Back from the Dead: How to Revive Your Email Campaigns

You’re probably familiar with the flood of promotional emails that come through your inbox. All sorts of different brands spouting “a brand-new deal, just for you!”  While it’s difficult to know how yours can stand out from the crowd, executing the right email campaigns can keep new and loyal customers coming back for more. If you feel like your previous emails have been doing nothing but digging their own graves, it might be time to revive your campaigns from the dead.

Start with a Revival Strategy

Before your brand gets hasty sending out another slew of emails, it’s important to begin with some basic building blocks. There are several key questions to ask yourself when starting to develop your team’s email revival strategy:

1. What is causing the need for new email campaigns?

Your team may be noticing a stagnant or declining ROI, or a big increase in people clicking that dreaded unsubscribe button. Either way, acknowledging this first question helps to bring up conversations of what didn’t work with previous email campaigns. If you’re able to address any possible issues with your emails, there’s a better chance implementing new solutions to those problems will help the next round of emails succeed.

2. Who is your target audience?

This is another big one, since you’ll want to cater your new email campaign to your brand’s key audiences. Emails tailored towards potential buyers hoping to learn more, brand new buyers, and die-hard loyalists will always look a little different. Once you identify whose inbox your material is going into, you can then decide what they’re going to see.

3. What is the message you are trying to get across?

With your separate target audience(s) in mind, figure out what message your new emails are trying to convey. This could mean advertising a new product, logo, or company goal to inform the person on the receiving end. Another option could simply be an email sent to everyone with the goal of regaining exposure, so that your brand’s name remains top of mind among potential buyers.

4. What digital assets might you need?

Alongside your email copy, you’ll also need to assess what kinds of eye-catching photos and/or graphics will work best. If your email includes a new or specific product, decide how to showcase that product in a way that captures the attention of the person meant to see it. This step requires some extra collaboration, so it’s important to identify the assets you’ll need in advance. This helps the process run quickly and efficiently.

By answering all four of these questions clearly, your creative team will have a better idea of the vision for the email campaign and how to make it more successful this time around.

Craft the Perfect Emails to Expedite

Now it’s time to get the ball rolling! After you’ve pinpointed the downfalls of your previous emails and how you’re going to execute your strategy, you can begin putting that plan into action. No matter the reason for your new email campaign, you’ll want to make sure you’re looping the customer in on the situation. This way, the customer can relate to the brand more, and feel like they are a part of the revival.

Here are a couple of inbox header ideas to draw them in:

• Sorry to keep you waiting…
• New and improved!
• We just got a makeover/uplift
• Back and better than ever!

In the stage of creating your new email campaigns, personalization is a good way to keep interest at its peak. With new members, your emails could be geared towards giving them a new member offer or rundown of the brand. For casual buyers or those on the fence with purchases, your email could remind them of certain product they’ve looked at in the past, a tactic also known as remarketing. If you’re dealing with your repeat customer audience, the email might be a little less formal or include things like exclusive loyalty deals.

How Revamping Emails Increases Your ROI

Don’t underestimate the power email campaigns have when it comes to return on investment! They often prove to have higher conversion rates than any other marketing tactics, and here’s why:

Emails are cost effective

Compared to social media advertisements, large signs, and other printed material, emails are generally inexpensive to create, making them budget-friendly. This is because they require just a fraction of time and resources to develop that similar, eye-catching content. When you see a successful sale happen through email campaigns, you will notice there’s more money in your pocket than there would be with the other forms of brand advertising.

You’ll see an increase in website traffic

Every good marketer knows that generating website traffic can pose many challenges. Maybe that’s trouble with SEO, gaining social media traction, or website ranking. Nonetheless, almost everyone uses email as a main form of communication. With your campaigns being sent directly to inboxes of people who have already shown interest in the brand, click rates to landing pages prove to be much higher. This, in turn, frequently generates more sales.

Keeping Your Audience Hooked Long-Term

Now comes the tricky part: figuring out when to send those win-back emails! The timing and frequency of your campaigns also plays a role in exposure and ROI. Sending too many in a short time frame could potentially turn away customers and leave them with a negative association of the brand. But not sending emails frequently enough can result in less sales since the exposure becomes limited. Even worse, a potential buyer may end up forgetting about certain products or services offered. The simple solution is to keep your emails consistent, but know when to back off.

Throughout the entire course of your email revival, you’ll want to continue looking at the successes and downfalls of your new campaign. It’s no secret that you’ll get many who are truly interested in your brand while simultaneously getting many who are not (and that’s okay!). As long as you’re getting more positive reinforcement than negative, you’re doing something right. If you end up encountering the opposite and don’t see an improvement with your new campaign, there’s no shame in trying new things until you get the results you want.

Let Us Give Your Emails a Makeover

If you need help giving your email campaigns new life, our email experts have the heavy lifting covered. Our team is dedicated to making sure your branded emails are always fresh and intriguing to potential buyers. Whether it be new products, a special offer, subscription emails and more, we craft each individual message with your customer in mind.  Roger West knows the right way to refresh your email campaigns. Want to see your ROI skyrocket? Let’s talk.