Guide to a successful email campaign

Despite what many might think, the impact of email marketing is still very much strong and present in the digital world. Yes, there are more wide-ranged options such as social media marketing and Pay Per Click. And there are long-term approaches such as Search Engine Optimization strategies and brand development for movers. However, a successful email marketing campaign remains an integral part of the digital advertising process. Today, we look to explore the different approaches on perfecting the email marketing process through various facts, guidelines, and useful tips. Keep on reading to learn more about this subject.

Interesting fact – have you ever wondered how many emails get sent on a daily basis? What if we were to tell you that the number comes to 269 billion? Just imagine the sheer amount of information being traded daily. Sure, some of it is trivial, some personal, other confidential, etc. But one thing is sure – every one of us can find the next great idea or life-altering opportunity somewhere in those emails. And you as a developing moving company can have the chance to not only promote yourself for work but also make an impact on future customers. This is why we will look into the potential of a successful email marketing for moving companies and how best to tap into that potential today.

What is the point of a successful email campaign?

You might not believe it, but people still aren’t giving up on the concept of emails. As you can conclude from the number above, the entire world still considers emails as the best form of communication. In fact, 90% of adults still choose to use emails, which makes the purpose of an impactful email campaign all the more important.

And in the world of business, this is what you might consider the perfect tool to help you generate leads and sales through well-established relations with customers. However, talking about a high-performance email campaign and actually making one happen are two very distant points in your moving company marketing plan. So, take the time to invest some work and research in the preparation for your email campaigns before sending them out.

Set your goals and expectations early on

Any good marketing strategy starts with a target to achieve, and it’s the same with email campaigns. In order to create an efficient campaign, you need to consider what it is that you want to achieve with it. So, here are some general reasons for launching campaigns via email:

• New subscribers and leads. A successful email campaign can help you introduce your business to new markets and groups. The more accepted and the emails, the better the communication with new clients.
• Boost engagement. The buck doesn’t stop once you have your website and content up and running. You still need to invest in new engagements of existing and in-active subscribers with innovations from your end. New services, relocation equipment, moving industry trends, special discounts or promotions, etc.
• Segment your subscribers. This is an important step we will discuss later on in the article. Basically, it helps you send more targeted email marketing campaigns with focused audiences and effects.

Start with a clear target

As we mentioned before – the reason behind sending emails plays a key role in the formulation of those emails. So, there are a lot of those that consider that the main objective should be the open rate. As a result, they focus all their efforts on the subject line of the email and neglect the rest, thinking that “as long as they open the email, I’m gonna be just fine“. Well, you won’t because this is not enough.

What you should realize, as most of us in this line of business do, is that this is a really sensitive matter. It’s easy and common for people not to find in the body of the email what they expect from the subject line, and then disappointment hits. Next thing you know, your emails are spam-marked and you have been shut down. And even if the content is good, it might not match what you promised in the subject line, leading to the “Delete” button.

So, before all else, consider your target audience and what gives the most value in their minds. This is marketing 101 – focus on the needs of your audience and you win a one-way ticket to meaningful content. And with good content comes a successful email advertising campaigns with benefits for both you and your customers.

Prepare the actual copy of your successful email campaign

Companies have different approaches when it comes to email marketing tactics. Some will rely on the visual aspect, offering images, infographics, or videos. Other businesses will focus on offering discounts and spamming subscribers with FREE offers and coupons. The key to any successful campaign is understanding your customers and tailoring your content to their expectations. Therefore, you need to maintain the quality of your content in accordance with email marketing standards. Here are some practical guidelines for creating engaging email campaign content:

Craft your subject line with careful consideration

The first and probably most important difference between a low and high-conversion email campaign lays in the subject line. For it is this single sentence that will determine whether or not someone will choose to open the emails you send them. Similar to the optimization of blog posts with quality headlines, an email subject line has to get the attention of the target audience. It has to give them reason enough to actually open the email, and then read it.

Bear in mind that you don’t have a lot of room for the perfect subject line. So, don’t even think about writing a mini-essay – it’ll get you nowhere with your target audience. Research shows that most subject lines range from 41 to 50 characters. And even less than that is visible on mobile devices, so it might be wise to put the most important part at the very beginning. Options for improving your subject line include:

• Be open and honest with people right from the start – no need to play smart unless your brand identifies with that approach.
• People tend to get more engaged if you address them by name.
• Avoid any well-known spam-trigger words.
• Borrowing other high-conversion subject lines and adjusting them to your campaign purposes.

Compose the copy itself to follow the quality subject line

Time to write the copy for your successful email campaign. A good way to begin is with an initial hook to have the audience gain an incentive to continue to read. The practice has shown that you should save any sales pitch you might have for the end and focus on keeping the main part of the copy short and insightful. People don’t have the time to read miles of content in an email – they need all the information in one paragraph.

