Email Marketing 101: Building a stronger connection with your subscribers

Businesses often struggle to stand out in the crowded inbox of their potential customers. With an average of 15 commercial emails landing in subscribers’ inboxes every day, the challenge is to make your email not only get read but also eagerly anticipated. How can you achieve this? The answer lies in relationship marketing via emails. In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of relationship marketing, how to develop a relationship marketing strategy, and the best practices to build meaningful and lasting connections with your subscribers.

Understand your audience

Your mailing list can become very cluttered. That’s why you should use segmentation, i.e. dividing into smaller groups based on interests, demographics, behaviour, etc.
The key to good segmentation is understanding your audience. But how do you do that? You can do this by asking additional questions in the sign-up process. But be careful, because if you ask for too much or too personal information, people will hesitate to sign up. You can also divide them into groups based on how you obtained their email addresses. For example ebook email marketing, subscribers newsletter, etc. Or divide them based on their behaviour on your website or previous emails.

Once you’ve set your segments, you can use them to send your subscribers personalised content that meets their specific needs and preferences. This personalised approach helps you connect with your subscribers and develop brand loyalty.

Excite your audience with your topic.

Another critical part of effective email marketing is the creation of captivating subject lines and preview text. Your subject line is the first thing your subscribers see, it must be eye-catching and clearly represent the value of your content. The preview content ought to match your subject line and provide users with a sneak peek of what’s within your email, compelling them to open it.

When you choose your subject line you can go for different kinds of approaches. You can spike their curiosity, use humour, use pain points, create FOMO (fear of missing out), appeal to their vanity, … Here are some examples from brands like Ikea to small digital marketers:
You’ve got one day to watch this

• You’ve got one day to watch this
• * Don’t open this email*
• Hologram shorts?!
• Licking your phone never tastes good
• Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve)
• Don’t wear last year’s styles
• Wanted: Cute and affordable fashions
• Stop wasting money on ink
• Get more kitchen space with these easy fixes

Automate your emails

Lead nurturing via automated email sequences is an efficient approach to guide potential customers through the buying process. First and foremost, you build trust by being a constant presence in your customer’s life. In this way, you also remain top-of-mind.

If you use triggers, you can personalise the content of the emails based on the action and thus identify where your (potential) customers are in the marketing funnel. For example, sending an automated message when a website visitor abandons their online shopping cart. Or sending a thank you email after the purchase. This makes the touchpoints between you and the customer much more personal and tailored to your customer’s actions.

Provide value

Building great relationships requires providing value and gaining trust with your audience. Provide relevant, useful, and helpful content to your subscribers while portraying yourself as a reliable source.

A good example is Headspace, a company that helps you with anxiety and increases your mental health. In the welcoming email, they use a soothing tone of voice and suiting colours while keeping it cheerful and light. They acknowledge you by saying ‘Well done. By signing up, you’ve taken your first step towards a happier, healthier life.’ This way you get the feeling that they see you and you can start trusting them. Their next sentence is ‘We’ll do everything we can to help and support you’. Further in the email they encourage you to use the app without being pushy or intrusive.

In the following emails, they give you personalised tips and emails so you can work on your own struggles and not just a general email

Encourage engagement but don’t push it

Another strategy to build relationships with your subscribers is to use calls-to-action and interactive content. In your emails, offer clear and engaging CTAs that encourage actions, such as clicking on a link or completing a purchase. However, it’s important not to come across as overly pushy. If your email’s sole purpose is to prompt your subscribers to make a purchase, they might disengage over time. Always ensure you provide them with compelling content or promotions to maintain their interest.

Analyse your email metrics

Email stats can help you optimise your strategy over time. To detect trends and opportunities for improvement, monitor open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. Continuously fine-tuning your strategy based on data allows you to generate more successful email campaigns and get better outcomes.

Don’t make the same mistakes as your competition.

Avoid making the typical missteps in email marketing. This can really jeopardise the relationship with your customers. Some of these mistakes can be:

• Not optimising your email for mobile devices: Many people read their emails on their mobile phones. No matter how good your content is, if the email is not easy to read, customers will not engage with it or even close your mail immediately
• Weak subject lines: If your subject line doesn’t tease the reader, it will be thrown in the trash. The purpose of your subject line is to pique the interest of your readers. So don’t reveal too much, just enough so they know they want to know more.
• Bad sending frequency: You can make two big mistakes. Sending too many emails and sending too few emails. If you send too many emails it will be hard to keep finding relevant information for your subscribers. This will translate itself into your subscribers thinking all emails are uninteresting and getting tired of you. Eventually, they will probably unsubscribe. But when you send too few emails, customers might forget your existence. The sweet spot is sending an email just when they are at the point where they will forget about you.

The overall key is to find the correct balance between promotion and connection building.

To end this article, we’re giving a few email copywriting tips:

• Put your goal at the top of the page: Make it clear what your email’s objective is and what action you want your recipients to take.
• Use a friendly and welcoming tone: Demonstrate real concern for your readers’ well-being.
• Use strong words: Incorporate powerful words that generate an emotional response from your audience.
• Describe things while avoiding fluff in your copy: Be genuine and share personal experiences with your readers.
• Share people-related updates: In order to establish a sense of community, include your subscribers in your updates.

Do you need help implementing your email marketing strategy? Let’s set up a chemistry call and collaborate to make it a success.