5 gaps in your email marketing

Bertoni asks only for your email address in return for the right to send you newsletters. And that’s fine, Ole says – but there’s an important ’but’:

”Research shows that when you ask for more information besides name and email address in the sign-up process, people opt out. The conversion typically drops by 50% for each new piece of information that you ask your new subscriber to provide. But you should get more subscriber data beside name and email address in order to segment your newsletters. Readers don’t mind receiving more newsletters if it’s relevant for them. An example: the Danish drugstore brand Matas could segment on gender, so they know if they should send you an offer of an Elizabeth Arden perfume or a Hugo Boss deodorant. It would be useful for the Danish DIY centre Silvan to know if a new subscriber lives in an apartment or not, so they don’t send offers on sandpits.”

But if you shouldn’t ask for more data in your sign-up box, how should you collect more data on your subcribers?

”Be sure to have an automated welcome flow. Ask your subscriber to fill in more data in your second or third email in that welcome flow,” Ole recommends. ”Use this data to segment your subscribers into groups, in order to send them even more useful content. Useful content determines whether or not they stay on your email list.”

2.     Your welcome flow isn’t good (enough)

When someone opts in to your email list, it’s important to give them a warm welcome.

”A welcoming email is the first email your new subscriber gets from you. Such emails typically have a very high open rate – about 80–90 %. You should repeat your offer in this email; for example, a code to get 10% off a first purchase, free shipping, free returns, or whatever you’re offering,” Ole recommends. ”Just because they subscribe to your email list, it’s not certain that your customers remember all of your benefits. An example: Djurs Sommerland offers tons of benefits to its season ticket customers, but they probably never use all of these benefits.”

Support your new subscriber’s decision to subscribe to your newsletter. Send useful advice or special offers in order to make the first sale. The amazing thing about a welcome email flow is that you have to plan and write it only once. After that it will run automatically.

3.     You forget to use Google Analytics

Too many webshops don’t prioritise logging in to Google Analytics regularly. That’s a huge mistake, according to Ole Dalgas:

”Via the Google Analytics code on your site, you get tons of useful information. You’ll know where visitors click and where they don’t. It will help you find out precisely what sales volume your newsletter generates – and that will help you decide whether or not to spend more time writing newsletters. When I recommend people use Google Analytics, I tell them to get better customer data in order to set realistic goals. The same applies for the statistics in your email marketing systems.”

So, make it a habit to check Google Analytics regularly. If you’re not sure how to read the numbers, there’s a lot af help online. Ole recommends:

• Google’s own Google Analytics Academy (free).
• the Danish online marketing portal GoLearn (DKK 299 per month).
• asking questions in groups on social media where marketing and communications professionals are ready to help each other.

4.     You send too few newsletters

In a Heyloyalty study of 60 webshops, almost half sent a newsletter only once a month. If you don’t send more emails than that – and if you don’t segment your emails – it’s hard to keep and engage your customers.

”People are afraid to send too many newsletters – what if people opt out? But provided only 5–8% of your subscribers opt out, you could send more emails. Don’t send irrelevant content. But people can handle more emails if they’re relevant, with offers on exactly the product they’ve been waiting to buy.”

Send more newsletters than you do now, preferably one email per week, or more during campaigns – and even more with the help from automatic triggers activated by customer behaviour and purchases.

But how will you find the time to write those newsletters? This question leads us to the fifth and final point.

5.     You don’t have enough resources allocated to email marketing

Email marketing is still a relatively secret source of income when compared to the time and money you invest in the activity. Heyloyalty finds that customers are surprised to know how much of their income is made through email marketing. If you work strategically and systematically with your data, statistics, automation, and frequent newsletters, that is.

But you can’t do this properly if the resources are not there:

”Facebook and Instagram marketing is not nearly as efficient as emails because you don’t have people’s permission to contact them. Emails work better because you’re not dependent on changes in algorithms. You’ve got more scope with your own subscribers on your own email list. That’s why you shouldn’t economise on email marketing, because it really pays off when done correctly.”

If you don’t have the resources in-house, Ole Dalgas recommends you buy the service you need. It doesn’t have to be a big project, but the investment will pay off for most people.

”If you have a customer who has abandoned the basket, and you have permission to contact him or her, you can set up an automated email saying: ’It looks like you were interrupted, but don’t worry, we’ve saved your order’. One out of 10 customers actually go back and purchase the products after receiving this email. It’s not expensive to get someone to write this email once. It will be sent out automatically and will earn big revenue over time.”

To sum up: if you wish to convert even more leads into customers with your emails, remember these points.

• Get enough data on your subscribers (not just a name and email address).
• Write a good welcome flow, and take great care preparing the welcoming email.
• Keep an eye on the data in Google Analytics.
• Send more newsletters than you probably do at the moment.
• Set aside sufficient resources to make the most of your email marketing efforts – or buy professional help.

And last but not least: make absolutely sure that you comply with GDPR. Not to do so is expensive (and stupid), Ole concludes.