5 Ways That Every Business Should Be Utilizing Email in 2021

One of the things that remained efficient during the ongoing pandemic is email marketing. If anything, it has expanded to cover the rising demand. With billions of people being forced to stay indoors, their daily needs need to find a way to reach them, and that way is, in most cases, online shopping and delivery.

Businesses that have recognized the trend and switched to online sales and boosted their email marketing campaigns have made considerable profits. What’s even better news is that many people who didn’t use to shop online are likely to continue doing it after the pandemic now that they know how convenient it is.

Email Marketing Stats

Various 2020 stats show that:

•       102.6 trillion emails are being sent annually
•       The average subscriber receives 13 emails per day
•       99% of email users check new emails daily, up to 20 times a day
•       At least half of the read email are being accessed on mobile devices
•       40% of people younger than 18 always open new emails on mobile devices
•       81% of mobile email readers use mobile phones and the rest use tablets
•       23% of mobile email users will open an email again
•       There’s 65% likelihood that a re-read email will result in a clickthrough
•       42.3% of people will delete emails not optimized for mobile devices
•       77% of B2B companies send email marketing newsletters
•       79% of B2B marketers find email marketing to be the most effective content distribution channel
•       B2B emails are 23% more likely to be opened than B2C emails
•       49% of businesses automate their email marketing campaigns
•       74% of email recipients like personalized emails and shun irrelevant content

As you can see, the importance of email can hardly be exaggerated. That’s why it’s tremendously important to plan your email campaigns well and stay on top of things in the long run. This basically means keeping in contact with your customers, listening to feedback and implementing necessary changes. Lastly, it’s crucial to remember that audiences change over time, so brainstorm your target groups. While instant messaging is popular among frontline and retail businesses, that doesn’t mean that there still isn’t a place for email.

Here are some ideas how to best utilize email in 2021.

1. Make Use of Transactional Emails

Transactional emails generate six times more revenue and get eight times more clicks than any other type of emails. What’s more, transactional emails also have considerably higher engagement rates than marketing emails.

That’s not too surprising if we keep in mind that the purpose of a transactional email is to expedite a previously agreed transaction. That’s why it’s crucial that transactional emails should not be used for any form of advertising. These messages should feature only relevant information — nothing more and nothing less.

Unlike other email types, transactional emails do not feature an unsubscribe button, which increases your business’ presence and removes the possibility for unsubscription. Common transactional emails include shipping notifications, order confirmation, delivery confirmation, password reset and legal update emails.

2. Cross-Promotions

Cross-promotions are the fastest way to increase your brand’s online visibility and reach wider audiences in a fast and efficient manner. Common practices include sharing email content on relevant social media profiles.

Many people are used to posting queries via social media, so make an effort to respond promptly. This is, in fact, the easiest way for a potential client to assess your services, as nobody likes to wait for a response for days on end.

Finally, social media is tremendously popular among younger generations, meaning your content will get widely shared if this is your target group (or one of your target groups), which will, in turn, additionally boost your brand’s visibility.

However, note that company communication should not take place on social media — email is always a preferred option. For one thing, emails are more convenient because they can be sent to multiple people without compromising their privacy (hiding email addresses, e.g.) and because they can be edited or even unsent with ease.

3. Optimize Your Email Campaigns

Optimization basically means that you send only responsive emails. The same should apply to your website for best results. You can find the reason for this in the statistics mentioned above. The number of mobile users is projected to keep growing, so email optimization is sort of an investment into a stable future.

If you’re unfamiliar with optimization, you can use templates to help you get started. These are abundant, highly customizable and mostly free. By listening to client feedback, you should be able to come up with the best practice in no time.

Make certain to optimize all parts of the email — including subject lines and pre-headers. Subject lines should not be cut, meaning that they shouldn’t exceed the count of 41 characters.

Finally, test-send your messages. Different devices display the same message differently (the same applies to different OSs).

4. Structure Your Emails Properly

All emails you send should be literate and to the point. Keep images to a minimum because mobile device users don’t look favorably on emails that consume bandwidth. Lastly, advertise one offer per email, and make certain it is relevant.

For example, use newsletters to announce an upcoming offer, but not all offers for the next six months.

Every email should feature the following:

•       Clear and concise subject line (uncut)
•       Brilliant pre-header text
•       Consistent message body
•       A call to action button (or, alternatively, a link)
•       An unsubscribe button
•       Company contact information

5. Ask for Feedback

Lastly, in order to use email to its full potential, make sure to listen to customers’ feedback. To do that, however, you need to first ask for it.

Don’t be afraid to ask! Many people are, actually, in favor of it, as it shows that your business is serious and cares about its customers.

Conclusion

Email is still the best way to keep your audience informed about many things, it would seem, and you can even use email to stay organized and manage projects. It is preferable to social media because it is more private, but it also allows for more profound communication.

Emails should not be misused, however, no matter how great they may seem. If you’re sending too many messages, people will start unsubscribing or simply block your emails as spam.

Be moderate, ask for feedback, and adjust your strategy as needed – that’s the winning combination to using email to its full potential.