One of the most important things to understand email marketing as a format is that it is nothing if not malleable. It can be a great way to raise brand awareness, attract attention about an upcoming product or service launch, build anticipation, and more – all at the exact same time. But because of that, sometimes people have a difficult time harnessing what email CAN do to get it to accomplish what they NEED it to in the moment.
That, in essence, is what the following six digital marketing email hacks that can help drive immediate results are all about.
Hack #1: Email Capture
Throughout the course of her presentation, Melanie Balke outlined the importance of shifting the way people approach the very idea of email capturing to begin with. More specifically, she argued that it was essential to A/B test everything you can – especially your pop-up discounts.
A/B testing is when you try out two variations of a pop-up discount to unique groups of prospects. Based on the feedback you collect, you continue to refine that message until you have a more effective end result. Doing so will not only increase conversions when you roll those pop-up discounts out to a wider audience, but it will save quite a bit of money in the long run as well!
Hack #2: The Abandoned Cart Flash Sale Email
Another email hack that marketers can use involves creating conversions with an urgent, “one day only” flash sale.
This developed after observing how, after sending out a series of abandoned cart emails, her brand typically saw a steep drop in conversions. However, adding one last email to the abandoned cart flow – one with a longer time delay and that promised a special flash sale that only lasted 24 hours – saw a significant increase in placed order rates.
Hack #3: The Quiz Email
Another technique described in the presentation took the form of ‘The Quiz Email’. Balke argued that people always want to know more about themselves and cited the very fact that Buzzfeed exists as proof positive of that idea.
It’s a concept that marketers can use to their advantage by targeting recent subscribers who visited their website but who haven’t viewed a product. Or it could be a great addition to the ‘Welcome’ flow. Regardless, it’s an instant way to increase engagement and once you do that, you can reactivate interest in your products through what is essentially the time-honored tradition of gamification.
Hack #4: The 12 Days of Christmas (or Spring, Summer…)
Balke also advocated using gamification another way – this time via a new email flow that creates sales and subscriber engagement based around a theme or idea. The classic example of this is ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ – targeted messages that play into a topic that is already on everyone’s mind and that keeps people invested in ongoing promotions or sales. You can also use video marketing here to create fun and engaging themed content.
This can be a great way to keep email subscribers interested and opening your emails, all while discounting SKUs individually. It’s also a method that can be used to recapture non-purchasers after a big site wide discount has already ended.
Hack #5: The Re-Engagement Giveaway
One major problem that a lot of marketers have has to do with how a huge chunk of their total subscriber list is currently in the ‘unengaged’ segment. That’s where ‘The Re-Engagement Giveaway’ comes into play. If all of your other efforts to re-engage have already failed, fall back on the old idea that everyone always loves free things, no matter what!
If nothing else, this gives you a good idea which inboxes are ‘totally dead’ – meaning they can be removed from your lists so you don’t have to bother spending time or energy reaching out to them again in the future.
Hack #6: Unsubscriber Page Discount
Finally, Balke advocated for the idea of offering a discount on the “unsubscribe” page for your email lists. It’s a chance to take someone who was literally moments away from severing your relationship and turn them into buyers.
Don’t forget that just because someone is unsubscribing and isn’t interested in your emails doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in your product. At the end of the day, a good deal is hard to pass on!
By offering an unsubscribe page discount, you’re essentially offering them free money. Not only is it going to keep them on your email list, but the chances are high that it will also lead to an almost immediate purchase as well. That can keep them in the fold for longer, turning a satisfied one-time purchaser into a repeat buyer before you know it.
These are just a few email hacks that, like other marketing trends 2023, can help generate more qualified leads than ever. Keeping your marketing funnel full is one of the keys to success, which is what email marketing is all about.
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