Personalization does make a difference when it comes to emails, so try addressing your subscribers by name. Also, try to focus on educating and segmenting your audience. Certain studies show that this can boost your click-through rate on emails by up to 50%. Other items to consider for your email copy include:

• A personal story. Nothing helps companies make a connection with people like a story they can relate to. This is what successful email campaigns are based on.
• Valuable content to your readers. That can be a piece of content, some useful information or the resource you’re promoting. Make it clear how this will help them.
• A poll, survey, GIF or video – all of which are proven to keep readers more engaged.

Of course, you need only to choose one of these options. Ideally, your emails should be short, with only a couple of main points within each one. If you do decide to go longer, make your emails natural and easy to read.

Call to Action

The last part of a top-quality email copy is the call to action (CTA). The CTA is the main focus of your email and the goal you want to achieve with the campaign. Your CTAs should appear once or twice throughout the email, depending on the content and design. The best calls to action are short and clear. And as long as you keep them in check, subscribers will have no trouble following the link and make your email campaign a success. We talked about the appeal of creating calls to action that are well-positioned and appealing to readers and how it makes all the difference.

Focus on the design of the email

The design of an email can reflect on successful email marketing for movers. Because no matter how perfect your subject line and copy are, it won’t matter if the email looks so bad that people won’t give it a chance. Consider that people nowadays read email on their phones, which means that the design itself should be compatible with various devices.

Consider that emails should have more text than graphics content. People won’t always be able to see images or will choose to disable them, so you have to make your email work even without the graphics. So, avoid putting all relevant information inside the images you include in the email. And make sure that the images have alt tags to follow ADA compliance and are readable for people with disabilities. All of this makes for a successful email campaign and helps you cover all your bases.

Test, analyze and segment for maximum efficiency

Now that you have your goals and targets in place and a copy of your email campaign prepared, time to put it all to the test. After all, you can’t just go at it blindly and hope for the best results. To really make an impact you need to constantly test and collect data from each campaign you send. And this means analyzing everything:

• Design and layout of the email
• Email marketing copy
• Subject lines
• CTAs etc.

You might want to consider doing test runs of the campaign on smaller target groups to make it easier to analyze and monitor what works and what doesn’t.

Make use of technological tools and apps in the quest for a successful email campaign

Make use of diverse software tools for movers that we discuss weekly. The best campaigns are those that you come to with the help of the many tools at your disposal. So, here are some features that you should look for:

• One-click campaign creation with the use of templates and workflow schedules.
• Internal integration with the software you already use, such as WordPress and Google Analytics.
• Segmentation of your target audience and subscribers.
• In-depth analytics on email campaign performance.

The value of analytics in determining a successful email campaign

Though they’re all important, the 3 most important analytics criteria you should focus on are:

1. Open rate. If the number is low, people are deleting your emails before even reading them. This means that you have to put more effort into the value of the content you provide. Open rate demonstrates the relationship you build with people through the management of their expectations.
2. Click-through rate (CTR). If this number is low, your message isn’t getting through as much as you need it to. People are opening the emails but are not finding the copy strong enough – focus on improving it.
3. Unsubscribes. This is where you want a low percentage. Otherwise, people are finding your emails so invaluable that they border annoyance and invite for ignoring your company altogether. If this is the case, try to examine when people are leaving and take action based on those leaks.

Email analytics are critical for your path to a successful email campaign. If you invest enough effort into them, they’ll give you very specific clues as to what you’re doing wrong. But once again, this all depends directly on how much time you invest.

Segmentation as that final push towards success

Segmentation is the practice of splitting up your email list into smaller target groups. For example, here are some potential groupings to segment your emails to:

• Customer List (in comparison to leads)
• Moving Services Updates (in comparison to a customer list)
• Moving Industry News
• HTML

By making smaller groups, you are able to better target and focus your communication. Some of your readers are looking for updates in terms of your company and the services you offer for certain quotes. Others will look for some news and information about the industry itself. At the end of the day, it comes down to giving your subscribers a chance to choose what they wish to read about. And since the customer is always right, it’s your job to adjust to them and not the other way around.

Segmentation gives you the chance to address smaller groups and address particular issues that they might have with the emails you send. It also provides you with the opportunity to test larger campaigns on test groups before giving the launch approval. It’s nothing complicated, but it is work, which is why most companies don’t take the time to do it right. But if you choose to do so, you’ll immediately separate yourself from the pack and ensure that each email campaign you create is a success.

Start working on your email marketing efforts today

Creating the best approach for your email advertising efforts can be daunting and overwhelming. The process itself requires research, testing, case studies, and an innovative mindset. In addition to it all, it can be very time-consuming and draining if you don’t have the right team to support you. Movers Development has extensive experience when it comes to digital marketing solutions for moving companies and we are always glad to offer professional advice and consultations. Contact our team today to schedule a professional consultation or explore some of our other articles to help boost your email campaigns!