Important to know

• 64% of consumers are likely to STOP what they’re doing and click an email link from a retailer.

The research, complied by shopping and price comparison website Give as you Live, surveyed 4,234 UK shoppers in November 2014, to reveal that email marketing tempts more shoppers than social media posts and advertising, which each wooed just 10 per cent of shoppers.

• On average, subscribers receive 416 commercial messages a month. (Return Path)

• There are more than 3.2 billion email accounts.

• Email ad revenue reached $156 million in 2012. (Interactive Advertising Bureau via Salesforce.com)

• 95% of online consumers use email.

• 91% of consumers reported checking their email at least once a day. (ExactTarget)

Out of thousands of consumers polled, a huge 64% said that they’re likely to drop whatever they’re doing and click an email link from an online retailer. That’s about 604 times per year – an average of 1.65 times per day.

So people are clicking.

The clear message is if you’re trying to make sales online, you HAVE to take email just as seriously as you take marketing like social media. That means writing subject lines that get clicks, emails that drive traffic, and sales pages that close the deal.

You want to reach the 64% of consumers who are ready and waiting for your marketing emails?

Here is Your Step-by-Step Guide

1. Use an email marketing program

A great free version like MailChimp is very easy to set up, use and well recognized. It gives you everything you need to create and manage email lists and all your email marketing. And one of the best things programs like MailChimp give you is stats, so you can see how effective your email marketing is.

2. Plan it out

It’s obvious you are trying to sell your product or service but even the best product in the world won’t sell with out a plan or strategy. In order to do this some fundamental questions have to be answered:

• Who is your product or service for?

• Why would they want it?

• What problem does it solve? (Do they even know that they need it yet?)

• What’s your goal? (Offering A demo? A free trial? A consultation? Or just a straight-up sale?)

• How familiar are you to the person you’re writing for?

There is more than one answer to all of these questions.

Every email should be written for just ONE person, and with just ONE goal in mind. It’s not possible to write one email and send it out to the masses. Think of it like ordering just one pizza for a group of people, not going to happen, because everyone wants something different!

To do this break down your audience into segments and tailor your email to each group. An easy example would be people who have bought from you and people who haven’t. Think about the differences in how you would address these two groups. Think about how much the first group would know and trust your brand compared to the second.

You can begin answering those questions when you divide your audience this way.

3. Write great emails and create a great sales page

The most important part of this step is the email subject line. No matter how good your email content is, if the subject line doesn’t grab your audience’s attention, the email will go straight to the trash! (How often do you see an email subject line and say “delete”)

Now you have captured your audience, what’s inside your email counts too. Keep your main goal in mind and focus on the one group you segmented before. Now you have your audience hungry for more, what should they do from here…go to your sales page of course.
A clear call to action (button) should be included in every email you send to make sure this happens.

The sales page can be anything you have already set up, like your home or landing page with actions to buy direct or you can get really creative and build a new sales page for each group you segmented, so the entire process is totally unique from start to finish.

To see what works best you can create more than one sales page per segment, and test which ones are the most effective. Your email programs give you detailed insights about each and every email campaign you create.

4. Test it, then keep testing

A great way to start is by testing the subject line. Send half your group with one subject line and the other half another subject line but with the same email content. Use your email program to view the stats and see which one gets opened more.

Then go inside your email and change things like:

• Information given (price, product details, etc.)

• Format (images, CTA buttons, etc.)

• Length

• Postscript

• Tone

The email program you use will show you key things like open rate and clickthrough rate so you learn what your audience responds to and what they don’t respond to.

Carry the testing on to your sales pages as well. A/B or Split testing your sales pages can make an enormous difference. By making slight variations for example on the colour of a button can make your sales page considerably more effective.

So the next product launch, sale, or event, keep the steps above in mind!