Getting you to focus on the right stuff 🔍
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Welcome to Vol.16 of Email Advice in Your Inbox!
Hello again, friend!
We're back with a pretty jam-packed Volume this week!
We had some awesome feedback on the new features we introduced this year, and we're planning on even more exciting editions, featured friends and knowledge to share to help you win at email.
There's quite a bit in this one, so let's get stuck in alongside your friendly neighbourhood email plug 😎
Here's what you'll learn this week
What to focus on in your email campaigns
This week's (free) resources to help you become a better email marketer
Email expert practical tip of the week
Smart email senders we're learning from this week
The fun stuff: When assumptions make you want to throw hands
Email predictions by 24 experts you won't want to miss
Let's take off with some email knowledge 🚀
You're getting it all wrong
When it comes to effective email marketing, here's a harsh truth you will have to accept: It's not all about YOU.
Why do we say this?
Perhaps you can relate, but there are tons of emails that:
Look beautiful
Contain well-structured content
Use clever subject lines and preview text
Yet, very few sales or conversions are brought in from these campaigns.
On the other hand, there are inversely simple, straightforward emails that have folks with my credit card details within seconds.
So, what's the difference?
One word: Focus 🎯
If you're sending emails merely focused on your company, how great your service is or which celeb is using your product, then your focus is misplaced.
So, where should your focus lie?
Today we're going to learn what to focus on in your email strategy to ensure ongoing relationship building, higher conversion rates and more email success.
It's really that simple. Everything you do in your email strategy, from your offer to your content to your action, needs to first and foremost be about your recipient.
We covered the Rule of One in a blog last year (you can give it a read here), and the
premise of this concept rings true here; One email, sent as if to one person with one message, one goal and one intention.
Your recipients are who you need to focus on. Again, it's not about you.
The good news is that it's not difficult to do if you lay a solid foundation for your campaigns.
Let's explore five quick focus areas to ensure you keep your recipients top of mind when creating your email campaigns or strategies.
Don't merely send across all your lists and hope for the best. We all know this doesn't work, yet many email senders solely rely on single, unstructured "blasts" of email like this, hoping for results that are likely nowhere to be found.
It's 2024 and there are so many ways you can go about segmenting your audience. Don't be shy to give it a try!
By segmenting your audience effectively, you're showing them you care about the email content they received, and that they're not merely a number in your audience.
Their interests are thought of and catered for, which does wonders for your relationship with your readers.
We wrote a piece last year on effective ways to segment your
audience for higher engagement. You can read more on effective segmentation here.
Start small, test often and monitor your metrics to ensure you're sending the right content to the right receivers. Your email statistics are a quick way to monitor changes in your engagement and results.
Merely adding someone's name to an email and thinking that you're "personalising" your emails is a fallacy.
Rather, create offers tailored to their interests, customer-lifecycle stage, or preferences.
This sounds far more complicated than it is, however, you need to know more about your audience to be able to do this effectively.
A fantastic and often quite underutilised starting point is your customer preference centre.
That little link that often sits alongside the unsubscribe button in most of the emails you receive? You know the one. It actually serves quite an advantageous purpose, for both email senders and email audience members.
By providing a preference centre to your subscribers, you have a unique opportunity to get them to update and personalise their email experience.
How often or what types of emails they're going to receive from you
What type of information about them you can collect and use to tailor their experience
What type of feedback they're willing to give
And lastly, more about who they are if you look at your data holistically.
By using this information, you can create segments or clusters of audience members to whom you serve more curated and focused content.
The main thing to remember is that the data needs to be used to serve your audience's needs, and you need to respect what you know about your subscribers, to protect them and you from the dangerous folks on the web.
We're not talking about gender pronouns.
To explain what we mean by example: The use of the words "you" and "your" should always be far more than the use of the words "we" and "I" in your messaging and copy. It shows awareness for your audience.
This is often forgotten.
Your audience cares about how your products or services can help or make their lives easier. This is the cornerstone of the fundamental marketing rule, which states, "Your product or service is far less important than its ability to fulfil your customers' needs."
If your messages only talk about you, it will eventually fail.
Make it less about you in the way you portray your message and offer by using these writing principles to your advantage.
