In this episode of The Engaging Marketeer, Darren delves into the intricacies of email marketing, emphasising its continued relevance and effectiveness when done correctly.
The episode discusses common mistakes, such as over-sending and targeting uninterested recipients, and provides practical strategies for increasing engagement and deliverability rates.
Introduction to Email Marketing
The episode begins with a reassurance that email marketing is still a viable tool despite its association with spam. Darren acknowledges that many people execute email marketing poorly, which leads to high unsubscribe rates and low engagement.
“Email marketing is actually very interesting, and yes, it still works.”
Common Mistakes in Email Marketing
One of the primary mistakes businesses make is sending too many emails or targeting a broad audience indiscriminately. This approach often leads to high unsubscribe rates and lower engagement.
“Most people do it really badly and it’s synonymous with spam.”
Nurturing Your Email List
Darren stresses the importance of nurturing an email list by providing valuable content and building trust with the audience rather than focusing solely on sales.
“You want to nurture your list, get them to trust you, and buy into you as a useful, helpful service.”
The Impact of Infrequency and Irrelevance
Sending emails too infrequently and to uninterested recipients can severely affect the deliverability of emails. Email providers like Gmail and Outlook monitor the open rates and engagement levels, which in turn affects how often your emails reach the inbox.
“If you send out your email to everybody on your news list and they are not interested, your delivery rate of those emails is going to decrease.”
Strategic Email Targeting
To combat these issues, businesses should send emails to a segmented list of engaged recipients. This can be achieved by using tagging features available in most email marketing software to identify and target active subscribers.
“What you need to do, and this is the bit that’s going to sound a bit counterintuitive, is send fewer emails to people.”
Example of Effective Email Marketing
Darren shares the example of Engage Web, where they segment their 5,000-strong mailing list to target only active subscribers, ensuring higher engagement rates.
“We only send out our newsletters to people who are tagged as active.”
Reactivation Sequence
For those who are not engaged, a reactivation sequence is used, sending an email every three months with compelling subject lines designed to entice the recipient to open the email. If there’s no engagement after a certain period, those contacts are removed from the list.
“We have something called a reactivation sequence or a re-engagement sequence.”
Conclusion
The episode wraps up with a reminder that successful email marketing involves regular list maintenance and strategic targeting. By focusing on engaged subscribers and employing reactivation tactics, businesses can improve their email marketing outcomes significantly.
“That’s the difference between email marketing that works and doesn’t work.”
For more tips and strategies on email marketing and other topics, subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform.
About your host:
Darren has worked within digital marketing since the last century, and was the first in-house web designer for video games retailer GAME in the UK, known as Electronics Boutique in the States. After co-founding his own agency, Engage Web, in 2009, Darren has worked with clients around the world, including Australia, Canada and the USA.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/engaging-marketeer/id1612454837
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenjamieson/
Engaging Marketeer: https://engagingmarketeer.com
Engage Web: https://www.engageweb.co.uk
