Are you looking to acquire new qualified prospects or build customer loyalty? E-mailing could be the solution. Despite popular belief, it's one of the best digital acquisition levers available today. 75% of marketers consider the return on investment (ROI) of e-mailing to be excellent or good. In this article, discover our tips for successful e-mailing campaigns.
The two types of email campaigns
An acquisition/prospecting e-mailing campaign
The main objective of a prospecting e-mail is to acquire new customers or qualified prospects. The campaign is distributed to potential customers. 8 out of 10 companies consider e-mailing to be their primary customer acquisition channel.
The specifics of an acquisition/prospecting e-mailing campaign
This is the first marketing email sent to a prospect. Acquisition e-mail campaigns are the most common method of active prospecting. A prospecting e-mail is written quickly, sent easily. All at low cost. To be effective, it must be based on a solid sales argument.
Collecting e-mail addresses
You need to be careful to collect e-mail addresses legally. There are a number of legally compliant solutions available: competitions, online surveys, landing pages, etc.
You can also rent databases on :
- The 400 opt-in partner databases of Dataventure, representing over 35 million active profiles in France and 100 million in Europe, form the foundations of our group.
E-mail content
As these are new customers, you have to be careful not to over-solicit them. Otherwise, you run the risk of conveying a poor brand image.
Discover our 3 tips for a successful prospecting e-mail:
- Present yourself clearly.
- Personalize content by highlighting your value proposition and comparative advantage.
- Schedule reminders.
A loyalty e-mailing campaign
The main objective is to build customer loyalty. This type of e-mailing campaign is distributed to subscribers and customers already on a mailing list.
The specifics of a loyalty e-mailing campaign
A loyalty e-mailing campaign strengthens the relationship of trust following a purchase, an account creation or a subscription. It has an informative or commercial purpose. Customers are targeted in a personalized way.
Collecting e-mail addresses
Even if these people are already customers, you need to think aboutopt-in. You can create a registration form, then distribute it on social networks, on your website, in an e-mailing campaign, and so on. The aim? To get customers to agree to receive loyalty e-mails.
The ideal solution is to opt for double opt-in. This ensures qualified contacts and avoids spam. Since 2018, it has been forbidden to use customers' e-mail addresses without first obtaining their consent.
Good to know: What is the double Opt-in ?
Single opt-in and double opt-in are two methods of subscribing to a mailing list. With a simpler sign-up process, the former enables you to quickly expand your audience, while selling more products. The second involves an additional step: receiving a confirmation e-mail. The contact must validate their registration. The advantage? You can be sure that the e-mail address is linked to a valid, monitored inbox. To reinforce the security of your forms, don't hesitate to activate Google reCAPTCHA. It prevents spambots from adding fraudulent, false or malicious e-mail addresses to your audience.
E-mail content
Your customer already knows you. So you need to provide them with relevant new content, linked to other content they've already read. You can send out a newsletter. 76% of newsletter recipients say they have already bought a product or service after clicking on a link.
The newsletter is a great opportunity to :
- Demonstrate your know-how and expertise;
- Building customer loyalty;
- Better identify your target's expectations.
To maintain the interest of your subscribers, content must always be varied, but always of high quality.
7 tips for a successful e-mailing campaign
1. Define the objective of your e-mail marketing campaign
This is the first thing to do when you launch an e-mailing campaign. You need to find out what action is expected from the e-mail. Is it an e-mail intended for :
- Inform: present your company, announce the launch of a new product or an event;
- Selling: buying your products or services;
- Retain existing customers: create a regular link ;
- Acquire leads: reach an audience unfamiliar with your brand, improve your brand awareness;
- Generate traffic: boost visits to your social networks, website, etc. ;
- Collect feedback: send satisfaction questionnaires, feedback on a particular event, surveys following a purchase, a call, a reservation, etc.
Good to know: the 5 scenarios that convert the most
- Follow-ups after a visit without purchase: 23%.
- Repeat orders following abandoned shopping baskets: 21%.
- New products : 18 %.
- Cross-selling: 13%.
- Promotions: 13.
2. Determine your target
Targeting the right contacts is essential to optimize the impact and engagement of your recipients. Texts and visuals will vary according to the target: they need to be personalized.
Never send the same e-mail to all your contacts. If you do, you risk :
- Reaching the unreached;
- Increase unsubscribe rates.
Good to know: How do you calculate the unsubscribe rate?
