Journey of Email Marketing through Subscriber Lifecycle

For a long time a misconception was there that email is dying as other digital marketing mediums like social media and mobile marketing are gaining importance. But, most marketers by now have realized that email marketing is not gonna lose its sheen anywhere soon in the overall marketing strategy.

Marketers, though have realized the importance of email, many overlook email marketing best practices that are essentials for any successful email marketing strategy. And this was the primary focus of our recently concluded multi-city paid email marketing workshop on “Steps to become a Chief Email Marketing Officer”. The workshop was directed towards the progressing lifecycle of a subscriber. Starting from the building list to retention of a subscriber, every know-how of email marketing was explained by my expert buddies.

In this blog, I will discuss few important points discussed at the workshop that will help you improve as an email marketer:

1. Build Email List

• As an email marketer, you have several ways to build email list, but out of those, website registration page contributes 77% of total registrations; so, you should improve it more often and leverage the opportunity.
• You can also increase subscription by using few useful tips like improvising opt-in forms, highlight the benefit of signing up, strategic positioning of sign-up form, using survey methods, etc.

2. Welcome Customer

• Whenever you get a new subscription, do send a welcome email for warming up the new connection. A welcome email within 48 hours of subscription gives a good first impression of your brand.
• Welcome emails are a powerful tool for drawing customers to your brand, product and services, so plan an impressive welcome series in advance.
• Content plays a vital role in welcome email series, so, be clear and precise in your communication. Let the customer understand what to expect from your brand and also get his preference noted for cross-selling relevant products in future.
• Timing is equally important for welcome email series so schedule the series with well-planned time interval.

3. Engage Customers

• The goal of any email marketer is to get more subscribers on-board. However, you should also keep in mind to engage the already on-boarded subscribers.
• You should plan an engaging email series for existing as well as new subscribers. Do remember to infuse your brand elements in the emails to reflect your brand personality that could be friendly, fun, playful, creative, adventurous or anything else.
• You should also create a human connection in your email with:
  • Conversational subject line
  • Addressing by customer’s name
  • Friendly communication tone
• You may also use triggered communication to establish a connection by leveraging occasions like birthdays and anniversaries

4. Continue Engagement but Innovate

• You need to innovate for enhanced engagement. You can use the following tips of my email marketing experts:
  • Distribute rewards and loyalty points
  • Use GIF images for making plain emails attractive
  • Send real-time campaigns

5. Retain Customers

• After acquiring new subscribers and building a thriving email list, your responsibility as an email marketer does not end but doubles rather.
• Now, you not only need to increase subscription rate in future as well, but also retain the already acquired subscribers.
• Retention is a tough task that can be executed well if you keep on engaging your subscribers by providing them what they desire and entertainment at the same time.

Other best practices that you should follow to avoid the Spam Trap’ are:

• Not changing the sender’s name and Id frequently as it is related to your brand recognition
• Drafting a precise and conversational subject line
• Developing a clear communication in the body content with no any misleading information
• Building responsive emails that are free from any html or other design mistakes

Apart from the above mentioned points, many other useful case studies and examples were discussed throughout the workshop. The attendees also got an opportunity to practice the points they were learning by participating in a hands-on group activity.

Stay tuned for our upcoming workshops!