It also helps to build brand loyalty by establishing relationships through email correspondence. Even when it is one-way communication, your images and text let people know that you get where they are right now – and where they want to be.

Loyal clients keep coming back for more travel experiences.

Now Is the Time to Embrace the Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing works because travel agencies make it work. Unless you take the time to build lists and send messages, the information that clients want won’t come from you.

It’ll come from a competitor who is putting in the effort to reach out proactively.

When you’re ready to build your first or next email campaign, the tips and ideas offered here can help you have a successful experience.

Some emails might have more of an impact than others. That’s okay. When you stay persistent with this investment, it’ll bring dividends your way.

Although sending an email creates a personal touch that can start the relationship-building process, it’s not always the correct message at an appropriate time. Marketing must include sequencing to ensure each prospect receives the information needed for their journey with you.

Here are the best email types to send when you’re trying to boost your e-commerce businesses this year.

What Are the Best Email Types to Send to Prospects?

Email marketing for an e-commerce website is more than a note that says, “Hey! I’ve got something on sale that you want! Come buy it!”

It is a relationship-driven process that establishes your concern for each customer while delivering evidence of your value and expertise.

When you meet a stranger on the street, do you become best friends instantly? It takes time to get to know that person, discover what you have in common, and develop emotional attachments. The same process applies to email marketing.

That’s why the email type and its sequencing can positively or negatively impact your marketing investment. When you know how to write an email campaign with these options, your efforts can make a greater impact.

Email Type #1: The Welcome Email

Welcome emails are opened more than almost any other that prospects receive. That’s because it gets sent to them right after they decide to sign up for your list.

Think about that fact for a moment. When people are excited about something, they’re more likely to keep following through with an activity.

That’s why this email type is the best chance to create a positive first impression. If your introduction doesn’t make a sound, memorable experience, the rest of your messages might get deleted without a second thought.

Welcome emails can drive more revenues and transactions than other promotional mailing options.

These three ideas can help the welcome email stand out, even if your prospect gets dozens of emails from other brands each day.

• Be original. If you want your message to stand out, it must be authentic. That means your prospects need to see something unexpected. The goal should be to speak their language while delivering an item of value, whether that’s an instructional video or a blog post that solves a problem.
• Provide a discount. By offering an immediate discount for joining your email list, you’re enables a transaction to occur. Let your products or services speak for themselves so that their value encourages a customer to return.
• Keep it simple. Don’t try to overcomplicate the welcome message. Try to remove any barriers that would stop someone from clicking through to a landing page.

Email Type #2: The Curation Message

Shopping is one part of an individual experience, one part of a group experience, and one part of a corporate experience.

Think about it. When you feel hungry and have no food, you go to a restaurant or a grocery store to satisfy that need. Once you get there, you’ll see where people congregate or what they order because you want the best.

You also chose the in-person location to visit based on what you expected at the destination. People even select specific brands and products because they understand the value of those things in relation to their needs.

People want the best. This email type shares it with each prospect.

An added benefit of this message is that it allows for customer segmentation. If you offer multiple categories and tag subscribers, you can score each one based on their behavior.

Email Type #3: The Discount Message

Discount emails provide a targeted or retargeting savings opportunity that encourages people to return to your e-commerce business. When prospects know that they’ll get what they want without a big hit to their bank account, they’re more likely to follow through with that initial urge to get what you have.

Over half of shoppers are more likely to complete an abandoned transaction when it’s offered to them with a discount.

The trap with this message is that you can end up pushing revenues only when discounts are offered. When that issue occurs, you’ll see fewer profits. If you’re never offering a sale, people might check out what a competitor offers.

By delivering this email type, you can connect with people who engage with your brand without sacrificing your income.

Email Type #4: The Engagement Message

Emails are an updated form of direct response marketing. The only way someone pays attention to your message is to grab that person’s attention. In the past, that meant attaching coupons to brochures, sending a dollar bill with a letter, or offering something else of value that “paid” someone to see your pitch.

With people receiving over 100 emails per day, inviting people to engage with your brand is essential. Otherwise, your messages might not even make their way to the inbox.

Although attaching an NFT or cryptocurrency isn’t financially viable for the average e-commerce business, could you provide free shipping?

Once you have an idea of what to offer, make the prospect earn the discount. People value what they work to achieve, whether that’s free shipping or putting together furniture from Ikea. [[3]]

Email Type #5: The Cart Abandonment Message

About 70% of all shopping carts are abandoned by website visitors. The primary reason why people leave an anticipated transaction is the cost of shopping.

Outside of taxes, fees, and shipping costs being too high, here are the other common reasons people abandon shopping carts on e-commerce sites.

