When it comes to email marketing, companies can be diverse in their approach. Some see it purely as a marketing tool, while others see it as a way of life. There are, however, certain guidelines that every business – regardless of their approach – should follow in order to maximise the effectiveness of their campaigns.
The purpose of this report is to examine the various LinkedIn email marketing campaigns that companies have carried out, across different industries and sectors, and gain some insight into what works, and what could be improved upon.
Why Should A Business Care About Their Email Marketing Strategy?
The short answer is ‘because it’s effective’. Email marketing for businesses has been proven time and time again to be a powerful tool for generating leads and engaging with customers. The long answer is a little more detailed.
Emails are one of the most popular digital marketing tools available. Marketers use them to get in touch with potential customers, and let them know about new products, discounts, and upcoming events. If you have a website – whether you’re a local business, or you’re a global brand – you can use email marketing to stay in touch with your audience and encourage them to become lifelong customers. As a business, your email marketing strategy needs to reflect your brand, and serve a clear purpose. Otherwise, it will be difficult to determine what is and isn’t working.
What Are The Different Types Of Email Marketing Campaigns?
When developing your business’ email marketing strategy, you’ll need to consider what is and isn’t working. There are three distinct types of LinkedIn email marketing campaigns outlined below, which you can use as a framework for your own strategy.
Personal
This is the tried and tested method of engaging with customers. It’s based on building relationships and enabling them to feel that you genuinely want to help. Your potential customers will appreciate your efforts, and it’s a great way to establish credibility. When used effectively, personal email marketing is incredibly powerful and can help drive customer engagement and loyalty.
The most effective form of personal marketing is ‘tweeted’ emails. These are short, snappy blurbs of text, often linked to web articles. The key is to keep it pithy and engaging. Your customers will engage with you, and so will their social media followers.
Product-related
If you’re promoting a product or service, then emailing your customers, and sharing useful information about your products and the industry, is a great way to gain credibility and trust. Your customers will value your expertise, and appreciate that you have taken the time to provide them with useful information regarding your niche and the industry. This also allows you to position yourself as an expert in your industry, and provide potential customers with further reading material to learn more about you and your company.
Product-related emails should be short and sweet. Keep your promotional messages concise and to the point. Customers want to be able to get to the meat of what they’re interested in quickly and efficiently.
Sales-related
Once you’ve established credibility and trust with your customers as an expert in your industry, you can transition to asking them for money. This is known as ‘up-selling’ or ‘cross-selling’. The approach is the same as with a product-related email, however, the goal is to convert the reader into a paying customer. This is achieved via a combination of inbound techniques – engaging with the reader on a personal level, while also providing them with useful information – and outbound techniques – prompting them to take action, such as by calling a phone number or filling out a form on your website.
Sales-related emails should be concise and to the point, whilst also being easy to understand. Make sure that your language is plain and simple. Make it easy for your readers to understand what you’re trying to say. Use relevant and appropriate language, and ensure that your grammar and spelling are flawless. With limited space, effective sales emails often have a simple layout with just a few important graphics. Avoid using too many fonts, and keep the text to a minimum. In order to stand out from the crowd, use unique visuals to catch the viewer’s attention. These could include but are not limited to; videos, infographics, webisodes, or interviews with industry experts. Make sure to include a call-to-action – something that will encourage the reader to take action – in your email’s footer. If a viewer is not yet convinced by the end of your email, then removing all incentives, or changing their mindset, could be a hard sell.
As you can see, there are three types of emails that businesses can use to attract potential customers to their company. Based on whether or not your target audience is product-related, personal, or sales-related, you can tailor your content to appeal to them. If you can’t seem to find a balance between the three, or if one of the areas is under-performing, you can also create a task force within your company to work on developing an email marketing strategy.
Which Type Of Email Marketing Campaign Is Most Effective?
Whichever type you choose, make sure to tailor your content to fit specific platforms, and devices. When developing your email marketing strategy, you should consider the various platforms that your audience uses – whether that’s a laptop, mobile phone, or tablet. Each of these platforms has its quirks and preferences, and you need to consider these when building your campaign. For example, if you’re sending an email on a mobile phone, you might want to shorten your headlines, or use smaller fonts, otherwise, you risk having the text read as ‘blurry mush’.
As with any marketing effort, you need to determine the frequency of your emails. If you send too many, or too few, then you risk either turning your customers off, or leaving them completely indifferent. Unless you’re a lifestyle brand, chances are, you’ll be committing email spam if you send too many promotional emails without a call to action. This could get you into serious trouble with Google, which controls a significant amount of the search engine traffic on the internet.
How Can I Improve My LinkedIn Email Marketing Campaign?
There are two things that you can do to improve your LinkedIn email marketing strategy. The first is to create compelling subject lines. When someone decides to open your email, they’re usually doing so because they want to know more about your company, or are curious about your offerings. Your subject line is the first thing that will catch their attention — and it shouldn’t be hard to do. You can use a free tool like ‘GetResponse’ to create A+ subject lines. Don’t just focus on the opening…make sure that your body, and the contents of the email, are compelling as well.
The second thing that you can do to improve your LinkedIn email marketing strategy is to set up autoresponders. An autoresponder is a type of email marketing tool that sends out regular emails – sometimes even before you know that you need them. This is incredibly useful for establishing consistent communication with customers, while also allowing you to craft better, and more relevant, content.
As with any tool or technique, there are various ways in which you can use LinkedIn autoresponders to your advantage. For example, you can use an autoresponder to send out a survey to your customers once a month, to see what they think about your industry, and your company. Or, you can use an autoresponder to send out a weekly newsletter, featuring useful information about your industry, and your company. The key is to find a way to use the tool that makes the most sense for your business, and tailor your content around what is most relevant to your audience.
Which Types Of LinkedIn Email Marketing Campaigns Succeeded?
The following types of LinkedIn email marketing campaigns have proven to be effective, and continue to be used by businesses today:
Product-related
If you’re promoting a product or service, then emailing your customers, and sharing useful information about your products and the industry, is a great way to gain credibility and trust. Your customers will value your expertise, and appreciate that you have taken the time to provide them with useful information regarding your niche and the industry. This also allows you to position yourself as an expert in your industry, and provide potential customers with further reading material to learn more about you and your company.
Product-related emails should be short and sweet. Keep your promotional messages concise and to the point. Customers want to be able to get to the meat of what they’re interested in quickly and efficiently.