Email marketing is one of the best and oldest digital marketing strategies in the world.
Although email marketing might be old, it is not outdated in fact, it is still very much in use and if done effectively it delivers the biggest return on investment (ROI).
The truth is that email marketing has a potential 3000% return on investment (ROI). The return is huge right?
I know your answer will be “Yes,” But if you want to generate that huge percentage of return on investment (ROI) you need to use the right email strategies.
Why should you use email marketing?
Like I said earlier email marketing can generate a massive return on investment (ROI) for your business.
For every dollar you spent on your email marketing campaign, you can expect a return on investment (ROI) of more than 40%.
This shows that if done effectively, email marketing has lots of opportunities and money it can generate for your business.
In addition, digital marketing research indicates that 65% of digital marketers all around the world agree to the fact that email marketing is a digital marketing tool that can be used to generate huge returns on investment (ROI).
By the year 2025, we are expected to see an increase in emails sent every single day, as we expect to see an increase in the number of email users.
Gmail alone has more than 900 million users, so marketers and business owners will focus on email in the future to come, while the number of emails sent will also increase.
This means that businesses will have to provide more compelling email messages with effective marketing strategies that will back them up so they will earn massively on their marketing efforts.
7 Ways You Can Increase Your Business ROI With Email Marketing.
1. Your email messages should be mobile-friendly:
Mobile users account for 60% of all opened emails by online shoppers and professionals.
Your email messages must be easy to read on both desktop and mobile devices.
Your customers will likely spend more time on their phones than they will spend on their desktop computers.
You should make it easy for them to read your email messages if they open them with their mobile devices.
If your email didn’t load properly after they opened it on their mobile device, they will abandon it.
While some will delete it since it is difficult for them to read and this will have a negative effect on your sales.
2. Personalize your email campaign.
You need to make your customers feel important by personalizing your email campaign with their names on the email.
Personalizing your email messages will increase your email open rate to more than 50%.
Your subject too must be compelling and must speak to the emotions of your email subscribers.
You should also personalize it by including your subscribers' first names so they know the message is not a broadcast but is meant specifically for each one of them.
3. The subject line and preheader text should be compelling.
Your email subject line and preheader text are what determine if your email will be opened or not.
This is the first thing your subscribers will lay their eyes open if they see your message in their email inbox.
Your subject line must be on point and of course, it must not be too long. If your subject line is too long, it will be cut off on mobile devices.
The reason to include a subject line is to let your subscribers know the purpose of the email you sent to them.
Your subject line should mostly be about their interest and desire which can be based on their activities on your website.
Your subject line might also contain a sense of urgency, like including a product deadline or an increase in service price.
4. Provide value to your subscribers.
If you want your customer base to be full of loyal customers you will have to build relationships with your customers.
You can do this by providing them with valuable and informative content alongside your sales and transactional content.
Depending on your business industry and niche, you can share online guides, white papers, and pdfs about your industry with your email subscribers.
This will help you to create a reputation as an authority and expert in your industry.
Your subscribers trust you and love to buy from you and they will likely become loyal customers if you continue to offer them valuable content.
5. If possible your emails should be short and interactive.
All your email messages should not be too long; some should be short so your subscribers can read them, get the point and continue with their other activities.
Too long messages will make most of your customers to abandon your email messages if they see them because most of them will be too busy to read long content while they have many things to do.
Email messages with not more than 100 words long perform best and have a 60% response rate.
Your email messages should be straight to the point and short, and you should add headers and bullet points if necessary.
The important information you want to deliver to your subscribers should be at the top.
You can also engage your subscribers with interactive content like polls, surveys, etc.
This will grab your subscribers' attention and differentiate your message from other boring email messages they have been getting.
6. Use the best email marketing software.
The email marketing software you use for your email campaign should be great email software with a great user interface and a high delivery rate.
Also, email marketing software makes your work easier by offering you automation, so that your email marketing campaign will be a consistent drip.
Some email marketing software like Mailchimp, Getresponse offers A/B testing, which gives you the ability to test different email marketing metrics like your message's open metrics, delivery metrics, new email subscribers metrics, and so on.
Most email marketing software also gives you the ability to build strong and interactive landing pages so as to increase the number of your email subscribers and also increase your sales.
7. Measure the performance of your email campaign.
Marketing can be successful if it is easy to track.
In order to be successful with your email marketing campaign, you need to track how your email subscribers interact with your email messages.
The email opens, the click-through rate, website visits, and so on.
You need to analyze the type of content that deliver the best results to you and improve on it so that you can get the best results from your email marketing efforts.
