How can you maximise your return and create the best marketing messages possible? Read on to learn how to kickstart your success.
Types of marketing emails
The first decision to make is the type of marketing email you want to send. There are no hard and fast rules here; our email marketing service offers split testing and full reporting so you can analyse how successful your emails are and ensure your visits and profits continue to increase. You don’t have to stick to the same type of marketing email either; a lot of the time your goals and your message will determine the best choice. However, if you start something that becomes popular, your subscribers will expect it to continue, so make sure you have a clear plan and strategy from the outset to ensure the timings work and it’s practical to keep producing.
Some of the most popular types of marketing emails include:
Newsletters – Exactly as it says on the tin, a virtual version of the good old fashioned paper leaflet. These are longer emails consisting of multiple messages, and work best with a hook (e.g. a discount, competition, free download or similar). These are particularly good if your subscribers already have a positive relationship with you and are genuinely interested in the service you provide, and/or you create lots of content.
Mailshots – Also known as eshots, these are very short, punchy emails with a single message and link. They’re particularly good for announcing new products/services and discounts, and despite being obviously a direct sales message, are highly effective when done properly.
Confirmations – After your visitors have downloaded, or purchased from your website, a confirmation email is a must. Whilst practical details and order information should be centre stage, you can include discount codes for next purchases, upsell suggestions, links to particular pages on your website, and so on. Try to include extras in the subject line if possible to ensure people are motivated to open them.
Welcomes – You only get one chance to make a first impression with your Welcome email, so it’s one to keep reviewing and updating to make sure it’s as relevant and successful as it can be. As with confirmation emails, it’s a great opportunity to direct new customers to the particular areas of your site you want them to focus on. If you have any kind of reward programme or affiliate scheme, don’t forget to include that too.
Basket reminders -If possible, set up your website so that customers who add a product to their basket but don’t check out are sent an email reminder encouraging them to purchase. This can be staggered so they receive an hour later, a day later, etc., and can also be accompanied by a discount code to offer an additional incentive. If you’re a HostPay user, check out this basket recovery tutorial.
Dedicated sends – One size doesn’t fit all, so it’s worth splitting your subscriber list up. Creating segments of customers who have things in common (e.g. purchase a particular kind of service, spend a particular amount etc.) will help you target them more effectively. Dedicated sends also generally have a more personal angle, and allow for more effective upselling. For example, if a customer has bought hosting services from you in the past, you could send them a dedicated email offering a discount for email hosting without worrying that they already have email hosting with you.
Joint promotions – These are less common but a great way to market to someone else’s subscriber list. Pick a partner who has a complementary business such as print, accounting, software, or anything that’s more business than consumer-focused for best results. You both send out emails to your customer base informing them of the joint offer.
Invitations – If you host any physical events, virtual events such as webinars, invite people to download or buy products, run beta testing, or favour soft launches, exclusive invitations are a great way to drum up interest and remind people of your company at the same time.
“Free stuff” emails – These are generally downloads, resources and useful links. Often they are more reputation-building than direct marketing in a lot of cases, but you can send out and link to your own materials and content too.
The long and short of it
So how long should your emails be? Unsurprisingly, there’s no one correct answer as it will depend on dozens of factors based on who your subscribers are and what you’re offering.
Although marketing emails should always be succinct, both long and short emails have their place. Always use length as a factor in your split testing to determine what’s effective for your particular subscriber base.
When sending longer emails such as newsletters, always include something for your customers such as a discount, competition, customer spotlight opportunity, recent content you’ve published or found online, and so on. Your subscribers are reading emails for their own benefit, not because you want them to, so give them a reason to open and read.
Short, snappy emails with one simple message and one call to action are often the most successful because they require minimal time and effort to comprehend. These may be directly commercial things like offers and new services, or indirect marketing tasks such as links to surveys, feedback requests etc. Many people dread their inbox, and you’re also competing with a lot of other marketing emails, so you have limited time and space to grab their attention.
Whether you opt for long, short or a mix, stick to a particular style for each individual email so there’s no creep or confusion. Some of the worst kinds of marketing emails are those that are badly structured and aren’t really sure what they’re trying to be or do.
It’s vital to monitor the results of your email campaigns and make changes accordingly. People will rarely tell you if they’re unsubscribing due to email frequency, so keep an eye on your reports to see if interest is tailing off. Don’t forget to allow for the novelty factor before reaching concrete conclusions.
Creating emails as a web host, agency, or other virtual service provider
If you’re a Reseller, chances are you’re running some kind of business based around a limited number of virtual products and services. Whilst you probably offer more than just web hosting and domain names, it’s still harder to create great email marketing campaigns purely because you don’t have a wide physical product range consisting of regular new releases in the same way that consumer companies such as Apple and Amazon do.
If you’re looking for inspiration for virtual selling, check out companies such as Adobe and Moz.com, who tend to focus on the end result of what their services can do, rather than the journey to get there. This helps your product and services become desirable as well as essential, ensuring that your customers develop an emotional attachment to you and therefore are less likely to leave. Moz is also a particularly good example of how to build up authority through email communications, partly due to their popular Top 10 mailout.
Another big challenge is presenting your products and services. Even if you have a strong design background, coming up with marketing visuals can be tricky for web hosting; servers just aren’t that exciting! Take a look at this presentation by our senior designer Ian for some tips and tricks on visually selling your hosting services (there are plenty of ideas here that can be easily adapted for your emails):
If you’re using our email marketing service, a lot of the hard work – cross-client compatibility, responsiveness and coding – has already been done for you, so you can concentrate on the content and images without any hassle.
Quick fire tips
- Find the balance with your content; don’t forget your emails have to appeal to a broad spectrum of people with different knowledge levels, businesses etc. Start with the common ground and work from there.
- It’s better to send out a campaign late than wrong (for example if you’re not quite happy with it, you’re waiting on an offer, there are typos, confusing statements and so on). Using our service you can test your emails with a small percentage of your mailing list to check first; this is especially good for new launches where people are more likely to encounter errors or mistakes.
- If you’re selling our whitelabel email marketing service to your own clients, don’t forget to tell them you’re using the same service yourself. Not only is it a strong selling point, but it also lets them see what it’s like in the flesh.
More on email marketing
If you found this blog post useful, you might want to take a look at some of the others in this series:
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