Here’s real growth you can see:
For every dollar spent on email marketing, a company can expect $38 of earning in return.
Email marketing is an effective tool to boost sales, communicate with current and prospective customers to build customer loyalty, and improve brand awareness.
Want your email to stand out?
Brand it: keep your brand identity consistent in email, so that it reflects and matches any other online platforms.
Imagine it this way, your customers have come to expect the same voice, visual style, and overall content every time they interact with your brand. But, when they receive your first email they notice immediately that your emails are not representing your brand consistently, so they leave. *cue scary music*
You NEVER want to lose a chance to build a long-term relationship. So, don’t! Here is what you need to know to maximize your branded email campaign.
Before your customer opens their first email:
Thank-You Page You can present a consistent brand right out of the gate by creating a page for new subscribers when they sign up to your list. Make sure this page has the same design as your site, including the colors, fonts, logo, visual style, and tone of voice.
The Inbox Your email can be branded without even being opened!
Sender The email sender is your company name so that your customer knows who is connecting with them.
Subject Line Use either your company name or the name of the newsletter so your client recognizes what content they are receiving.
Snippet Give your customers a tantalizing snippet of the email content so they are enticed to open!
Once your customer has the content:
Tone of Voice and Persona Think about your brand identity: What makes you stand out? Is it a friendly and comedic wit? Is it your serious and professional attentiveness? Is it your local charm and unique flair? Keep your tone consistent across all platforms so that it is representative of your brand. This makes you recognizable, reliable, and trustworthy.
*Secret Tip #1 Regardless of your brand voice, if your customers don’t hear it consistently it won’t be effective. Provide content regularly to keep your audience engaged.
Solution-Based Content Bill Gates once said, “if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act”. Use your unique brand presence to be a resource for your clients that solves one of their problems. If you’re a dog trainer who has the brand identity as a scrappy, calm, and persistent partner, you might build an email solving a client’s problem in a resourceful way. So, if many pups in the beginning levels of training struggle with teething, you might solve this problem with a DIY teething toy that owners on a budget can build and use! Present the material in-brand by keeping the voicing, visual style, and email template consistent.
*Secret Tip #2 You can segment your audience in order to deliver content that better matches the needs, desires, and behaviors of your customers. For the dog trainer, a few ways the audience could be segmented include breed, dog size, and training level. This way, you have the opportunity provide information useful and relevant to every audience member every time.
Email Body The content itself is not enough to keep your email in-brand. You also need to make sure that the template, logo, font, colors, buttons, and site all match to create a strong representation of your company in the inbox.
*Secret Tip #3: If your content is great and in brand, your customers will want to use it, share it, and react to it! Give them options by providing a call to action, which tells your users exactly what to do with the email content you give them!
Lindy Chaffin Start is principal and creative director at Unstoppable Start Studios based in Atlanta, Georgia. She contributes her knowing and talents as a marketer to small businesses across the country and listeners around the world.
To learn more about branded email marketing, contact us.