Blog

Is email still an effective way to get in touch? Many of us have overcrowded inboxes and if you are something like me, many will be deleted without a glance. Do customers do the same? Instead, should we switch to social media and make email campaigns a thing of the past?

Nah.

According to a CDN study, email marketing still generates up to $ 38 per dollar invested in the strategy. The sheer power over the budget is insane and shows that emails are as profitable today as they used to be, maybe even more so.

A summary of the statistics by HubSpot found that an astonishing 73 percent of millennial users prefer email to other business communications. Sure, that doesn't explain the younger generations. But it is the population group with the highest purchasing power, and its taste is unlikely to change with age.

Now that we understand how powerful email is in today's marketing world, let's look at some effective email outreach techniques for cold email campaigns.

1. Keep it quick and precise

Nobody will read a long email. Think of it this way: you catch them in a free moment, usually with a few seconds to check them out when they are sent. The longer and more verbose it is, the less likely it is that you will reach the actual point of the email. You use it much less to get to an external link, make a purchase or get involved.

Keep your emails fast, precise and clear. Ideally, it should look something like this:

• Line 1: Introductory sentence of some words that let them know who your brand is
• Line 2: Offer or request, including sales, coupons, links to the website, etc.
• Line 3: Outro and social media buttons.

Add a frame and banner, but don't rely on it. Most email programs block the display unless the user requests the images to be displayed. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a brand template regardless.

Did you notice my quick trick? I always start with a question. If I can't find one, I use Text Optimizer, my favorite tool for semantic analysis and question research:

2. Don't overlook your branding

Lifewire reports that the total number of emails sent and received per day in 2019 exceeded 293 billion. This is a lot of emails!

One of the most effective ways to open, read, and edit your email is to remember it. That is why it is so important to create an unforgettable brand experience.

Your email should speak of your brand in style, colors and visual elements. One way is to choose an email template (a good selection here) and keep it from email to email to improve visibility. Make sure you test your template on both your desktop and mobile phone before selecting it.

Creating a consistent email signature is another good idea. That way, you don't have to worry about branding every time because your signature does the work for you. Here's a simple online email signature creator to help you create an unforgettable email footer with a good brand:

3. Play with emojis in the subject line

A funny article was published by Campaign Monitor in 2017. They reported that more than 55% of companies using an emoji in their subject line saw an increase in their opening rate. You read correctly that more than half of all companies notice an improvement in the results of their email campaigns, both warm and cold, when they include graphics in the subject.

Who knew it was that easy?

I would personally experiment with it. Some industries, especially B2B, may not achieve the same results. However, this depends on the tone of your brand. The heart-eye emoji is probably the safest for a tester email. Try sending one to one group with heart eyes and one without another. Then you see which one has the greater commitment.

4. Add a video

It has long been a well-known trick: a word (video) in the email subject prompts more subscribers to open it. In fact, according to various studies, the word leads to an increase in the opening rate of up to 20% (sometimes 65%).

This is definitely something to experiment with, especially nowadays when creating a video is actually not a problem. With tools like inVideo, you can compose a professional video in a few minutes (seconds after you get used to the tool).

Select a template, edit it, and your email marketing video asset is ready!

5. Segmentation is a powerhouse

Everyone should use segmentation in their email marketing campaigns. Campaign Monitor found that people who used appropriate segmentation techniques to send their campaigns saw up to 760% more profits than people who worked on a single list.

How should you segment your lists? By demographic, geographic location, purchase history … everything you consider valuable for targeting your content. Assuming that you spend approximately three emails a week, you can have customers on multiple lists that allow them to get specific content tailored to them each time.

Fortunately, almost every email marketing tool these days makes segmentation easy. All of these services offer many options on how you can segment your list. So choose them based on your budget.

6. Optimize for mobile viewing

Litmus estimates in 2018 that around 46% of emails were opened on mobile devices, mostly on smartphones, but sometimes on tablets. This number will only have increased today and should continue to do so as we rely more and more on mobile and less on conventional computers.

Forbes e-mail on the mobile phone: it loads quickly, gets to the point, has enough branding and offers a link in the area above the fold

Mobile devices are preserved, and yet not every company has optimized its emails for customizable screens. It's a big no-no. The worst thing you can do is send something that looks messy or even ugly when someone opens it in an email app.

7. Know what you are aiming for

If you're writing a cold email campaign, getting off the course can be easy. In a warm campaign, it's pretty clear from the start what you want. You have received the email address, they have given it to you for a purpose, you are fulfilling this purpose. So what if there is no direction and you have to start over?

Each email should only have one function and one function. Perhaps this is because they make a purchase by sending a voucher. They may be dealing with you on social media. You might send a cold to a website for a pitch or try to connect with an influencer.

However, you know what this one function is and then keep your email entirely based on it. Apart from providing some anchored links (e.g. to social media accounts), they should have no secondary purpose. It confuses them and makes them far less likely to respond or open future emails.

Remember: there is a fine line between helpful emails and spam

Finally, remember that cold emails are always a risk. Since they didn't necessarily ask to be contacted, you have to make up for it by immediately drawing their attention. If you don't offer them anything worthwhile, you will be mistaken for spam and reported. Nobody wants that.

Make sure that these campaigns are of great value. The name of the game is engagement, not marketing. Because even though you see the marketing advantages, you only see one brand with which you either connect or not.