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Have you been using email marketing to promote your business? If so, good for you! Email marketing is known to be a very effective online marketing method. However, if you’ve been doing email marketing for a while, you may still be using outdated techniques that may actually be harming your campaign. Some of these outdated techniques include:

Long Subject Lines

In the past, a descriptive subject line enticed users to click on an email. In today’s fast-paced world, however, users prefer subject lines that are short and concise. Being able to convey the idea behind the email within the subject line helps save users time and shows them the benefit of the product or service you are trying to market. In turn, the time they save is willing given to reading the content of your email.

There are over 80 million millennials in the United States (those born from 1980 onwards), enough to make them the largest consumer demographic in the country. Besides being the largest generation, they’re also positioned at the peak of potential consumerism, with experts estimating $600 billion spending power each year. This makes the millennial generation a lucrative source for business.

The millennial generation, composed of people born in the early 1980s to the early 2000s, is the largest and most racially diverse demographic in the United States. A bankable market for any business, they’re best engaged with through personalized marketing. Here are a few reasons why.

Many marketers are aware of advanced marketing automation techniques, but very few are harnessing them effectively, much less know how to use them. Automation offers many possibilities to improve the way brands interact with their target market, and one of the aspects can be to personalize the customer journey. Quite simply, automation streamlines a lot of digital marketing efforts, which makes its adoption all the more worthwhile.

Facebook Ads are an effective marketing tool when used correctly. On the other hand, it can alienate fans if used ineffectively. Consumers tend to “unlike” brands on Facebook because they post too frequently and too much, and the content became repetitive over time. Being ‘unliked’ is something you do not want to happen to your brand, so you need to ensure your ads are timed perfectly and deliver the right message.

There are ways you can ensure prospective clients won’t scroll past your ads on their Facebook feed. Here’s how you can maximize the platform’s visual ads.

Single-image ads

Single-image ads jump out front and center on a user’s screen. However, your ad will need the customary text and logo overlay to make it more inviting.

Add a call-to-action button on the image. Saying something as simple as “Buy now!” or “Sign up!”, it can tell Facebook users they can do more with the photo than “like” or thumb past it. An image with such a button, linked to a product page, can also help you quantify clicks. It suggests that people who clicked it are interested in buying or signing up – and probably didn’t click the image just to enlarge the photo. 

Segmentation is one of email marketing’s best practices. Some may argue that it’s the best of the best. It has the power to improve the results of your email marketing campaign by leaps and bounds. How powerful you may ask? Email list segmentation can boost open rates by up to 39%, as these emails are perceived to have a greater relevance with what the subscriber is looking for. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

 Though there’s plenty of data to prove that segmentation is a godsend to email marketing, this article is not about that. Instead, let’s discuss how you can enhance the method’s benefits to your campaign.

 Segment by geography

 Geography is one of the easiest way to divide leads. Segmenting your email recipients by location helps you create small chunks of your customer base that are easier to monitor and manage. Include geographical information in your segmentation—such as weather conditions, religion, cultural preferences, demography, etc.—to maximize click and open rates.

 Segment by gender

 Gender plays a major role in curating email. Both sexes have different tastes and preferences, and providing each with relevant information and products will boost your email opens. That said, keep in mind changes in buying patterns in both. For instance, as the personal buying power of today’s women grows with increased income levels, you need to address these changes in buying patterns to ensure your ability to identify possible markets remain effective.

 Segment by age

 People within a certain age have many common buying needs. For example, teens are more interested in anything new—new fashion, new music, new foods, new hairstyles, etc. meanwhile, elder citizens tend to need medicine and other healthcare products. Knowing customer age is important for the improved connection and relevance of your emails.

 To learn how to use segmentation to your full advantage, consult an experienced email marketer.

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Standard personalization is no longer enough to gain an edge in marketing because most businesses know to address subscribers by their first names and send them birthday greetings. You'll need to hyper-personalize your marketing campaigns to meet and exceed customer expectations. Hyper-personalization involves looking at what a customer needs in the moment. Consolidate and Segment Data In order to take personalized marketing to the next level, you must consolidate and segment data. Collect data on users' browsing activities, online interactions, profile information, and any other important information. Segment customers on factors that make sense for your brand. For example, if you sell clothing, then gender is a good starting point for segmentation. You'll also want to further segment based on their style.

