Email marketing: more of what you need to know

I am a bit lazy about keeping links for citable articles but trust me on this. A survey of marketers found that, given the choice between email and social media, marketers would mainly opt to keep email. Why?

The answer is blindingly obvious. If someone signs up for a marketing mail, that consumer, at that point, is committed to the brand. Social media is fleeting. Your posts appear in a feed, then age and are replaced by different posts. If you aren’t consistently boosting posts, your exposure will be organic (low impressions). However, once you have captured the email lead, you have persistent, low-cost presence in the inbox, if only with the subject line. Email marketing gives value from the subject line to the content.

The open rate will range from 15% to 30% according to industry standards and the degree of specialization of the content. If you have 5,000 subscribers to a specialist mail and get an open rate of 15% you have in the region of 750 engagements. Correlate that to the size of your market to get an estimate the value in terms of engagement, the sense of value that you are broadcasting and the ability to prevent churn.

Assuming your domain has a high Google rating for EEAT (expertise, experience, authority and trust) and if you follow sound technical email practices that avoid the dreaded spam box, you have a high chance of showing in the main inbox. That means that your subject line needs to be perfect.

In this case it is important to note that the EEAT principle in the mail will not affect your SEO ranking, but it will definitely affect your engagement with the audience.

Your subject line can, in a nutshell, reinforce your presence, what you communicate about and reinforce the sense of EEAT on the part of the audience. For instance, much like a doctor, the content of the message is not fully understood, but the level of EEAT counters churn. You are unlikely to abandon your doctor. You are also unlikely to unsubscribe from the mail of a brand that offers value.

Email opens may be varied. Some may open it every time they receive it, using the knowledge to stay up to date or interact. Others may open it sporadically, as inboxes tend to be crowded. The sporadic openers need the subject line to remind them of the value and induce the person to open.

Also note that any links in the mail must show a high degree of EEAT to get a click-through.

I have an unconventional approach to click-throughs. The standard best-practice is to contain a summary of the info on offer in the clickbait. However, my preference is to contain all the information in the mail even if it becomes lengthy. If your reader has made the effort to open the mail, why ask them to go to the effort of assessing the clickbait and clicking yet another link.

I am validated in this thinking by low percentages of click-throughs on open rates. What is 5% of 15%? If you offer value, put it up front.

Thanks for making it this far. My word count is running out, and I don’t want to abuse your attention span.

If you want more of the competitive edge, look out for my next column in which I will deal with how to get sign-ups and subsequent lead management.