5 Email Engagement Best Practices Used By Big Brands

Only a few households use mailboxes nowadays as most people own a computer or a handheld device. Even water and electricity bill notices are sent via email. All it takes for a person to know what the email is about is by reading the notifications sent by Gmail or their chosen emailing platform. It can be through the platform’s app or push notifications via their web browser.

Using that concept for business purposes, you’ll have a very efficient customer communication tool called email marketing. In fact, according to Hubspot, marketers who used segmented campaigns observed a maximum of 760% revenue increase.

A lot of large companies do this, as well. The global shoe brand Asics for example, tracks their customers’ purchasing activity. Then, they leverage real-time marketing automation information to send personalized email follow-ups.

They do this to send a high-quality reminder email after a customer adds an item to the online shopping cart but doesn’t complete the purchase. By doing so, a customer is encouraged to buy a shoe. At the same time, Asics is learning why the customer dropped the purchase, which teaches them how to secure a purchase for the next time.

This is just one example of email engagement strategies. Here are more examples to use for your business.

1. Personalization

Email personalization uses the personal data of subscribers. This allows you to create more specific emails that connect to every individual subscriber. The subscriber that reads an email made by this system feels being treated specially, which increases their likelihood of responding and taking action.

Examples of data to take for personalization include:

●       The websites your subscribers visit.

●       The kind of content they listen to and download for e-listening.

●       The products they buy.

●       Content they want to receive and their interaction with your emails.

●       Their demographic data and interests (you can use this for creating an audience persona).

2. List segmentation

Another efficient strategy to increase engagements is list segmentation. Just to be clear, list segmentation is different from personalization. While both take in user data, list segmentation entails sending emails to a specific group based on segmentation analysis.

One big company that uses list segmentation is AdidasTheyey do it by asking for user data first and then grouping them into two groups based on gender. Then, they sell their two primary markets of shoes to men and women automatically.

Using list segmentation varies with the type of content you’re marketing. It doesn’t always have to be based on gender segmentation. If you’re in the Tech-Retail sector, you should consider whether the subscriber is a Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android user.

3. Using the right email marketing platform

Marketing platforms don’t share the same features, which means that you will need to choose one to make your engagement easier since a platform will help in organizing your subscribers and their data.

One marketing platform may take pride in a user-friendly UI while the other will boast with more multiple functions. Some don’t have a free trial, and others may lack an annual plan.

If your site is just starting up, use a  simple and convenient platform. Constant Contact and Campaign Monitor, for example, have a sign-up form function with tracking, which is what you will mainly need for engagement.

Once your domain has more engagements, you’ll require a platform with more functions like chat support, 24/7 phone support, image library, and Gmail imports.

4. Data-driven marketing

If list segmentation and personalization were merged into one practice, you would have data-driven marketing. This practice makes you utilize the user information collected so that you’ll be able to send both emails to groups and individual subscribers at the same time. You’ll also be able to gain insights and trends on future behaviors and reasons why your subscribers don’t engage your emails or are unsubscribing.

The point is, data-driven emails are for reaching out to more customers by using creative methods other than personalized emails and segmented data. For example, if you’re selling kitchen utensils, even though you have clicks and sales from 90% of your subscribers, there’s still that 10%, which requires more effort. So what do you do? You break down the user information into individual data and group them based on what’s normally not a segmentation category.

You’ll then find out that the 10% disengaged subscribers want discounts, freebies, or bundled deals. This will give you the proper insight so that next time you reach out via email, you’ll be able to sell your product to those who can afford and those who hardly can. One positive outcome from the insights you’ll gain is initiating a promo campaign. A promo campaign will reactivate inactive customers and prompt action to actives because - who wouldn’t want to save money while getting a good deal?

5. Mobile-first approach

Smartphones are a part of our personal lives nowadays. We touch our phones one way or another for every hour or two daily (except during sleep or work). This is to read messages or check notifications. And as a follow-up, we don’t click on email notifications using a pc or laptop for most of the time.

That means one thing - the link to your site in your sent emails must first be developed with the view of a mobile version. That’s what the mobile-first approach means. Ensure that your subs will see all the characters and images in a portrait view and not a cropped version of the desktop view.

Users that open links only to find they need to scroll in all four directions instead of up and down will immediately close your site out of frustration. I’ve been there, and so have you.

Conclusion

To make your email engagements as effective as possible, study the nature of your product’s nature first, and gain a deeper understanding of your customers. Ask yourself these questions, “Who is most likely to buy this?” and “How would they prefer to be approached?”

The answers will give you the insight on which demographic to send your emails at. It will also help you compose heartwarming messages that connect you to your subscribers on an emotional level. And when your subscribers feel connected with you, they become comfortable enough to trust you to the point that your notifications get an instant click.

You know what that means, an increased number in the engagement metric!