Leverage In-App and On-Website Behavior You can enhance personalization by leveraging in-app and on-website behavior. An example is sending reminders to customers about their abandoned shopping carts. Several top retailers like Amazon have used this strategy. Another example is displaying items that previous customers have also bought. This can help drive more sales. Gain Insights Through Marketing Software You should use marketing tools or software to gain insights on your customers for more targeted personalized marketing. There's no need to spend a lot of time analyzing the data on your own when hundreds of tools can do the work for you. Marketing software can help you optimize ecommerce and demand generation, customize content, and improve cross-channel marketing. Appeal to Customers in the Moment One of the most important aspects of hyper-personalized marketing is appealing to customers based on what they're interested in right now. People change almost as fast as technology does. You'll need to consider contextual data in order to appeal to customers in the moment. Time of day and geographic location are two examples of factors you should look at to market to people in the moment. Implementing the basics of personalization is helpful but it's no longer enough because customers have started expecting more from brands. They want a higher level of personalization than addressing them by their first names. You can hyper-personalize your marketing to keep customers happy by implementing the four tips listed above. Sources:

 Hyper-personalized marketing: how exactly is it done?, smartfocus.com

Have you heard about Local Awareness Ads? These are ads that let you engage with potential customers who are near your business. if you have a business with a physical location such as a restaurant, bar, gallery, or convenience store, you can harness Local Awareness Ads to drive customers and sales from Facebook.

 Local Awareness Ads benefits

 Local Awareness Ads are useful tools for enticing customers to visit your physical store. With this type of Facebook advert, you provide users with pertinent information about your business WHEN THEY REQUIRE IT MOST. For instance, when Facebook detects that a user is searching for products and services that relate to your business, it can launch your ads and provide users with a way to reach you.

You can use Local Awareness Ads to provide targeted customers with directions to your store, your phone number so they can call you, or your Facebook Messenger so they can message you instantly if they have a question. Local Awareness Ads provide all this with a single click of a button from your ad.

 Targeting your customers

 Local Awareness Ads gives you great flexibility when it comes to audience targeting. You can even use the app to scale your campaigns to advertise multiple store locations to local customers—a handy feature when you have different branches in a single locale. All this can be achieved by the simple act of defining the geographic location and custom audience that you want to target.

 Tips for success

Businesses proficient in the use of Local Awareness Ads uphold three key practices. Be sure to incorporate them when you launch your campaign.

●     Relate your location to your brand and tell an engaging story

●     Set an ideal target area and refine your parameters for selecting users who can view your ads at a certain time

●     Make good use of the call-to-action button feature to connect with customers

 To ensure your Local Awareness Ad delivers the right message and is set up optimally, work with a digital marketer with plenty of experience in the area, preferably one who has helped other brick-and-mortar businesses use Local Awareness Ads successfully.

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Instead of working to gain new customers, why not improve customer retention? It's easier and more cost-effective to keep a customer than get a new one. According to Invesp, it's five times more expensive to attract a new customer than to keep an old one. One of the most effective ways you can strengthen customer loyalty is through email marketing. Continue reading to find out four ways you can enhance customer loyalty through this type of marketing. 1. Bring Back Campaigns A bring back campaign encourages inactive or lost customers to visit your business again. Usually, you should wait for a two, three, or six- month gap before utilizing the bring back strategy on subscribers. Offer deals that are relevant to the customer and your brand to help entice them.

2. Exclusive Deals Offering exclusive deals to subscribers gives them more reason to stay subscribed to your newsletter. They won't want to miss out on great deals by unsubscribing. Examples of good deals to offer include early holiday bonuses, discount vouchers, and one-time offers. Exclusive deals will make subscribers look forward to future emails. 3. Tell Your Customers You Appreciate Them A simple way to increase customer loyalty is to tell customers you appreciate them. You can send an appreciation email once in awhile to thank customers for being part of your brand's journey. 4. Send Trigger Emails This type of content is based on events, such as an important change in a customer's profile, a meaningful change in their behavior, and a specific action taken or not taken. You can set up messages to automatically send based on events you think are good chances to enhance a customer's loyalty or draw them back into your brand. Strengthening customer loyalty is important because it will decrease how much you spend on attracting customers. Loyal customers add up as well, keeping your revenue growing. The four tips listed above are a great starting place for increasing customer loyalty via email marketing. Sources:

 Customer Acquisition Vs.Retention Costs – Statistics And Trends, invespcro.com

Personalized mobile offers increase conversion rates when they're done correctly. They make shopping easier and less time-consuming for consumers, two of the most important things to modern shoppers. Here is a look at how you can increase conversion rates through personalized mobile offers: Most Ecommerce Offers are Expected to Come from Smartphones by the End of 2017 It's a well-known fact that mobile traffic exceeded desktop traffic a few years ago. E-Commerce offers through smartphones are on the rise, too. Demandware, an e-Commerce software provider, estimates that 60% of e-Commerce offers will come from smartphones by the end of 2017.

