What You Should Do With Email Marketing to Increase Engagement in 2019
TechsPlace | Many business owners and marketers themselves believe that email marketing is dead. That is a common misconception nowadays which kind of reminds me of newspapers. The only difference is that emails are actually read nowadays. Not only that but email marketing is still alive and well and can help you increase engagement even in 2019.
- Sound & Look Human
Nothing screams carelessness louder than a robotic email. You are not a machine to sound like one. Humanize your content and make it look like an actual person wrote it rather than it was generated by a program with an algorithm.
All of the content in your emails must connect with the recipients. Otherwise, they won’t even bother to finish reading it. Moreover, they won’t so much as open it. This is why both your subject line and your email text body must sound human.
Keep in mind that the best thing you can do is put something personal into your writing. Think of what makes your organization or brand special or what kind of style you have adopted and then use that to make your writing stand out and have a personality.
- Use Videos
Photographs are great. Illustrations are awesome. The videos are perfect.
Unlike any other type of media that you can include in your emails, videos are the most in-demand and engaging ones. They prompt your reader to click on the play button and dedicate five, ten, fifteen, or more minutes to forgetting about the world and dedicating this time to watch the video.
There are two main types of videos you can create: filmed and animated. Filmed videos are the ones that you film yourself with real people. Animated videos, on the other hand, are drawn and animated. It’s up to you to decide which suits your brand more, but creating animated videos seems easier with such programs as Animoto easily available to anyone and everyone.
- Optimize For Mobile
Did you know that most emails are now opened on mobile devices? The majority of those who send and receive emails are busy people that are constantly on the go. Not everyone has access to a laptop or desktop computer all the time. Besides, having lunch and reading your emails from your smartphone saves you the time you’d spend on reading emails during your work hours.
This is why optimizing your emails for mobile is essential to making them accessible and improving your engagement with their help. Once you adapt your emails for mobile, make sure that your site is mobile-friendly as well. Nobody wants to click on a link in an email and discover that the site is only available as a desktop version.
- Translate Content for Wider Audiences
Despite the fact that the Internet is dominated by English-speaking users, there are still many people who don’t know English at all or only learned it as a second or third language. This means that there will be people among your newsletter subscribers who will not understand English that well and would benefit from having a translation of your content ready at hand. You can easily translate or localize your emails with The Word Point, an online translation service. This will help you reach wider audiences and improve your engagement eventually. Check localization and translation services for more information.
- Use Smart Automation
As mentioned above, emails that sound robotic are bad. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t use technological innovations to help you with your email marketing campaign. In fact, proper usage of smart automation can go a long way.
If you craft the right emails and send them at the right time, these automatic emails will only be an advantage rather than a bad decision. However, you must make sure that you don’t send too many automatic emails or send them too often. This will make the look spammy and will not only spoil your reputation but also get you to Spam and close the paths to many potential customers.
- Make It Interactive
Interactive content is considered one of the best ways to improve engagement because it is directly related to completing certain actions. If you utilize this feature well, you will be able to see huge growth in your engagement rate.
For example, you can use Quiz Maker to create quizzes. Then, link them in your emails surrounding them with relevant content. Consider making flash games too as they are quite popular nowadays.
- Segment Your Audience
Segmenting your audience allows you to target the different groups of potential customers at different stages of the sales funnel. This means that you will be providing them with the most relevant content which will be the most effective in their corresponding situations.
Segment your audience according to such factors:
- Age & Gender
- Occupation
- Location
- Past Purchases
- Buying Habits
- Past Email Clicks
- Website Activity
- Provide Value
Last but not least, provide value in your emails. No matter how entertaining your content is, how bright and colorful your pictures are, and how prominent your call to action is – all of it will fail if you don’t provide value.
Every email you send must have an important piece of information. If you are trying to make your reader click the link and read an article on your site, create intrigue and include some facts from the article, but don’t give away everything. If you are trying to sell a product, talk about the discount it currently has or announces a holiday sale.
Whatever you decide to include in your email, it must always provide your readers with value and make them want to engage with your content. Always remember to add a prominent call to action at the end to remind them about what you want from them right after they’ve read your email.
Final Thoughts
All in all, there is really no telling why so many people are certain that email marketing is dead when it clearly isn’t. You can leverage these simple practices and use them in your email marketing strategy to improve your engagement dramatically.
This article is contributed by guest author on techsplace.com.