About 40 years ago, the first-ever marketing email was sent out by the marketer Gary Thuerk with Digital Equipment Corporation. The email was sent to over 400 people with and lead to a nice increase in sales for the company. While there was a nice increase in sales, this first marketing attempt is also what led to spamming—emails received without consent and sent in mass numbers.
Nowadays, the distinction between blatant spam emails and carefully constructed and branded emails is crystal clear. This distinction has developed over time thanks to saturation. The more emails brands send, the more emails people will receive. The more emails somebody looks at, the better the get and telling the difference between spam and legit emails. Because of this, email marketers have had to get smarter with the way they send emails. See 8 email marketing tactics every brand should embrace to learn more.
Email has become a general hub for all people and all things digital, making it more important than ever to keep up with. Almost every time you purchase something online, or even in a store, you are asked for your email address.
Consumers are slowly moving to online interaction and turning to the online brands to provide information. This is one of many reasons why the numbers of email subscriptions in 90 days are at an all-time high. During the first quarter of 2017, over 6 percent of marketers’ databases were made up of new email subscriptions—a 30 percent increase over the previous three years.
Interestingly, the numbers of click-to-open rates have been decreasing. This shows that marketers can convince people to subscribe to their lists, but they cannot convert them much further than that. As consumers are receiving more emails, they are less likely to open them.
By no means is email marketing dead. It just needs some work. Here is one of the practices we think email marketers should use to catch the attention of their consumers through email:
Offer original content
You must be able to write compelling subject lines for any email campaign, but there is more that must be done to get subscribers beyond the open. To do this, you have to learn about your audience and what they want. This way, you can provide them with content that is unique and relevant to their lives.
You shouldn’t always pack your emails full of sales pitches and discounts. As long as the reader finds your email relevant to their lives, they will be engaged. Marketers can get creative with this information. If a consumer recently bought a grill from you and gave their email, you would want to email them about patio gear rather than sending them the same email you send to all of your subscribers. You don’t always have to look at a previous purchase to learn about your subscriber, but it is a good place to start.
When you give unique content to your subscribers, they stay engaged and your brand remains at the top of their mind. Leave your subscribers wanting more of your brand.