• 37% leave because the website wants the shopping to create an account.
• 28% abandoned carts because the checkout process was too cumbersome.
• 23% stopped a transaction because they couldn’t calculate or see the total order cost.
• 20% had the e-commerce site crash or have errors.

Additional reasons for cart abandonment include an unsatisfactory return policy, slow delivery, and not trusting a website with credit card information.

When you send this email type to your website visitors, it allows your business to address prospects’ objections when shopping.

The lifetime value a customer offers is enough to incentivize cart completion. If you can’t offer free shipping or a product completion, ask for feedback about that person’s experience. You won’t always get a response, but the information that does come along can help refine the checkout process for future customers.

Email Type #6: The Upsell Message

Upselling is the process of inviting a customer to purchase more of the same item or a more expensive product to boost the transaction’s value.

That’s different from a cross-sell message, which recommends complementary products.

If you wanted to upsell someone buying peanut brittle, you might ask them if they’d like a three-pound box instead of the one-pound container they’re currently purchasing. When you cross-sell, the message might be, “Would you also want a one-pound box of chocolate with your order?

Repeat customers spend nearly 70% more about three years down the road from their initial purchases. That’s why upselling makes sense, especially if someone has been on your email marketing list for quite some time.

Email Type #7: The Referral Message

Happy customers become brand ambassadors. When you encourage them to make referrals to their family and friends, you’re building a fantastic resource that can generate additional leads.

One of the most significant influences on a purchasing decision involves word-of-mouth marketing. Depending on the study, it is the top reason for a specific choice in 70% to 85% of eventual transactions.

Setting up a referral program ensures that your e-commerce business can take advantage of those potential opportunities. If you’re already asking for this activity on your checkout pages, you’ve got a good start.

The best referral emails provide three elements for the recipient to consider.

• There should be clear instructions for people to follow so that they can join the referral program or take advantage of the discounts provided.
• Go beyond the next order with your value. Consider offering the referent a free product (within reason) to encourage this activity.
• Thank people for being a customer of your e-commerce business.

You can use referral emails to encourage positive reviews for your company and brand. This information is often treated similarly to word-of-mouth marketing, creating more sales opportunities to consider.

Email Type #8: The Order Confirmation Message

This email type for your e-commerce business provides a practical purpose. It confirms the expectations a customer has when completing a transaction. It helps to think of this message like a receipt you’d give someone after checking them out at the register.

You can have this message provide more information than the details from a person’s order. It could be a way to set delivery expectations, discuss your return policy, or remind the customer why they made a great choice shopping with you instead of a competitor.

When it’s done right, the order confirmation email contributes an average of $0.25 of extra revenue per transaction. Although that figure doesn’t sound like much, it adds up quickly. For every 1,000 customers, you’re generating an additional $250 in revenue to use with virtually no effort on your part.

Email Type #9: The Win-Back Message

Every e-commerce email marketing list experiences a measure of unsubscribe activity. You can’t please everyone all the time. The goal should be to stop people from disengaging from your brand entirely because that can be a costly venture.

Even if you can re-engage only a few people who want to leave, the potential revenue boost is worth the effort.

One of the most common ways to use the win-back email is to offer a discount, extra credits, or something else of monetary value. It’s the same process you get from a customer service department when canceling a subscription. “Would you be willing to stay if we deliver a 25% discount for the next three months?”

This message can take other forms. You could use it to get feedback about why someone left, reinforce the expertise you offer, or remind a customer of their history with your e-commerce site.

Breaking up with a brand can be as stressful on some consumers as a divorce. If you give people a reason to stay within the scope of your email marketing efforts, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll win them back.

Email Type #10: The Thank You Message

One of the biggest complaints about society after the coronavirus pandemic is that people seem to have lost their manners.

You don’t want customers thinking that about your e-commerce businesses!

The truth is that most brands don’t express their thanks enough to their customers. Even when it is remembered, the experience rarely feels authentic or meaningful.

Today’s businesses need to go beyond a standard thank you note for a transaction or subscribing to an email marketing list. People want the recognition they deserve for keeping your company in business.

Instead of using this email message type as a reactive note, try to be proactive with it. Send your lists a thank you note without any other reason behind it except for your gratefulness.

You could always add a link to content that speaks positively about your e-commerce business or shows off an award, but don’t ignore the simple value of a thank you note. A little recognition goes a long way toward another sale.

Email Marketing for an E-Commerce Website Starts with a Valuable Message

Most people don’t open every email they receive. People are busy today, messages are forgotten, or the subject line doesn’t hold enough relevance to click that time.

Knowing how to write an email campaign starts with understanding what message a prospect or customer needs to see. When you include these options as part of your outreach effort, you’ll create a targeted, individualized approach that leads to more potential revenue-earning opportunities. Once you have each segment receiving an appropriate message type, you’ll likely see your engagement rates start growing.