If you offer valuable content, tips, or resources without always pushing for a sale, then you're on the right track here.
Email results are built on the long game after all.
The last thing folks enjoy is being sold to. This rings especially true in the email marketing world. As soon as you begin pitching your products or services without an established relationship, then your results are doomed to fail.
We're a big fan of sales and psychology expert, Josh Braun, who often speaks about this topic in the sales sphere. Josh rightly states that "whenever people feel like they are being persuaded, they enter the zone of resistance (ZOR). The ZOR is a reflex reaction to sales pressure."
If you can successfully lower this zone of resistance by leading with value and showing your audience that you care about their interests, needs, problems and goals.
Renowned psychologist Robert Cialdini discusses the Principle of Reciprocity in his work on persuasion. The idea of reciprocity says that by nature, people feel obliged to provide discounts or concessions to others if they've received favours from those same people.
Yes, you may be looking to offer discounts or concessions of your own, but the principle remains: Give before you ask.
If you're giving value to your audience, they're going to be far more likely to leave their trust (and cash) in your hands when receiving your communication.
Just because someone has bought from you does not mean they want your emails. Always ask for permission to send emails and make it easy to opt out.
We covered a few rules around this in a previous blog post (you can find that here if you'd like to give it a read).
Many marketers may not realise this, but it can be unethical (and against the law) to add someone to your email list, without their consent, even if they've bought something from you.
It's always best practice to ask your customers and potential prospects if you can send them content, promotions or information in a marketing sense, especially when it comes to direct communication.
On top of that, you don't want to pay a fine or penalty because you've circumvented data privacy and consent laws, or diminish trust with your email audience.
Email resources of the week
Some cool tools and tips to help you become a better email marketer
Helpful email behavioural insights
One of our favourite reports every year is ZeroBounce's annual email statistics report.
If you know what your audience's inbox behaviours are, you can cater your strategy to better suit their needs, and this report will help you along the way.
The power of being in your customer's pocket
Wondering how AI technology in email and optimising your emails for mobile can grow your returns?
Read this article by Greg Phillips from TouchBasePro on getting this right, especially for e-commerce emails.
Grow your audience using Facebook
Facebook is still one of the largest social media channels out there.
This tool is a great way to reach potential subscribers who aren't signed up for your emails and to share your offers and content, quickly and easily.
Email Expert Practical Tip of the Week
This week's insight is brought to you by email growth strategist and email copy expert, Jeff Felten.
We talk about adding value to your audience so often. If you do this well, you're inevitably going to increase sales and conversions. t
Makes you reconsider always hard selling in your emails, doesn't it?
Smart email senders we're learning from
We believe that learning from some of the greatest in the industry is one of the best ways to improve.
Here are three emails we found that followed sound email principles or used innovative strategies to nail their email goals.
Take a look at this week's best 👌
Social Cause Email by GreaterGood
If you're a brand and you're looking for ideas to support a social cause, here's a great example. This is a great example of gamification to drive conversions.
Check it out here
Quirky Email Design by Ace Hotel
Images in email don't have to be simple blocks or images with rounded edges (though we do enjoy a rounded edge). Check out how erratically shaped images work well to inspire your next newsletter.
Check it out here
Clever Graphs by The Outlier
Graphs and data in your emails don't have to be boring! The team at The Outlier use clever graphs and well-presented insights to drive home news and facts to inform their readers.
Check it out here
Some more (email) fun to make your day better
Email marketers are so often misunderstood.
The team at The House of Email nailed this one...
Ever told someone you're in email marketing? We'd be willing to bet money on the fact that you've been asked this question.
It's okay. You're in kindred company, and we get it.
Keep sending good emails!
Before you go! Don't miss this knowledge
Email marketing is going places in 2024💌
We had the honour of being asked to share our predictions and insights alongside 23 of the greatest email minds in the game.
The team at Email Uplers carefully curate thoughts on trends and technology in email, and this year is no exception.
Find out what we had to share, and dive into some insanely insightful predictions to help you focus on the right stuff in your emails for the year ahead.
See you in the inbox again soon!
If you enjoyed this email, drop by and say hi. If you have any recommendations or experience any issues reading this email, let me know by replying here, or forward this email to a friend here.
Your feedback only makes us better.
Until next time,
Des💌
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