Email is a tried-and-true revenue-driving machine. It’s one of the most powerful marketing channels in terms of return-on-investment (ROI).

Studies show email marketing converts forty times as many customers as social media.

However, just because you have some email content and a list of subscribers doesn’t mean you’re getting the maximum benefit out of your email marketing campaigns.

Driving subscriber engagement, improving click-through-rate (CTR) and curating more compelling content can increase your email marketing reach.

Set Goals

First thing’s first: You need to make a plan based on what you hope to accomplish. Emails aimed at lead nurturing need to be handled differently than emails used to increase engagement and conversions.

When planning your email strategy, ask yourself these questions:

• Who are you sending your emails to?
• What is the reason for sending your emails?
• What types of emails will you send?
• What do you want the emails to look like?
• How often will you send the emails?
• After deciding how you want to build your email strategy, follow these email marketing tactics to make your campaign a success.

Personalize Content

Personalization is a must for customer retention. It’s much cheaper to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one. Personalization nurtures your customers, keeping them engaged and interested by staying relevant and specific to their needs.

So how do you nail personalization? You can use:

• Personalized copy that leverages customer data you’ve collected
• Location-specific images and offers that make emails feel super-relevant

Pro Tip: Make sure your copy reads like it was written for a human, not just an inbox.

Subject Lines are Key

Just like a headline in traditional copywriting, your subject line is the only part most people read. In the case of email, it’s what determines whether or not they open it.

Of all the personal data you can collect for targeted emails, one of the most important pieces is your subscriber’s first name. Subject lines featuring a first name have a much  higher open rate.

Be aware of length when writing a subject line. Half of all emails are opened on a mobile device, and iPhones can only show between 35–38 characters — so aim for subject lines in the 17–24 character range (and try to keep it to 3–5 words).

Automate

Separate your followers into categories based on their behavior, interests and location. Use behavioral segments to separate users based on how they’ve interacted with your website in the past.

Segments and behavior data can then be used to trigger automated emails that deliver your most relevant content exactly when it’s most needed (like on a subscriber’s birthday, or post-purchase).

Create Dynamic Content

Campaign Monitor’s tools make it easy to customize your content to fit different customer segments using simple drag-and-drop tools.

So how do you do that? Dynamic content allows you to customize pretty much everything about an email to suit the recipient.

With this type of personalized email content, you can boost the relevancy of your messages so your email marketing drives clicks without forcing you to invest hours of time in creating several different individual campaigns.

Increase Engagement with User Generated Content

A great way to encourage engagement in your email campaigns is to ask your customers to submit user-generated content (UGC).

The easiest way to run a successful UGC email strategy is by using a hashtag. You’ll promote the hashtag in your emails and ask your customers to post hashtagged photos of themselves on social media using your products.

Promote Social Sharing

You can also utilize social media to grow your email list. You can do this by either posting something to your followers or running an ad with a signup form.

You can also use emails to encourage your contacts to follow you on social media. Many emails include social icons in the footer that will allow customers to see your social channels. However, you should also design your emails so your customers can share a version of your message on their social channels. This will help you gain exposure and increase engagement with your contacts.

Ask for Referrals

As great as email marketing strategies can be for growing your brand, word of mouth marketing is still one of the more powerful tactics you can employ.

The problem is most people only leave reviews after a negative experience. You can encourage your satisfied customers to refer you by offering an incentive. If you’re going to run a referral campaign, use email list segmentation to ensure you’re sending to engaged and satisfied customers.

Use A/B Testing

Torn between two ideas for a subject line? Run both of them and compare their performance. As a starting point for your A/B testing efforts, try experimenting with your subject lines, as higher open rates often mean higher conversions.

Keep everything about the two emails the same except the subject line, and see which one gets more opens. Make note of which subject line approaches work best for your audience, and then incorporate what you learn into future email campaigns and marketing content.

Send Emails at the Right Times

Research shows that the best time of day to send an email is between 10:00 and 11:00 AM, and the best day for high open rates is Thursday..

There’s no one-size-fits-all for this, so it will take some experimentation to figure out your ideal email timing — but this data provides a starting point.

As you work to find which email timing drives the best results, don’t forget to take time zones into account. If your subscribers are global, this may involve some compromise.

Be Consistent

It’s important to be consistent with your email marketing and to ask your audience how often they want to hear from you. Give subscribers a voice and take note of their requests in your approach. Sometimes, less is more.

Proofread

Make sure to write in a way that engages and prompts action within your emails. Overall, you want to create valuable, insightful pieces of writing that are share-worthy.

Keep the following in mind when crafting email campaigns:

• Write professionally
• Incorporate some personality
• Make it interesting and story-based

Email has so much to offer when it comes to driving revenue for your business, and with these tips in mind, you’re already on your way to getting more from your email marketing strategy.

From data you’ll leverage for greater personalization to a consistent sending schedule, you can make email your most profitable digital marketing channel.

GLM Communications is your media solutions partner.

GLM is a media services firm that provides advertising sales, event sponsorship, custom publishing solutions and related services. We act as an extension of our clients to meet and exceed goals and bring new opportunities to life. Since 1980, client satisfaction has been our only priority.