Think Email Marketing is dead? Not even close!

Email marketing in 2019 is still one of the best, most profitable ways to build a lasting relationship with prospective customers. It allows you to stay top of mind, build trust AND authority with minimal effort and cost. New reports show that for every $1 a company spends on email marketing they make about $44 in return. Which makes that an incredible marketing tool.

But some things that used to work don't anymore. So I've put this list together of what's working in 2019 so you don't have to guess and experiment. Put these tips into action and I predict 2019 will be THE year for your business! Here's what's working in email marketing for 2019.

Simple or No Design? When I design email blasts for clients I start to get emails with snippets of images from big store brands marketing campaigns like Nike and Sephora. I get it, of course you would want something that looks amazing for your company. And almost every email provider out there even the cheap sites provide you with templates that are built into the software itself. So, why not just use those templates? It's simple, because they look like one big commercial when they hit your inbox. What is email suppose to be used for? The whole idea is to casually slip into your customers inbox as a friend. Or at least a helpful person who isn't direct selling to them, better yet, guiding them in a direction they want to go. Additionally, when you use those templates, you may wind up in your customers "promotions" tab (spam) due to the images and links in the template. So, when sending out emails skip on the frills. When sending out e-blasts, make it simple and friendly.

Storytelling. Instead of just including a tip or advice in your email include a really short story that illustrates the point. Your email will be more relateable and personable especially if you are referencing something in your own past or that of a past customer. So instead of saying how your clients get their diamond ring cleaned and prongs adjusted to sell faster, add a story about a past customer who refused to do that, then gave in after it sat in a classified ad for 4 months and was ecstatic when she sold her ring for exactly what she was asking. Make it colorful by including your feelings and how your client felt when she finally sold her ring.

Video. Start using videos in your email. Not only in your emails but say so in your subject line. That is going to double your open rate. People are much more likely to consume a video and understand the content (message) your are sending versus reading plain text. And almost everybody is able to retain information when it is seen and heard in a video. And videos no longer have to be high quality either, your smart phone will do the trick.

Play the Hits! So many business really get intimidated when they think about putting together an email series (sequence). But more times than not you already have content that you can re-purpose into an email format. You set up your email series once and it will automatically be sent to new email subscribers the exact moment they opt into it. Blog posts, podcasts, interviews, videos, it all works well when incorporating them into your email series. You build your series once, and it will go on forever.

Simple Segmentation. Say your store offers different types of jewelry that interest different types of customers. By arranging your company’s target market into segmented groups, rather than targeting each potential customer individually, marketers can be more efficient with their time, money, and other resources than if they were targeting consumers on an individual level. Grouping similar consumers together allows marketers to target specific audiences in a cost effective manner. Market segmentation also reduces the risk of an unsuccessful or ineffective marketing campaign. When marketers divide a market based on key characteristics and personalize their strategies based on that information, there is a much higher chance of success than if they were to create a generic campaign and try to implement it across all segments. Marketers can also us segmentation to prioritize their target audiences. If segmentation shows that some consumers would be more likely to buy a diamond teeth grill than others, marketers can better allocate their attention and resources.

Re-Engaging or Scrubbing your List. A large email list is great, but a quality list is better. Your looking for your list to be filled with those who are looking forward to opening your emails every week. If you have a large list of people who aren't ever really opening your emails you run the risk as being seen as "spam," or getting high unsubscribe rates. This is a huge red flag to the email providers and what they will start doing is moving you out of the in box and start putting you into the promotions tab or even worse your email may wind up in the spam folder. That goes for all subscribers on your email list, not just those who are unsubscribing. The other benefit of scrubbing your email list is cost. You are billed on how many subscribers you have, so it makes sense to weed out dead weight.