Important Email KPIs to Track
To be successful in your email marketing campaign you need to track your email KPIs.
When you track your KPIs you will be able to detect what you are doing wrong and how you can improve your campaign to get better and increase your sales.
Meanwhile, before you can track your email campaign, you need to be aware of your goal.
Your goal will guide you better on what you are supposed to measure.
The reason you are reading this blog post is to increase your business ROI with email marketing.
I will list 5 Important email KPIs you can track that will increase your bottom line;
1. Email Open Rate:
The number one KPI to track is your email open rate.
The percentage of your subscribers that open your email is very important to your business growth.
When you track the percentage of your subscribers, it will give you an insight into how your subject line is able to convert your subscribers to open your emails.
Your email subject line is the first thing your subscribers see immediately after your mail shows up in their mail inbox.
If your open rate is low that means your subject line is not compelling enough to trigger your subscribers to click on your mail message.
2. Email Click-Through Rate:
The click-through rate of your email is another important KPI you need to track.
This is a metric that determines how effective your email content is.
It provides you with an insight into how your subscribers are actively engaging with your email content, and if they are interested in your products offering or services.
For example, if you are into SaaS business, you will likely include a free trial link to your email content for first-time subscribers.
To measure the click-through rate (CTR) of that message you need to measure the percentage of users that clicked on the “Free Trial” link included in your content.
If your email CTR is low, then you will need to spice up your mail content and add an eye-catching call to action button.
3. Percentage of Unsubscribes:
Calculating the rate of unsubscribes in your email campaign is essential. It is not metrics you can toy with.
When a large percentage of online users unsubscribe from your emails, it shows that you are not doing the right or they are not just interested in your business.
If your email unsubscribe is high you need to monitor the number of times you sent emails to your subscribers in a day or a week.
If you are sending mail messages to your subscribers every day and a large percentage of them unsubscribe, you will have to reduce your rate of sending them messages to like three days a week.
Test out various options and stick to the one that delivers a positive outcome.
Another option you need to take note of is segmentation. Did you segment your email subscribers and send them personalized messages?
Bulk email messages can cause your target customers to unsubscribe from your email campaign.
Because instead of sending them personalized messages according to their actions on your website, you are sending them bulk messages on something they are not interested in.
To reduce your unsubscribe rate you need to segment your subscribers and send them personalized messages that speak to their needs and desire.
With a powerful CRM tool like Hubspot, you can monitor your website visitors, their actions on your website, and the page they are on when they finally decide to subscribe.
4. Conversion Rate:
This is the most important KPI to track. The number of subscribers that successfully made a purchase from your email messages is your conversion.
There are different types of conversions that range from purchase, free trial, webinar registration, sign-up, etc.
The goal you want to achieve will determine how you can measure your conversions.
Since all you want to do is to increase your ROI, your main goal should be to track successful purchases.
When you do the calculation on the amount of money you have spent on your email campaign, and the number of paying customers that you acquire.
You will be able to determine if your email campaign is increasing your bottom line or not.
How To Calculate Your Email Marketing ROI
Now, let’s look at the best possible way you can calculate your ROI, so you can know how much you have spent on your email campaign, and how much you have made.
The amount you pay to your email service provider (ESP) will also be included in the amount spent on your email campaign.
Let’s say you are using Mailchimp, and the premium service costs you $350/month. The sum of $350/month for a year is $4,200.
You will likely also have a marketer working on your email campaign.
If the marketer works for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, and charges you $20/hr, that means you will pay $14,400/year for the service.
The cost of your email campaign in a year is (Cost of ESP + Marketer), which is $4,200 + $14,400 = $18,600.
If your lead cost is $150 and you are able to acquire 500 leads/year from your email campaign.
The total revenue you will earn from your email campaign will be $75,000/year.
After your generated revenue, you can then calculate your ROI in this simple method.
The basic formula for ROI is Gain from investment (minus) Cost of Investment, (divided by) cost of investment, (multiply) by 100, that is (Revenue Generated - Cost of email campaign/ cost of email campaign x 100) that is $75,000 - $18,600/$18,600 x 100.
Your return on investment is $56,400. That is 75.2% profit. Your ROI percentage will be 303%.
Key Takeaway:
With the high number of email users and the enormous return on investment (ROI) of email marketing, you will be losing lots of revenue to your competitors if you decide to ignore investing in email marketing strategy.
Meanwhile, if you want to invest in email marketing, you need to have an effective marketing strategy that will stand you out among your competitors and increase your sales and revenue.
Your email messages should be intriguing and must resonate with the interest of your email subscribers.