According to a Statista study on internet usage, 90.9% of internet users in the U.S. regularly access an email account on a daily basis. With such a high percentage of the population (292.8 million people) regularly using the internet, email marketing is a great way to reach the masses with your messaging.
“Email marketing is essentially no-cost and allows you to tailor messages for each of your target audiences,” said Laura Toussaint-Newkirk, the senior director of marketing for the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun JCC. “And a synergistic approach yields good results.”
According to Toussaint-Newkirk, strong email marketing starts with determining your audience(s) and knowing how to send messages they want to see. “To make the most of email marketing, it is important to have a good, clean list, and a strong call-to-action tailored to your audiences’ wants and needs,” she explained. “Graphics should enhance the copy, not take the place of it.”
A major advantage of email marketing compared to other media is automation. The vast majority of your email campaigns can be planned months in advance, and even programmed to continue the dialogue with interested prospects or current members.
“Automated platforms allow you to create ‘if-then’ emails with certain call-to-actions and automatic follow-up depending on their response, which can substantially increase the effectiveness of your campaign,” shared Toussaint-Newkirk.
Another way to increase the effectiveness of email marketing is developing succinct yet compelling subject lines.
“Good subject lines are essential to open rates and assuring your message is read,” said Toussaint-Newkirk. “Short is best — use three to five words that express urgency, humor or spark curiosity. In fact, many platforms allow A/B testing of smaller groups to determine the best subject line before you send to the larger list.”
And while email marketing alone is a good way to reach massive amounts of people with the click of a button, the effectiveness of your campaigns will be truly maximized when used in conjunction with other methods of advertising.
It all depends on how your audiences consume information. “People communicate and pay attention to a variety of media throughout the day,” said Toussaint-Newkirk. “Messaging and branding should be tailored for a specific medium, and play off others. Depending on your audience, traditional media can still do well. Social media, earned media, influencers and emails should all work together.”
When you create email campaigns that have sleek graphics without sacrificing relevant information, put more attention toward writing good subject lines, and allow your email marketing to work with — rather than compete against — other media, you’ve got the makings of a strong email marketing strategy.
And most importantly, track your emails’ performance data and use that to inform your future decisions. “Monitor your results and create future emails based on the emails that perform best,” said Toussaint-Newkirk.
