Email is still one of the most effective ways to get sales in an ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Email allows you to reach not only new potential customers but existing customers as well; while either paying for an expensive advertisement or crafting yet another short social media post that will immediately become forgotten is trivial, email marketing allows you to speak to each of these groups with one email, doing so whenever you choose because there is no time limit unlike other forms of digital marketing. In order to generate sales with your email catalyst, marketers must employ a blend of creativity and strategy. This could be anything from understanding the buyer’s journey, audience segmentation, creating relevant content, automation, and analytics to assessing the optimization of the email campaign. When your email marketing system is working correctly, you are not blasting messages but communicating one-to-one with the behavior, interests, and needs of the recipient in mind so that your email can naturally guide that customer through the decision-making process towards purchase.
Building a high-quality email list
Before your proverbial email marketing can make an impact and generate sales, you need a responsive and relevant list. There are plenty of lists available for sale, but you’re likely to experience engagement, spam complaints, and low conversion rates if you utilize bought lists. Provide value to your lead magnets, such as offering discount codes, an e-book, and access to webinars in exchange for a visitor’s email address. Feature sign-up forms on various areas of your site—including the homepage, blog, and checkout areas. Consider using pop-ups or exit intent offers to catch visitors who are about to abandon your website. A high-quality list of people actually interested in your products or services is a solid foundation for email sales campaigns.
Segmenting your audience for better targeting
Segmentation has to be one of the most effective tactics to use in email marketing for sales. Instead of blasting your entire list with the same email, you are sending individual email messages to a smaller audience based on their behavior, preference, location, purchase history, or funnel stage. For instance, new subscribers may need welcome emails, while repeat customers may be more interested in a loyalty offer. Someone that downloaded a pricing guide may be more of a decision-maker than someone that simply subscribed to a blog. When you send messages that are relevant for different segments, they will have better open rates, engagement and ultimately sales/conversions.
Create compelling and sales-focused email content
Your email content should not only grab attention but also persuade your audience to take action. Each and every email should have a purpose – for example, to sell a product, direct traffic to a landing page, or ultimately close a sale. Start with a compelling subject line to grab attention. Keep emails concise and provide value. Focus on benefits rather than features. Create legitimacy through storytelling, or better yet, using a success story from one of your customers. Use compelling and appropriate visuals for readability, and most importantly, include a simple call to action (CTA) so the reader knows what to do next.
Leveraging scarcity and urgency for sales
Proven psychological triggers such as scarcity and urgency prompt action. Be transparent and ethical in your email marketing efforts. Unethical ways of inducing scarcity can lead to a negative brand reputation.
Integrating email with other sales channels
Email marketing can be most effective when it complements your overall sales and marketing strategy. Use email to reinforce social media campaigns, retarget visitors who were on your website, follow up after a webinar or live event, or check in with leads from paid ads. For example, if you had a Facebook ad that someone clicked on and signed up for a free trial, then you have a series of emails you can send that teaches the user about your features, shares customer success stories, and builds towards incentives to upgrade to a paid plan.
Conclusion
Using email is one of the most effective and least expensive ways to drive sales, but only if you know how to do it correctly. Email marketing is not just sending out promotional emails to prospects and customers. Email marketing is about building relationships, giving value, and moving prospects through the journey of sales.
