Sofia Wilton — January 30, 2020 Since time immemorial, email has been of the most powerful communication channels between the company and the consumer. But with the rise in competition, there has been a dynamic shift in email marketing campaigns. Most businesses and marketers are yet implementing the age-old How, What, Who strategy wherein they first discuss how to market a product, what should they market and lastly who should they market to. However, the shift in consumer behavior has created the need to implement this strategy backwards.
Choosing what you market before choosing who you’re marketing to can make consumers feel that they are not valued. Customers no longer wish to be sold to. Instead, they want to buy their products as a mindful customer through informed decisions. Keeping in mind their target (Who) audience, marketers must decide the product (What) they wish to market and then decide about the channel. (How) through which they wish to market their products and services.
As a result, product-centered emails have become a thing of the past. Crating targeted customer-centric emails is the only way to pique the interest of the buyers.
Read on to find out the top 6 hacks for creating a successful email marketing campaign that can help influence the customer’s decision.
1. Creating an Extensive Customer Database
Not receiving any responses despite sharing multiple emails with potential leads? If so, you may be on a wild-goose chase with the wrong audience. Several companies put in their heart in soul into creating a marketing campaign but their hard work, time and resources often go down the drain as they contact customers that have zero interest in buying their products. In today’s consumer-led era, the only way to scale growth is to know your customer’s persona through-and-through. For instance, clothing stores sending out emails to prospective clients can receive a more significant response by segmenting their email lists based on age and gender.
Establishing a detailed customer database filters out unnecessary crowd and allows you to focus on potential marketing leads. Building your customer database from scratch, however, can not only be time-consuming but also require plenty of manpower and resources. In such situations, companies may benefit from connecting with data service providers. Contact Lake B2B and gain access to our custom marketing data solutions for maximized customer communication. We update their marketing data repository every 45 days to enrich data for relevance and accuracy. We even focus on core customer personas and generate targeted campaigns to boost campaign efficiency.
2. Dealing With Browse Abandonment
While we’re all familiar with the idea of cart abandonment, browse abandonment refers to the subscribers who spend an ample amount of time on your website but do not take any action towards it. If done right, browse abandonment emails can draw potential customers into buying your products. But the slightest of errors can drive your customer away. It’s important to remember that browse abandonment emails need to seem coincidental, not deliberate.
Even though you are watching the behavior of your visitors, blatantly revealing that information by sending immediate emails or using statements like ‘We noticed’ can turn quickly turn this marketing tactic to a stalker email. Instead, wait for a couple hours after they end their session of the website. Throw information about the products and discounts casually into the mix as opposed to offering direct discounts regarding the viewed product which can reveal the fact you have been stalking their activity.
3. Incentivize Your Leads With Offers
While promoting discounts and offers may seem like a costly option, it helps achieve effective email marketing in the long run. A 2019 research by Statista of U.S. consumers from 2017-2019 revealed that 93% of shoppers used a coupon code to make a purchase. Marketers are using psychological tactics to influence the buying decisions of the customer. They are implementing the principles of generosity and reciprocity- a vital component of human nature wherein humans feel compelled to return a favor or reciprocate kind gestures. In the case of the consumer, companies are fostering reciprocity by offering generous discounts or free samples. For instance, B2B companies can offer trial sessions or free marketing tools along with the purchase of software to influence customer decisions. Moreover, generous gestures can create strong brand recognition in the mind of the consumers and result in more customer engagement.
4. Capitalize on the Persuasive Power of Colors
Famous psychologist Carl Jung stated that colors are the ‘mother tongue of the subconscious’. Each color in our brain is associated with a reaction in our brains and color psychology is a subtle yet incredibly effective way of enhancing email marketing and influencing customer decisions. When choosing the colors and fonts for your email, keep in mind your brand identity. Create a color scheme that complements your brand as a contrasting color scheme can create a negative impact and result in distrust in the mind of the customer.
For companies trying to establish their brand identity as formal and classy, black is the way to go and brands looking to associate themselves with royalty and luxury may benefit from purple hues. Consider factors such as gender, age and customer persona. For instance, men have been known to be attracted to bright colors whereas women prefer softer colors. Using colors like gold which is associated to tradition and can speak volumes to an older audience.
5. Highlight the Benefits of Exclusivity
Customers like to feel valued and feel like they a part of something big and marketers often capitalize on this feeling to make a product seem more valuable in the eyes of the customer. Utilizing phrases that imply exclusivity such as members-only exclusive offers in the email copy can make customers feel special and in turn, influence their purchasing decisions. Providing special discounts for completing milestones, being a loyal customer to the company or offering personalized gifts on special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries can garner the customer’s attention towards your products. For example, Starbucks already offers a reward program to its subscribed members but it has a special Gold Membership Card for loyal customers who collect 300 stars within a year with exclusive Gold benefits.
6. Write an Impactful First and Last Text
Based on the primacy and recency effect- when presented with a list of items; the human brain is wired to recall the first few and last few items the most. Designing your email marketing campaign based on this concept can lead users to remember only those parts of the email that they wish to highlight. A few ways that marketers can implement this psychological tactic effectively is by writing a compelling subject line that gives readers an idea about the rest of the email. Be sure to write a personalized pre-header text with a catchy introduction to keep the readers captivated throughout the email. Long emails or newsletters can include a P.S. line as a CTA to grab the attention of the customer and leverage the recency effect.
While there are several ways to leverage your customer database and marketing leads into making a purchase through email marketing, it’s important to remember that it requires a collaborative effort from multiple departments such as digital marketers, CRM practitioners, social media marketers, etc. to achieve a truly customer-centric approach. Implementing a customer-centric marketing system may not be possible overnight but listening to customer demands and making them feel valued is the only way that companies can successfully launch an email marketing campaign that influences customer’s decisions.
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