3 Strategies to Improve Engagement With Your Email Audience
Improving engagement is a common goal for many marketers. Why?—Because an engaged audience is more likely to cultivate brand advocacy, broaden market awareness, and drive an uptick in sales. So, with that being said, here are 3 email marketing strategies to improve engagement with your audience.
Unsubscribers don’t have to be an unfortunate occurrence. You can take this as a learning opportunity to discover why they left your email list. Adding an exit survey and finding out why a person unsubscribed can help you alter your email campaigns.
When a person hits “unsubscribe,” in your email, they will be sent to a confirmation page that will include the exit survey.
An exit survey will usually ask why they unsubscribed and has a list of options the person can choose from. Possible reasons why someone unsubscribed includes:
The survey can show you the problems that you may be having with your email marketing strategy. For example, maybe a large portion of unsubscribers say they don’t remember signing up for the email list. Assuming you didn’t illegally obtain email addresses, you can infer a few reasons why they don’t know your brand.
Maybe you haven’t emailed them in a while, and they forgot you existed. Perhaps you don’t have a welcome sequence that made your brand memorable. The data from an exit survey is invaluable in improving your email list.
42% of all emails are opened on mobile or tablet devices. Does your email look clean and readable on those devices?
Responsive design is ensuring that your emails look good on all devices. If a person looks at your email on an iPhone, it should look just as lovely on a PC.
You are most likely using a desktop to create your emails, and you might end up skipping checking out the mobile view before sending. If it looks good on a desktop, it must look good on mobile, right?
Not always. Sometimes the text is too small or too large, images are cropped, and other design mishaps can occur. Make sure to look at the preview image beforehand.
Any smart marketer knows that a customer’s experience can make or break your brand. Poor design can lead the reader to be confused or annoyed.
Ensure that your emails have a responsive design, so you can give a reader a better experience and make them more likely to read your email.
Email marketing isn’t only for selling. Readers hate that. A string of promotional emails doesn’t build brand trust.
Your email marketing strategy needs to build a community. You make a community by creating valuable content.
Depending on your industry and why people signed-up for your email list, people will want different content. Generally speaking, here is what people look for when creating content:
Valuable content isn’t necessarily always promotional. You can share other content marketing pieces like a podcast episode or an educational video, but your audience may not be ready to hear about your paid products just yet.
If someone joined your email list because they signed up for a webinar about how to start a blog, you may want to consider sending them educational content on blogging. You may even share inspirational content, like a case study, from people that started successful blogs.
The point is to send relevant content that is valuable to the readers’ interest. This tactic will keep them engaged and looking forward to your next email.
By the time you send an email selling a product, your audience will know, like, and trust you. These factors will increase your chances of making more sales or conversions since your audience is already nurtured.
Using email to improve engagement with your audience will lead to a nurtured audience that is ready to receive any content you send at them. When you know your audience, segment them into personalized groups, and ensure that they have a great experience with your emails, you will have better metrics and an engaged audience.
Strategy #1: Create an exit survey
Unsubscribers don’t have to be an unfortunate occurrence. You can take this as a learning opportunity to discover why they left your email list. Adding an exit survey and finding out why a person unsubscribed can help you alter your email campaigns.
What is an exit survey?
When a person hits “unsubscribe,” in your email, they will be sent to a confirmation page that will include the exit survey.
An exit survey will usually ask why they unsubscribed and has a list of options the person can choose from. Possible reasons why someone unsubscribed includes:
- They don’t remember signing up for the email list
- Emails are too frequent
- Emails are not relevant
Why does it improve engagement with your audience?
The survey can show you the problems that you may be having with your email marketing strategy. For example, maybe a large portion of unsubscribers say they don’t remember signing up for the email list. Assuming you didn’t illegally obtain email addresses, you can infer a few reasons why they don’t know your brand.
Maybe you haven’t emailed them in a while, and they forgot you existed. Perhaps you don’t have a welcome sequence that made your brand memorable. The data from an exit survey is invaluable in improving your email list.
Email Marketing Strategy #2: Use responsive design
42% of all emails are opened on mobile or tablet devices. Does your email look clean and readable on those devices?
What is responsive design?
Responsive design is ensuring that your emails look good on all devices. If a person looks at your email on an iPhone, it should look just as lovely on a PC.
You are most likely using a desktop to create your emails, and you might end up skipping checking out the mobile view before sending. If it looks good on a desktop, it must look good on mobile, right?
Not always. Sometimes the text is too small or too large, images are cropped, and other design mishaps can occur. Make sure to look at the preview image beforehand.
Why does it improve engagement with your audience?
Any smart marketer knows that a customer’s experience can make or break your brand. Poor design can lead the reader to be confused or annoyed.
Ensure that your emails have a responsive design, so you can give a reader a better experience and make them more likely to read your email.
Email Marketing Strategy #3: Share value
Email marketing isn’t only for selling. Readers hate that. A string of promotional emails doesn’t build brand trust.
Your email marketing strategy needs to build a community. You make a community by creating valuable content.
What is valuable content?
Depending on your industry and why people signed-up for your email list, people will want different content. Generally speaking, here is what people look for when creating content:
- Inspirational content
- Educational content
- Entertainment
- Rewards (for example: coupons)
Valuable content isn’t necessarily always promotional. You can share other content marketing pieces like a podcast episode or an educational video, but your audience may not be ready to hear about your paid products just yet.
Why does it improve engagement with your audience?
If someone joined your email list because they signed up for a webinar about how to start a blog, you may want to consider sending them educational content on blogging. You may even share inspirational content, like a case study, from people that started successful blogs.
The point is to send relevant content that is valuable to the readers’ interest. This tactic will keep them engaged and looking forward to your next email.
By the time you send an email selling a product, your audience will know, like, and trust you. These factors will increase your chances of making more sales or conversions since your audience is already nurtured.
Wrap Up
Using email to improve engagement with your audience will lead to a nurtured audience that is ready to receive any content you send at them. When you know your audience, segment them into personalized groups, and ensure that they have a great experience with your emails, you will have better metrics and an engaged audience.