Simply divide the number of unsubscribes by the number of marketing e-mails sent. Then multiply the result by 100. Let's imagine you sent out 5,000 e-mails as part of your e-mailing campaign. 50 recipients unsubscribed. Your unsubscribe rate is 1%. To give you an idea, an unsubscribe rate is considered good if it doesn't exceed 0.5%.
Dataventure offers you an innovative performance-based emailing solution. It is built around three pillars:
- Tracking management ;
- Lead delivery tailored to your needs: CSV, FTP deposit, webservice, etc.
- Various business models : CPC CPL , CPM, CPV, CPCL, Hybrids. The guarantee of total control over your acquisition model.
3. Choosing the right time to send
Send your e-mails at times when recipients are likely to be in front of their smartphone or computer. Be sure to send each e-mail 3-4 days apart so that your contacts don't feel overwhelmed.
The key to choosing the right timing? Know your audience and their habits. To do this, don't hesitate to carry out test mailings at different times, over several days. This will show you the best weekly or daily time slots, with the highest open and click rates. Another tip: when subscribing to your newsletter, involve your subscribers by asking them for their preferred frequency.
For B2C, the best days are :
- Highest opening rate: Mondays and Saturdays (49.1%).
- Best click-through rate (CTR): Saturday and Sunday (5.2%).
- Highest conversion rate: Fridays and Sundays (18%).
In B2B, send your e-mails preferably :
- Highest opening rate: Wednesdays (46%).
- Best click-through rate: Sunday (5.9%).
- Highest conversion rate: Monday (38%).
4. Think of an eye-catching object
It's the first thing the reader reads. If your subject line appeals to them, they'll want to open the e-mail marketing. To be read in its entirety, opt for a short subject line of between 6 and 10 words.
We give you examples of effective objects for your e-mailing campaigns:
- The right plan.
- Urgency. This is a powerful lever to encourage your targets to open your e-mails, but also to speed up their decision-making.
- Mystery. The more you intrigue the recipient, the more they'll want to know.
- Personalization. To show your readers that they are privileged, add their surname, first name and title. You can also use pronouns like "you" or "yours".
- The question. Here, the aim is to bring the recipient back to his personal experience, while at the same time challenging him.
- Newness. Include the words "new", "update", "discover" to pique readers' curiosity.
- Use emojis sparingly and appropriately. Their advantage? They instantly catch the eye of your recipients.
Think A/B testing. It's undoubtedly the best way to boost your open rate. You find out which objects work best with your audience. So you can optimize your future email campaigns.
The principle is simple: you create two versions of the e-mail, then choose splitting rules. These determine the size of the test groups (version A, version B) and how the winning version will be selected. For example, on the basis of open rate (perfect for testing the subject line) or click rate. Depending on the software, you can also set the test duration.
5. Prepare attractive content
Create attractive, educational content for the reader. They need to quickly understand the purpose of your e-mail. Remember, your text and visual elements need to be harmonized. This promotes customer engagement. In the same way, standardize your typography from the beginning to the end of your e-mail campaign. In this way, you'll project a clean, professional and refined image.
6. Add a call-to-action (CTA)
Perhaps the most important point in a prospecting email campaign. Include a CTA with conversion content/lead magnet, ideally addressing the subject of the e-mail. A call-to-action button allows you to collect more data on the behavior of the contacts reached. However, while you can integrate them throughout your e-mail, don't overdo it.
Good to know: What are the different types of lead magnets?
- Guides, white papers or ebooks;
- Checklists ;
- Templates ;
- Toolboxes ;
- Studies, analyses or reports ;
- Case studies ;
- Quizzes or tests ;
- Simulators ;
- Training by e-mail ;
- Webinars.
7. Insert an unsubscribe link
This is a mandatory rule. Recipients must be able to unsubscribe from your e-mails if they no longer wish to receive them. When they click on the link, they are either directly unsubscribed from the mailing list, or sent to a form. The latter allows you to ask them why they wish to unsubscribe.
Discover the most common reasons for unsubscribing:
- Too high a mailing frequency;
- Non-personalized, boring content that doesn't meet your recipients' expectations;
- Poor structure and/or design;
- A lack of interest in your brand;
- Overly promotional e-mailings;
- A lack of interest in readers;
- A description process that's too easy. For example, if the link is inserted directly after the body of the e-mail, if it is close to a CTA or highlighted (color, font size, etc.).
It's not possible to build customer loyalty through e-mailing without doing some acquisition first. The objectives of these two marketing campaigns may be different, but the aim remains the same: to build up your customer portfolio.
You can enlist the help of a digital expert like Dataventure to help you with your e-mail marketing. Our in-house design studio will create, integrate and host the visuals for your e-mailing campaign.
