As a marketer or marketing professional, you’re always searching for data-backed marketing with a high ROI, email marketing is where you’ll find it. For those who already have a contact list of returning customers or engaged subscribers, email marketing should be a logical next step. Still, it can also be a great way to test out new features to use in your overall digital marketing strategy.
Many small businesses focus on social media marketing in today’s digital age as their only form of engagement. But, of course, the use of social media marketing like Facebook and TikTok Ads has the potential to reach thousands or even millions of people. This year, an estimated 3.96 billion people have social media accounts worldwide, and if even a fraction of those accounts is active users, you can benefit from expanding to those markets.
With that in mind, it’s essential to understand that while social media will engage your audience in a new and exciting way, it isn’t as widely adopted as email. Email usage is much more consistent across age groups, and it’s the first thing 58% of people check when they wake up in the morning.
%
People that check their email first thing in the morning
Business owners need to be aware that as a marketing channel, social media won’t provide the engagement and ROI data that comes with email marketing; plus, a large part of crafting an effective digital marketing strategy is an understanding of your audience. Here are some of the data that you’ll get from your email marketing campaign:
- Preferred channel for promos
- Conversion rate
- Open rate (OR)
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Return on Investment (ROI)
Your marketing strategies should constantly adjust to new market trends and audiences, and email marketing is a great way to conduct market research on an existing audience. Here are a few ways you can test the waters in your upcoming email campaigns.
Subject Lines
Find out what grabs the reader’s attention. Who wouldn’t want that information? When you’re working with a list of email subscribers or clients, you can expect some level of initial interest in your business. For whatever reason, the person receiving your marketing emails has decided that they want to remember you, whether that’s as an active user or not.
When you deploy an email marketing campaign, you’ll have access to data that tells you how many people opened your email, and your personalized subject line can have a considerable effect on that number. Are your subscribers interested in discounts and deals? Does a question pique their interest, or is it a simple title of the information to be provided? Experiment with your options, and you might see precise results.
From Name
Sometimes, businesses send automated emails from a made-up spokesperson. The idea here is to establish a sense of personalization and familiarity between the subscriber and the organization. So, for example, instead of Windows.com sending you a promotional email, you’re getting one from Tony F. (who is really just Windows.com). Sorry to any real Tony F.’s reading this…
By analyzing the open rate and clickthrough rate from your email campaigns, you can see how your readers respond to different From Name customizations. If you see better results from a personalized touch like the one we described above, your audience might react better to a more personal marketing strategy across platforms.
Length of Content
Grabbing attention is one thing – keeping it is another. Email campaign testing is a great way to do market research on your audience’s attention level and general interest. While short and sweet might seem like the rule of thumb for all marketing strategies, your subscribers might need a little bit more persuasion before they click through to your website. In addition, testing out different content lengths can help you determine how much text to use on your site and other marketing platforms.
Links: Button or Hyperlink Text?
Test out different click-through strategies to see which works best. Your email marketing data can give you a conversion rate on each campaign, and you’d be surprised how much a button can change that. If you’ve been using “Click Here” text instead of big shiny buttons in your email and not seeing the CTR you’re hoping for, give the big shiny button a try.
Part of what you’ll gain from market research is an understanding of your audience’s psychological preferences. If a big shiny button and large font get you conversion, that general strategy could influence other digital marketing campaigns.
With email marketing, you benefit from the fact that your audience is already interested in your organization. Each subscriber has already willingly provided their contact information, and you can use that to your advantage. If you are interested in testing these strategies through that existing market, keep in mind that you still want to maintain a level of consistency in your email campaigns. Test out one thing at a time to ensure that your data is accurate, and implement small changes, so your subscribers don’t feel like guinea pigs. Finally, remember that your email list is your most valuable audience.
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