Email marketing in an economic slowdown- 6 ways to pivot and stay on top of the game

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Email marketing in an economic slowdown- 6 ways to pivot and stay on top of the game

In an economy as transient as Cinderella’s carriage, marketers are often the first to witness budget cuts. But does that mean that, as a brand owner, you should let go of your email marketing campaign? Well, it’s a fact that businesses that persist with their email marketing campaigns in the bleakest of times are the ones who enjoy the brightest sunshine when things improve. 

The infographic below sheds light on the power of email marketing when deployed correctly and strategically. 

Source 

Today, we have compiled a list of actionable tips and tricks to help you stay on top of your game even when the odds are against you. 

  1. Collect Customer Centric Data:

The entire marketing campaign should be curated with the data that the customer brings to you with their unique behavior, wants, and desires.

Data mined from consumer behavior on your website offers deep insights into what they are looking for! This, in turn, helps you create better customer segmentation, personalized email content, and special offers for each segment. 

With a detailed analysis of customer data, you gain answers to questions like,

  • Who has the buying intent?
  • What are the triggers that help consumers make a purchase?
  • What is the AOV (Average Order Value)?
  • What is the time period between the first and the next purchase?
  • If they are unsubscribing from your email list, what triggered them to do so?
  • What categories of products appeal to each segment the most?
  • What kind of email content do they enjoy reading the most, blogs, guides, ebooks, or white papers?

This list is not exhaustive but indicative of the kinds of questions good consumer data analytics can help you with. Once you have a clearer picture of what your target audience expects from the brand, your emails will have a better click-through rate, and the investment you make in scheduling the campaign, even in the face of recession, will yield results.

  1. Nurture and protect profit margins by better targeting of consumer audiences: 

To quote Tom Richards of Bloomreach, “Understanding the customers is absolutely everything; we need to be able to respond to changing segments in real-time.”

And one of the best ways to gain a thorough understanding of the diverse buyer personas interacting with your brand, is to segment your email list. Divide your subscribers into different segments on the basis of several factors like age, gender, occupation, geographic location, browsing patterns, past purchases, interests and preferences, and position in the sales funnel. 


Additionally, always keep in mind the fact that customer segments are constantly evolving and fluid. So, you can’t afford to be rigid with your segmentation framework. You might be formulating it, but it is the customer who dictates its terms; never lose sight of that. As a savvy email marketer, you need to stay abreast with the changing demands of the forever-evolving consumer segments. Deliver the right content, at the right time, to the right pair of eyeballs! 

  1. Channelize your fear of deliverability into FOMO on better ROIs!

Yes, the economy is not in the pink of health, and you’d rather not invest in an apparently “sinking” ship. But think about it, the fear of getting the cadence wrong or getting lower email open rates might be keeping you from tapping into potentially unrealized ROI. Now this is a bus you don’t wanna miss!

Adam Purslow of TheLoyaltyCo makes a case in point, “A client of ours sent out a small amount of highly personalized emails. Deliverability and open rates were great because the emails made subscribers feel like we were talking to them. As long as you’re clever with personalization, deliverability will not be an issue.”

Figuring out the right cadence takes time and smart work. Club both along with highly personalized content and your email marketing strategy should help you make that dough even when the going gets tough.

  1. Stop relying on third-party platforms and communicate directly with clients: 

If you are not a fan of how organic reach has taken a hit on popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook and you aren’t happy with being unable to maintain a direct line of communication with your valued pre-existing and prospective customers, then maybe you need to take a more direct approach. This is why email is so popular among marketers. Unlike social media platforms, email marketing makes it possible for you to implement personalization on scale, thereby paving the path for long-lasting customer relationships. 

When you deliver amazing value, in the form of well-thought-out email content, you can be assured of your message striking a chord with your intended audience. Employ ways to ensure your messages make it past the spam box and that your campaign stands up to the needs of the hour. 

  1. Law of sticking with the familiar:

Consumer memory is fickle and people tend to stick to brands that regularly show up and have built trust. 

Make it a point to show up in the mailbox, even if it is just to say a warm hello or send spring season greetings. However, at the same time, do ensure to offer some value with your communication as well. A simple hello can always be paired up with relevant information regarding a best-seller product, right? Or it can contain recommendations based on their past purchases and browsing histories, too; I’m sure you get the idea.  Customers tend to trust those who maintain visibility and deliver on promises. In a nutshell, always figure out a way to stay on your customers’ radars. It goes a long way!

The above email by Magic Spoon springs lovely spring surprises and bundled packages. One can take inspiration from this and craft similarly aesthetic emails. 

  1. Testing the waters every now and then:

You cannot stop testing if you want to pitch in your best game. Keep experimenting and stay consistent with your A/B testing routine, whether it is about pre-headings that do better, determining what kind of email content works best for a particular segment, or identifying the best-performing version of your CTA button. An email strategist Jennifer Hoth says, “[Your audience] is always changing, especially in times like these. I appreciate being able to do A/B testing and to find out what tone works best with customers, and it doesn’t cost what it would take to install a new technology.”

It is important to keep up with consumer demands so that you can package your bundle in a neat, undeniably attractive way that lures the right customer base straight to the doors of our webshop.

Summary

When the economy ain’t looking good, it becomes all the more important to double down your existing revenue streams, rather than launching new ones. This begins by investing in building a loyal consumer base, not for a couple of years but for generations to come. Think, Apple, Disney, Nike; you get the drift!

And the only smart way to do this is to up your email game, by wrapping your heads comprehensively around your customers’ evolving needs and desires in the fickle age we live in! An email can be modified on demand to appeal to the exact need of the customer as and when it arises. Consumer behavior analytics is the buzzword here. Would you like to hire professionals to look into your email marketing needs, with minimal TAT and 99.98% accuracy? Then, Email Uplers has the perfect repertoire of intellectual resources for you! 

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About the Author

Kevin George
Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion and free responsive HTML email templates in addition to providing email automation, campaign management, and data integration & migration services. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.