The art of the email blast is far from gone, even though other marketing techniques may receive more attention from the community of bloggers who are looking for the next hot thing. The right email blast has a dependable rate of return that has lasted for decades now – since commerce became viable in the digital realm.
In 2018, however, you must update your email strategy if you want it to remain effective for your company or your brand. Here are the top things that you need to know about email marketing in 2018.
Indirect Marketing
Although email marketing seems like direct marketing, it emulates indirect marketing in many ways when it is done correctly. Indirect marketing is more than a fashion statement in the world of advertising – it is the new way that everyone is getting in touch with the modern consumer.
People today have far too many choices in every industry. If you try to use old school direct marketing techniques in your email, you will quickly get that email deleted or sent to the spam folder. More than that, you may get completely blacklisted if you are going to continue these things over an extended period of time. This will definitely take down your open rate in the future, and you may lose any goodwill that you get from your other marketing techniques.
Telling Stories
Email takes time, just like any marketing technique. However, the way to truly make email work is to create a storyline and tell it over time. People are suckers for a good story, and there is really no better way to put your sales pitch in front of your customer more than one time.
People do not respond to a sales pitch that only appears once. This is why stories work so well. It is also why email blast that tell a story get much more engagement. Once your audience is engaged, they will increase your open rate and your read time. If you have links in the body of the email, people will click through to them with a much higher rate as well.
Automating and Scaling the Campaign
Yes, you should automate your sales campaign when you take it through email. Automation does not mean that you de-personalize your campaign. On the contrary – you are actually increasing personalization using automation. How? Automation allows you to direct your more personal efforts to the part of your audience that is most engaged. You do not have to spend time drafting an individual email at the beginning of the sales funnel. However, when you drill down into that sales funnel, the people who stick with you deserve a personal effort.
You need to find out who these people are first, and automation will allow you to scale these efforts without hiring a lot of new people or wasting too much of your own time. As your business grows, you will be unable to keep up with the prospects who are at the beginning of your sales funnel. You can, however, keep up with the most engaged prospects after you get the ones at the beginning who are really interested to click through and keep up with your email campaign.
Email Marketing in 2018
You can bet that email marketing will change in the future just as much as it has changed from 2017 to 2018. However, the tips above will keep you on the right track in today’s world. You do not have to take on any new techniques per say – you just really need to focus on the techniques that have worked in the past. These techniques need to be refined and honed. Once this is done, you will have an email strategy that will work for you for the next five years.
Make sure that your stories are gripping from the first email to the last. Keep them relevant to your brand as well. Do not try to fool your audience – today’s prospects are more savvy than ever. They do not take kindly to people who try to bait and switch them. Honesty is the best policy here, and it will be for the next generation of prospects as well.