Just because we have been without conferences the last year plus doesn’t mean there isn’t educational data being released that can improve your performance. Since email marketing and email templates (as well as text templates) continue to be a focus of what DealerKnows does for their clients, we keep our ears to the ground to listen for trends. This pandemic has had no influence over the power of email. But mobile has.
When I talk “email marketing”, there are two ways to look at it.
1) Campaign emails, heavily-html formatted, image heavy, as if it were a webpage or digital ad. They should always be built this way. But this rarely will appear like a one-to-one conversation between company and customer, regardless how “personalized” it is.
2) Email templates, simple, plain text, with a simple theme that answers the customers questions in hopes of carrying on a personal conversation in a consultative manner. These are what email templates should be and this is what I will reference below when I talk about adapting your templates to a mobile world.
Let me drop some email marketing data released recently…
Per Statista, 81% of Americans look at their email at random times of the day, with 19% of those checking their inbox several times a day. In other words, mobile devices aren’t solely used for text. Consumers still seek out valuable info in email form.
Per Litmus, 42% of all emails are opened on a mobile device. What does this mean for you?
No more giant headers in your emails. No more long-winded intros to your emails to clients. No more insertion of “brochures” and endless links, image-collages, and extra wordy emails. Not unless they benefit from being wordy. Each email should have one topic only.
Moreover, eliminate all the unnecessary html formatting that makes you think you look professional. (Unless it is a campaign email or newsletter like this one). When building email templates, think plain-text, not fancy. Provide value at the beginning of the email’s introduction, and don’t hesitate to text them after receiving an alert that their email was just opened. Those are just a few quick ways to put this data to work.
In the end, email marketing is still a valuable tool for your organization to embrace. You should be emailing, calling, texting, sending videos, and leaning on any medium necessary to reach the shopper and get your message across. Texting is simple and sexy (and we give countless text templates for our clients), but that doesn’t mean to overlook email. Email offers higher click-thru rates than social media engagement and email open rates will continue to be higher than answered calls. Provided you aren’t trying to turn your email into the look and feel of a digital ad, you can still be successful in this mobile world.
