Building An Email Marketing Strategy The Inbound Way

Since 1971 when Ray Tomlinson sent the first email, email marketing became one of the oldest, conventional, and yet most effective marketing channels.

Over the years, marketers have been finding ways to use it for growing their customer base and increasing the visibility of their brands, until when Gary Thuerk did his first mass-emailing. The intention was to make a large number of people informed about his new product.

Email marketing lets you connect with your audience on a one-to-one basis to promote your brand and boost your sales. It is not just highly efficient but also a pocket-friendly marketing technique. In a link 2015 DMA study, it was found that an average ROI of £38 for each £1 spent

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The number of emails reaching customers’ inbox is increasing at an exponential rate.

How to battle them to get your email opened? How will you stand out?

Well, I’ll be sharing with you a marketing strategy that is just like email marketing - is conventional yet highly-effective - inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing based on the methodology that believes in growing your business by building meaningful and most importantly lasting relationships with your customers. Inbound email marketing involves a strategic approach with your emails instead of mass messaging hoping to generate leads. Let us discuss in depth how inbound email marketing is better than just pushing emails.

How Inbound Email Marketing Is Useful?

Inbound marketing stands on the foundation of effective communication also, an important property of emails. Inbound email marketing is a perfect combination of a powerful marketing channel with an effective marketing strategy. It allows you to send messages about your brand to your prospects within moderation and without falling into the trap of being spammy.

The customers are becoming internet savvy thus, by targeting both the interested and uninterested ones and making your marketing efforts the least effective, try giving it an inbound touch.

How To Do Email Marketing With Inbound Marketing?

First things first let me make you aware that I’ll not be sharing any email marketing strategy. Instead, I’ll be telling you how to combine the two so that you can create your own standalone blueprint.

Still, if you want a push before starting you can check this article - Tips to Getting Started with Building an Email Marketing Strategy. So let’s see how to email marketing with the inbound strategy.

1. Personalize Your Emails

   Don’t take email personalization as sending emails to every individual in your subscriber list. Personalization is about using customer data for sending one-to-one marketing messages. For example, Amazon uses customers’ purchase history for sending personalized emails.

   Also, Amazon owns the fact - 35 percent of product sales result from recommendations. Not only Amazon but a study by Experian Marketing Services also says personalized emails deliver *6X Higher Transaction Rates*.

   The simplest form of email personalization is using names in the subject lines of your eMail. Instead of using subject lines like, “Dear valued customer” use subject lines like, “Dear Steven.”

   Just by using personalized subject lines, you can increase your open rates by at least *16% or even higher*.

   

   By collecting necessary customer data you can very conveniently create a one-on-one experience for your email subscribers. And inbound marketing with your email marketing strategy can help you automate your task with just the touch of a button.

   Some very basic tips for collecting the “necessary data” for personalization of your inbound email marketing:

   1. Make use of sign up forms that ask for necessary information from your customers upfront. Remember the foundation of personalization begins before you hit the send button.
   2. Now it’s time to craft an authentic email copy for your customers. Your objective should be to improve your credibility and at the same time be more exclusive.
   3. Believe in using real email signatures. If you want your shoppers an opportunity to connect with you online then, include correct contact information in the signatures.

2. Segmenting Your Customers

   Another great initiative for inbound email marketing is customer segmentation. Segmenting your customers can make your emails even more targeted. For example, if you’re looking to offer some reward points to your loyal customers, customer segmentation can definitely help you achieve it.

   The 2015 DMA National Client Email Report has confirmed that the secret behind 77% email marketing ROI is segmented emails. For customer segmentation, you have to be thorough with the stages of a customer journey, which are:

   1. Awareness Stage:

      Here the buyers identify their challenges and decide the goals they want to pursue.

   2. Consideration Stage:

      Once the problem is defined, now the buyer will evaluate various approaches to fulfill their goals and find solutions to the challenge in the consideration stage.

   3. Decision Stage:

      After evaluating and considering all the solutions the buyer finally makes a choice in the decision stage.

   

3. Funnels For Lead Nurturing

   The ultimate goal of an inbound email marketing campaign is to nurture leads until they become your permanent customers. The aim is to bring prospects to your site and make them ready to purchase.

   A major aspect of the inbound marketing is funnels.

   A marketing funnel is nothing but a collection of stages that prospects have to be moved through starting from making the shopper aware of your products and services. The sole purpose of designing them is to push your potential customers through the buyer’s journey and ultimately persuade them to make a purchase.

   With help of lead nurturing funnels you can touch all the 3 stages of a customer journey (awareness, consideration, and decision stage) of inbound email marketing thus, letting you engage shoppers and finally leading to conversion.

   Creating funnels for lead nurturing is also a great way of inviting your audience back to the site again and again. Refine your customer segment list and you can use it for sending out email reminders to the relevant individuals in order to make them take specific actions.

   Take at a look at these tips for redefining your inbound marketing funnel stages and make your brand top of mind.

   1. Get to know Your Audience

      Try to know your audience to understand what their needs are. Once you are able to define your buyer personas it will be easy for you to tailor personalized content.

   2. Create content for every stage

      The nature of your buyers is different at every stage. For pushing your lead towards conversion you need to make content that is unique for every stage.

      Keep in mind in the inbound email marketing you’ve to guide your prospects through the buyer’s journey. Thus, it is very important to address every question and concern.

   3. Take timely follow-up

      Marketers often invest their major energy upon trying to reach a larger set of prospects but, for converting your prospects into qualified inbound leads you have to work upon timely follow-ups.

      Unlike conventional email marketing in inbound email marketing, you have to be well-planned with your follow-ups.

      Isn’t it better than cold calling?

   4. Sync your marketing and sales strategies

      To skyrocket your conversion rates sync your marketing and sales strategies. In this way, both the marketing and sales team can contribute to lead conversion. For making it a perfect blend consider different triggers like lead scoring, workflow, conversion events, etc.

   With this we come to an end to how to build an email marketing strategy the inbound way. In the world of eCommerce, marketing emails are continuously evolving. With the touch of inbound, you can make your email context highly personalized leading to huge conversions.

   Over to you...

   I hope you find this short article interesting and informative. In the present business scenario where the competitive landscape is getting bigger, your goal is not just to send emails but to make them engaging.

   Creating an inbound email marketing campaign can take time and dedication, if done with the correct tools and other resources you can achieve high conversion rates in the long run.

   Email marketing is one of the oldest and most effective marketing channels. As David Newman has said:

   “Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches—at scale.”