Photo credit: RambergMediaImages
With the holidays and New Year approaching, it’s safe to assume that the last thing on anyone’s mind is sending emails. The holidays, however, provide a great chance for you to not only boost your end-of-year sales but also an opportunity for you to step back and make plans for how your email campaigns can be even more successful for the next year. These email tips will help to warm up your sales during the final weeks of the year:
• Look back at your campaigns from the year. It’s important that you track your unsubscribes, email opens, link clickthroughs and responses for all of the emails that you send. By taking a look at the statistics from this year’s emails, you should be able to figure out some patterns:
o Which day(s)/time(s) garnered the highest opens, clicks and responses? Which didn’t?
o Which subject lines were the most effective in gaining opens?
o Which links, if any, were clicked the most?
• Hone in on email fundamentals. Ensuring that you do not have any broken tags, links or images can be the difference between a recipient taking the time to read your email or deleting it. Providing a text-only version of your email and including that link at the very top of your email communications is also important, especially for recipients who may not be able to view your message properly on their smartphones.
• Set up an effective landing page. Your contact opened your email – now what? There has to be somewhere for them to view more information on the products or services that you offered in the message. Create a landing page that entices your contact to make a purchase or request more information.
• Keep your campaigns consistent by incorporating various communication platforms. If you keep your main message the same but send it out through various platforms, such as social media, print advertisements, online advertisements and mobile advertisements, you are bound to maximize your sales. Adding some holiday flair to your Twitter and Facebook pages, all while engaging with your customers and prospects, is also effective. Check out another one of our blog articles for information on how to use Twitter’s new redesign to boost your brand.
• Analyze and segment your audience. Have you ever signed up for a newsletter where they asked you to check boxes next to products or topics that you are interested in? They aren’t doing that to be nice – they are doing it to better segment their lists in hopes of gaining repeat sales by sending emails on only the information and products you are interested in. You, too, should segment your list based on purchasing habits, especially since segmenting your emails means a 39% increase in open rates and 21% greater customer retention! This infographic explains the four simple rules for email marketing segmentation.
The key to truly utilizing these tips is to be dedicated to using them not only for a few months, but for the entire year. By following these tips, your 2013 sales are bound to be merry and bright!
Sources: Chief Marketer HubSpot