Email marketing is still one of the most powerful marketing channels. Everyone uses email daily for shopping, submitting resumes or checking flight details. Although everyone uses email, figuring out how to leverage email marketing seems to be an enigma. In this post, I want to break down four strategies that we use that generate thousands of dollars for our clients.

Timely Campaigns Generate Revenue

Creating campaigns that hit prospects at the times they normally open emails is powerful. The saying “timing is everything” holds true in email marketing. First, you need to have a CRM that allows you to track open rates by an individual subscriber. Next, focus on running reports on campaigns to see what times of day most emails are opened. In addition test different times of day and week to see optimal open rates.

You want to see what patterns emerge from your campaigns. Combine this with anecdotal knowledge you’ve gathered from your industry and create a plan of attack. As a result, you can allow the data to drive your decisions on the best time to send emails.

Focus on Providing a Solution

Focus on providing a solution to your market needs. For example, Ask yourself and your customer what’s the problem you can solve. You’ll notice amongst your audience, some groups will have different problems. Take this information and brainstorm with your team on how to engrain this in your emails. Spend time writing down word for word how your audience describes their problem. Write down some of the words they use and how they use them in context. This process is long and tedious but the results will be tremendous.  Your messaging needs to come across as if you took the words right out of their mouths.

We take time to call or email our subscribers to have conversations around their needs. Our team is obsessed with truly understanding our prospects. This means what they like, dislike or what they fear. In conclusion, when you get to the granular details you gain insight. You need granular insight to create lasting results.

Test Every Part of Your Email

Everything you test creates an opportunity to be improved. An email consists of two main parts: the body and the subject line. The body contains many subcomponents that can have an impact on your engagement. Some of these components include images, buttons, colors, font styles and more. It’s your job to discover how to utilize these components to get maximum customer engagement. You want recipients opening emails, clicking the links and signing up for offers.

The only way you figure out what works versus what doesn’t is testing. With any robust CRM, you should be able to test these variables. There’s no magic to this but testing and adjusting based on results. Split testing is a method that will help you gain insight from subscriber’s behavior. For example, send out an email with an emoji in the subject line to half of your subscribers and the remaining without an emoji. Focus on powerful and emotional words. You want to get people to open your emails. (Free download A/B Test Calculator)

All the information in your email has little impact if the recipient doesn’t open them. The subject line is the most critical part of your email. With this in mind, you need a compelling reason for someone to open your email. This leads to the question of how do you create a compelling subject line?

You start by making sure what you’re sharing is relevant to your audience. For example, if you have great relationships with your subscribers, call them and ask what they’re interested in reading. In addition, research what your audience engages with on social media. I would go as far as studying your website traffic to uncover trends. In conclusion, whatever information you can find will help you paint a better picture.

Mapping Your Customer Journey

Mapping your customer journey is one of the most overlooked steps in email marketing. You should know the road your contacts take to become a customer. In fact, this customer map should be written down step by step. For example, we start every client with a customer mapping exercise. As a result, we have a framework for how things are currently done.

Next, we focus on what areas of the customer journey can be improved. For instance, we break this process down by asking three main questions.

1. Can this step be automated?
2. Can this messaging be more personalized?
3. Is there an opportunity to engage more with the customer?

Consequently, answering these questions changes the way you interact with your customers and leads to higher conversion rates. Your ultimate goal of the email should be increasing the connection while converting subscribers to customers. Take time to test everything about your emails. In addition, document what’s working versus what’s not. As a result, you will start to see results with dedication and consistency.

Alex Brooks is the founder and CEO of AE Brooks, LLC (d/b/a, Entreprov), a Seattle-based firm that builds marketing automation tools to help businesses increase customer retention and engagement. Sign up for our newsletter to learn more customer engagement strategies.