If you own or manage a business you're more than likely collecting email addresses from your customers, (which is great)... but what are you doing with your email list to consistently keep your customers engaged with your brand?
Hopefully, you're sending an email newsletter at least once per month.
If not, here's why you should start.
Data from Pew Research shows that 92% of adults in the United States use email, and 61% of these email users are checking and sending emails on an average day.
This presents a great opportunity for practices of all sizes to reach their target market, no matter what their audience looks like.
Sending email newsletters can help you attract and retain new patients with personalized messages that promote your content, brand, and services. You can also segment contacts and use personalization techniques to deliver messages that patients can’t ignore.
The bottom line is, your email list is very valuable.
After all, these people signed up to receive your emails anyway, so they're expecting you to engage with them on a regular basis.
And yet, the average email open rate in 2020 was 18%. That means less than one of every five subscribers you’ve earned looks at the content you send. So how can you increase your email open rate?
Here are 5 Email Newsletter Ideas to increase your open and click-through rates.
1. Create a Catchy Email Subject Line
Your email subject line is like the storefront to your business, if people don't like what they see they won't come in. Put yourself in the mind of your customer and use words that will stand out to them.
For instance, if you're a plastic surgeon your target customer may be looking for ways to enhance their physical appearance, so you'd want to use a subject line that speaks to their problem.
Here's an example of a subject line that would work well for a segmented audience list of patients over 35 who have recently purchased anti-aging services or products from you.
Subject Line: A Plastic Surgeon's Secret to Delaying the Aging Process
It's speaking to the right demographic (Patients over 30)
It's addressing a relatable problem (Delaying the Aging Process)
It's proving credibility (A Plastic Surgeon's Secret)
2. Don't Always Require a 'Click'
The goal of content marketing is to provide value and nurture your audience over time. Email newsletters are a great strategy to increase your audience's knowledge of your products or services without always asking them for their card information.
Even though clicks are necessary sometimes, try not to overdo it.
If you're constantly asking your audience to click on your website in your email newsletters, you're requiring them to work harder for information that they already opted in to receive when they initially gave you their email address, and then it starts to feel like a task.
On the contrary, if you focus on sending more valuable content within the email itself, you'll find that customers will feel more inclined to open and read your emails every time you send them.
Give your audience everything that they need within the email newsletter because the more you ask your content to click within your email, the more it feels like you're asking them for something, rather than giving them something.
As humans, we like to get more than we give.
So try asking your audience for less and focus your strategy on giving more valuable content with your email newsletter; then check your reports to analyze your email opens and clicks.
3. Use Brand Recognition in your Email Newsletters
People engage more with Brands that seem more familiar to them. Try creating a consistent element within your email newsletters that bring some level of consistency to your content.
Here are a few examples:
Name your email newsletter (Aesthetic Weekly Skims)
Use consistent email templates (create a layout and stick to it)
Use consistent emojis ( 👈🏽👏🏽🎙🎬)
Have a consistent voice or tone (Friendly, conversational)
Have a consistent email schedule (Mondays at 6 am)
Now those are just examples to get you started but think of your business and what your brand represents and try to come up with a few of your own.
4. Write Like a Friend
People want to connect with people, not brands. Write your email newsletters like a human and not a corporation. It's also pretty effective to personalize your email content by using their first name wherever you can. This adds a personable touch and makes your email more real and authentic, which makes your audience more likely to engage with your future email newsletters.
Here's an example of a personalized email subject line that a dentist would use that evokes curiosity based on the human-like tone of the email.
Hey Sam. Quick question... How do you brush your teeth?
The content within this email would include expert tips on what Sam should avoid doing and share strategies on how Sam should brush his teeth.
Chances are Sam probably opened this email because we called out his name, used a friendly tone, and directly asked him a personal question which made him more eager to open the email newsletter.
The goal here is to get Sam to think, am I brushing my teeth incorrectly?
*Opens Email*
5. Segment your Email Lists
Do all of your customers want the exact same thing?
Are all of your customers the exact same buyer persona? Age? Location? Interests?
Absolutely not. I hope.
Personalization is the purpose of list segmentation: you slice your email list into segments based on what you know about each user—then you send each segment of people personalized information.
A good email marketing strategy would be to segment your email list based on the different buyer personas at your business. The more specific your email lists are, the more valuable your email newsletters will become to your audience; which will then increase your email newsletter opens and clicks.
A good place to start would be to separate your current customers from your prospects. Once you've separated these two major audiences, you can take your audience segmentation even further by getting more granular based on the different stages in their purchase cycle.
But generally, the smaller they get, the more likely it is that the information you send will resonate with the recipient.
If you get your segments right, your users will receive relevant emails packed with information that they actually want. That personalization leads to more opens, more clicks, and more purchases.
Looking Ahead.
Of all the online marketing techniques, email marketing is by far the most successful digital strategy because it offers an unbeatable ROI.
Marketers gravitate towards email marketing because it’s effective and cost-efficient. Research also shows email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent, and some companies see an ROI as high as $76 for every $1 spent.
So if that's not enough to get you started with email and optimize your email newsletters for more opens and clicks, then you're most certainly missing out on one of the most effective and affordable online marketing strategies available.
Do you need help putting these tips into action?
Our team of content strategists, content creators, and creative marketers would love to help. Book your free virtual consultation with us at any time.