GROWTH MARKETING MINIDEGREE / CXL — REVIEW 9

In the last blog post, we talked about the product messaging concepts and it’s capabilities in detail. In this blog post, we will talk about e-mail marketing with the 9th part of CXL Growth Marketing Minidegree.

You can go to the CXL website from here.

E-mail marketing from basics to best in a class by Jessica Best

The course started with the basics of e-mail marketing & why these are important. Now, the first question comes why we use e-mail marketing?

E-mail marketing has its benefits over social media marketing. And some of them are ;

1. We can directly track the engagement of our recipients.
2. We can automate our follow-ups.
3. The average e-mail read is around 25%-30% which is way higher than social media.

And finally, if it is done properly, e-mail marketing can drive the best ROI of any marketing channel.

5 things to always do :

1. Get permission — Always get subscribers who should opt-in. Do not harvest unnecessary e-mail addresses from the websites.
2. Follow the law — There are many laws according to country & make sure to follow them.
3. Have a Plan — Have a content marketing plan or calendar and set goals.
4. Have a Testing plan — Set your metrics upfronts. Set a test to know the best time, content for your goals. Also, look at the negative metrics.
5. Use Email’s Secret weapon (DATA) — Do try personalization, Segmentation, Automation & optimization to get more results & insights.

5 Things to Never Do

1. Don’t Start from Scratch — Try to use something that is already being made or used for campaigns like images or any videos.
2. Don’t use one big Image — Never use one big image or a lot of pictures. Because in some user’s devices they take time to load & it does not give any good impressions.
3. Don’t Buy e-mail list — It is wrong to purchase an e-mail list & it can even cost you more per customer acquisition than ever. Instead, try different methods to drive people to opt-in for e-mails through social media, instore, etc.
4. Do not ignore mobile — Nowadays, The majority of the audiences are using mobile for their mail.
5. Don’t Send Without a Pre-Flight Check — Try to look at all the previews on different devices to avoid any mess.

Some of the best ideas

1. Pre header can Sell — It can increase the open rates & engagement. It can sell before opening the e-mail.
2. Video & Animation Lifts Engagement — Use the relevant videos/animation & it can boost our enagement rates.
3. Don’t Just Sell. Tell Stories — Share stories. So, that audience can relate to the product.
4. Journey-Based e-mails Drive ROI — Map out the Customer journey, then plan & send the e-mails accordingly.
5. Give Your Fans a MegaPhone — Never talk only about yourself. Instead, try to collaborate & made referral codes to boost engagement & ROI.

Send mail regularly at least one mail per month to get the audience to remember about the company. Deliver relevant, valuable & engaging content to get more engagement & to increase e-mail open rates. Also, send the warm-up & welcome e-mail to new subscribers, clients & Prospects.

Clean out all the wrong addresses & repeated Bounces automatically. These are the people who have never opened the mail. Try to remove those who have unsubscribed & complain immediately. Start Trimming inactive people or send them less frequently. Also, before removing them, you can try to re-engage with them.

For organic growth, Optimize the sign-up form on the website with 4 Ps;

• Prominence
• Promise
• Proof
• Progressive Profiling

1. Prominence: You can request an e-mail address in exchange for more prominent content offers ( ebook, coupon, webinar, etc.) Always have CTA at the end of the mail. Do not click shame anyone if they don’t want to opt-in. Also, leverage your social media to connect more with your audience.
2. Promise: Always complete your commitment that you make to your audience. It could be your offer, free service, downloads, etc. Don’t forget to adhere to the privacy of your audience.
3. Proof : You can also provide social proof by validating our promise. It could increase the credibility & trust of the company.
4. Progressive Profiling: For the start, you can ask for very little information about your customer & after 3–4 e-mail you can ask for more or whatever information is needed.

To build the e-mail list, there are some of the tips :

• Choose the relevant, symbiotic partner — Partner with someone who has the same target audience & has a complimentary Product, not the competitive Product.
• Swap content, not lists- Always swap offers or content. Try to Create juicy offers with your partner. So, that your audience can easily share their mail address.
• Offer value and entice subscribers to opt-in directly for our e-mails.

You can also use paid media to build the e-mail list in return for any offer in ads. Leverage Customer targeting to get the most out of ads.

Retention & List Maintenance

• Send to your unengaged subscribers less frequently so as not to burn them out.
• Let subscribers choose the frequency/types of content they receive from you via a Preferences Center.
• Run an annual campaign inviting subscribers to keep their profile up to date, i.e. let us know if you have a new primary e-mail address
• These can be part of your re-engagement e-mail series.
• Better yet: make re-engagement an automated program.

The Anatomy of an e-mail

• Subject Line
• Pre-header
• Branded Graphic header
• Main Message
• Call to Action
• Supporting Message
• Footer

Try to make your e-mail more skimmable

• Clear — Do not use too many images or too many texts. The fonts & images Should be balanced for the users. Otherwise, it will look spammy.
• Concise — Mostly, try to make your point in the mail in a quick & short manner. Avoid lengthy text & try to save your audience time.
• Clickable — Always have a perfect call to action for the audience. To instruct the audience on what to do next. Also, make sure the offer is also juicy to make it more clickable.

See you next week with a new blog post containing details from the CXL growth marketing mini degree program.

Thanks,

Mert Kolay