Today, there are more ways to engage with your customers than ever before. The widespread use of social media, instant messaging apps and livestreaming may make email marketing seem like an outdated marketing channel; however, it remains one of the most popular forms of digital marketing.
Email marketing helps businesses attract, engage and retain customers in a cost-efficient way. Here are five essential email marketing features to consider using in your business.
Why email marketing?
According to SCORE, 53% of consumers have purchased something from a retailer after getting an email about the product, and for every dollar businesses spend on email marketing, they enjoy an average return on investment (ROI) of $38. This high ROI is the reason why email marketing remains so popular, despite the countless other options for communication.
Email is also the primary means of communication between most businesses and their customers. This, coupled with the accessibility of email on mobile devices, means greater access to your subscribers than ever before — making it a powerful marketing tool most businesses can’t afford to ignore.
Delivering the right message to the right person at the right time is crucial for any marketing strategy.
Essential email marketing features
Email marketing platforms offer a whole host of features to help you connect with your customers. However, many businesses underutilize these tools and miss out on big opportunities. Consider incorporating the following features to help increase customer engagement and grow your business:
Templates
You don’t have to be an expert to create a professional, effective email. All email marketing platforms come with predesigned templates to help get your marketing campaign off the ground. Simply choose a template as your foundation, then customize it with features like colors, fonts, text, images and videos. Today, most platforms use a drag-and-drop interface to make high-quality emails fast.
[See more: How To Setup and Run an Email Campaign.]
Reports and heat maps
By analyzing a variety of data from your platform’s reporting dashboard, you’ll have a better idea of which strategies work and which ones need improvement for future campaigns. Studying your reports and acting on data-driven results will help you improve your overall ROI on your campaigns.
A/B testing
This feature gives you the power to optimize and test your campaigns by letting you send different versions of an email to different users. With A/B testing, you can test several versions of a given email on a granular level to refine your templates. For example, changing one word in a subject line can have a huge impact on your open rates.
Segmentation
Delivering the right message to the right person at the right time is crucial for any marketing strategy. Segmentation is the ability to group similar users into smaller segments to deliver more personalized messages to your audience. Segmenting your subscribers by basic demographics, location, interests or purchase history can help you craft the right message. Some email marketing providers offer the option to auto-update segments, which can further accelerate your campaign.
Targeting
Your customer groups are not created equal, so the type of content you send shouldn't be, either. Targeting allows you to decide which of your subscribers to contact with which messaging based on their open-and-click behavior. If a subscriber opens all of your emails and is a loyal subscriber, your messaging should differ from someone who hasn’t opened an email in the past few months. Targeting allows you to craft specific messages to retain loyal customers and reengage those who have fallen off the map.
Using these features with a well-developed email marketing strategy can make a huge impact on your bottom line. See our full email marketing guide for more tips on achieving email marketing success.
CO— does not review or recommend products or services. For more information on choosing the best email marketing services, visit our friends at business.com.
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
CO—is committed to helping you start, run and grow your small business. Learn more about the benefits of small business membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, here.