Consumers Want Personalized Offers in Real Time Real-time personalized marketing has become more important. Consumers not only want but expect to receive personalized offers in real time. Your personalized interactions with customers should be fast and meet the needs of individuals. That sounds like a tall order but it's possible through the use of real-time data analysis. Address the Needs of Each Consumer Good personalized mobile offers address the needs of each consumer. Remember to keep this objective in mind as you incorporate personalized marketing in your mobile strategy. Use Real-Time Data Analysis and Other Data Management Technologies You should analyze real-time data to improve the customer experience. When you use real-time data analysis for creating a meaningful context for customers, customer satisfaction rises. Data management technologies can give you an edge in delivering real-time interactions. Tap into Location-Based Real-Time Technology Location-based real-time technology helps you deliver more relevant offers to customers. When offers are relevant to users, they are more likely to buy. This technology is especially helpful for boosting sales at brick-and-mortar stores. According to Deloitte, digital communications influence 49% of sales inside U.S. stores. Personalized mobile offers help in winning over customers. An increasing number of people expect to receive personalized offers on their smartphones in real time. Businesses that don't keep up with rising consumer demand will be left behind. Source:

 Turn to Real-Time, Personalized Mobile Offers to Win Customers, cmswire.com

With 1.55 billion monthly active users, Facebook remains the top social media site based. Naturally, it's one of the leading digital advertising platforms because of the great opportunity the site offers advertisers. They can reach a larger audience and a wider variety of people among these active users. To be more effective with your social media advertising, you should be aware of the following four Facebook advertising trends in 2017: 1. Native Advertising Banner ads aren't as effective as they used to be because an increasing number of Internet users have either installed ad blockers or learned to ignore them. Native advertising, as a result, is one of the top trends to leverage. This type of advertising involves posting material in another's publication that resembles their editorial content.

Of all the emails people receive daily, how will they choose which ones to read first? How will they prioritize which to finish?

Here are four things that marketing emails should have to help businesses ensure their emails are among those that their targets open – and take time to understand.

In essence, personalized marketing is nothing new to businesses. However, the prominence of the Internet and other digital channels has provided businesses with a variety of new ways to take advantage of personalized marketing.

When was the last time you’ve measured the success of your Facebook ads? Keeping track of ad performance is vital, as it provides you with valuable insight on your target market’s behavior and preferences. Metrics also help you gain a better understanding of the kind of deals interest your target audience the most. Additionally, it can help you calculate the ROI of your Facebook ad campaigns.

Social media may feel omnipresent nowadays, with 71% of online adults on Facebook, and around 25% using Twitter and Instagram.

But while social media’s popularity and easy sharing capabilities make it an attractive marketing tool, the numbers show that email marketing is still more effective. It has users across all age groups, who check their inboxes first and more frequently than anything else online. More importantly, 77% of consumers prefer email for personal communication as well as promotional and transactional messages.

This suggests marketers need to reach for a happy medium: making email and social media work together.

Creative complements

How can they do this?

If people prefer getting down to business in emails, social media can become email’s more playful and creative complement. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and the like are ideal hooks for teasing consumers with information, given the graphics and multimedia they support. Their attraction can be leveraged to lead users to deeper content in emails or websites.

In this way, promotional content on social media can promote email marketing itself.

Conversation starters

One can also view social media as conversation starters. Marketers target potential clients by studying the personal preferences and interests that users express in their profiles, likes, or hashtags. They reach out to these markets by sponsoring ads or creating viral content, which would lead consumers to a business account. Once users follow a business, a “conversation” is sparked. From there it’s all about keeping their attention, and driving in the point of discussion.

Email can then be a logical follow-up for anyone who wants to continue the conversation. As noted, consumers prefer emails for finalizing subscriptions and transactions.

Integration is inevitable

Making email and social media campaigns work in tandem can produce high engagement and conversion rates. In the age of integration and connectivity, there’s no reason to focus on one platform at the expense of another. A business that plays to each platform’s strengths can capture the customers it wants – and keep communicating with them too.

Sources:

Email Marketing vs Social Media Performance (2016-2019 Statistics). OptinMonster.

Email marketing in the age of social media. Marketing Land.

Automating some marketing campaigns is a practical move. After all, typing every single email and clicking “post” for every update taxes a company’s resources from energy to time. However, marketers shouldn’t leave such tasks entirely to a machine.

People who regularly receive generalized or boilerplate content can lose interest in receiving messages from a company. Aside from leading them to unsubscribe from lists or feeds, it could also lead them to see marketing efforts as lazy – hurting a company’s brand.

Automate the process, not the content

A business that avoids boilerplates automates its marketing process, not its content.

This means that while a company can automatically send emails each week, it should avoid sending the same email to every single person on its mailing list. Ideally, Customer A should receive information about discounts on items she seems interested in based on previous purchases, while Customer B learns about offers on items related to his.

Software should be able to call up the data needed to send such information – but never generate the messages that deliver it.

Don’t leave email to the bots

This brings up the next pertinent point: stop letting email become associated with bots. When so many promotional emails get categorized as spam, a responsible company ensures its emails have good content. Writers and editors experienced in personalized marketing can handily craft emails that surpass industry standards.  

At the same time, a business should develop channels aside from email. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all allow for one-on-one interactions between a company and customer while providing a dynamic space to display ads.

Refine the list as well

Blasting emails to anyone and everyone on a company’s master list also weakens a marketing campaign. A business should cultivate separate, up-to-date lists of customers it can target for different promos, products, and events. This adds that much-needed personalized touch – even when it’s a software sending the mail.

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