Like most savvy manufacturers out there, you must have invested in email marketing. Right?
After all, email marketing helps improve ROI, traffic, and brand awareness.
Over 70% of manufacturing marketers considered email marketing as an important tool for their growth.
But here comes the million-dollar question—
Do your readers take action and click on your email campaigns as soon as they open the mail and read the content?
Just opening the email won’t do the trick. You need the recipients to do what you want them to do and click on a link, whether you are asking them to order, visit the website or something else.
This is called the click-through rate. And this is what you need to improve. It is the lifeline of your email marketing. Over 50% of email marketing professionals struggle with poor click-through rates. Top of that, over 40% of industrial marketers are not aware of email open rates.
To avoid becoming part of this statistic and instead join the ranks of successful marketers, make sure to ask yourself some important questions before launching email campaigns. What are these questions? Let’s delve into them now.
Question 1: Is Your Email Content Relevant and Valuable to the Audience?
First thing first, ask yourself if your email content resonates with your target audience.
In a sea of promotional emails, consumers are more discerning than ever. They look for content that is informative, relevant, and adds value to their lives. Manufacturers must carefully consider the needs, interests, and pain points of their audience when crafting email content.
Let’s say you’re a manufacturer of tube cutter tools, and you’re planning an email campaign to promote your latest line of products. In this scenario, you need to consider your target demographic which is likely to include metal fabricators and technicians. With this in mind, your email content should focus on benefits of your tube-cutting tools. Specifically the problem they solve and how it will make the customers life better. Here is an example…
Are you tired of dealing with slow, inefficient cutting methods that leave your projects behind schedule? Say goodbye to outdated cutting techniques and hello to cutting-edge innovation with our latest tube cutter featuring cold saw technology!
To enhance relevance and value, segment your email list based on factors such as previous purchases, browsing history, and engagement with past email campaigns.
For instance, you might create separate segments for customers who have purchased your cutting tools before and those who have shown interest but haven’t made a purchase yet.
(ALSO READ HERE: Prospects Don’t Want to Read Your Company Newsletter!)
Question 2: Is Your Email Subject Line Compelling and Engaging?
The subject line plays a crucial role in capturing the attention of recipients and enticing them to open the email. A compelling subject line should be concise, engaging, and relevant to the content of the email.
Manufacturers can improve the performance of their subject lines by A/B testing different variations to determine which ones resonate best with their audience.
Here are some subject lines used by the same tube cutter tools manufacturer we used in the previous point. Each subject line incorporates elements of persuasion, urgency, and curiosity to entice recipients to open the email.
- Subject Line A: “Upgrade Your Tube Cutting Game: Discover Our Latest Innovations Today!”
- Subject Line B: “Last Chance: Exclusive Offer Inside for Tube Cutter Pros!”
- Subject Line C: “Unlock Precision Cutting: Your Tube Cutter Upgrade Awaits!”
- Subject Line D: “Get Ahead with Our Tube Cutter Tools: Limited-Time Deal Inside!”
- Subject Line E: “Don’t Miss Out: Revolutionize Your Workshop with Our Tube Cutters!”
The point is here to experiment and refine your subject lines. It will help you optimize your email open rates, leading to improved click-through rates.
However, it is quite tricky when to ask for sales in your promotional emails. Find your answer here.
Question 3: Do Your Email Designs and Layouts Have Clear Call-to-Action?
Once recipients open an email, the next challenge is to guide them towards taking action.
Manufacturers must ensure that their email designs and layouts are optimized for clear and prominent calls-to-action (CTAs). Whether it’s a button, link, or image, the CTA should stand out visually and be strategically placed within the email content.
When designing email templates, consider factors such as visual hierarchy, contrasting colors, and whitespace to draw attention to the CTA.
Question 4: Are You Leveraging Email Automation and Personalization Effectively?
Email automation and personalization are powerful tools that can help manufacturers deliver targeted, timely, and relevant messages to their audience.
Data and automation tools can help you streamline your email marketing efforts. They can be useful in creating personalized content and nurturing leads throughout the customer journey.
To leverage the impact of email automation and personalization, segment your audience based on factors such as behavior, preferences, and lifecycle stage.
Creating tailored content and offers based on individual interests and actions can improve engagement and drive higher click-through rates.
Question 5: Are You Analyzing and Iterating on Email Marketing Performance?
Make sure to regularly analyze key metrics such as CTR, open rates n, conversion rates and other things. It will help you determine what’s working and what’s not.
Also, make sure to ask for feedback through surveys, pools, and direct communications. It will help you understand the preferences and expectations of your audience better.
Question 6: Are You Making Costly Marketing Mistakes?
Some mistakes in other marketing practices can hurt your email marketing campaign.
Maybe your landing page, the page people see after clicking links in your emails, is confusing and complicated. Or perhaps your website isn’t well organized, especially when it comes to crucial parts like website headers.
Maybe your marketing message is not right. Some marketers forget to use different colors in their emails, which can make them hard to read. Sometimes, small things like these can make a big difference in how successful your marketing is.
The Bottom Line:
Asking these critical questions can help manufacturers gain valuable insights into their email marketing strategies. It is all about creating personalized and compelling content, identifying areas of improvement, and measuring performance.
To ace all marketing for industrial manufacturers, you can download our guide “Costly Marketing Mistakes Most Manufacturers Make”.
