Image by: Ed Yourdon
By Michael Sterling

At the end of 2012, email volume increased 5.4% in all industries. What does this tell us? It tells us that more than ever, people are checking their emails. Not only that. Companies are seeing a higher return rate in revenue per email at an 8% increase. Now that people are using their phones as mobile computers, we have 24-hour access into their lives.

As a business owner, the main concern when it comes to marketing is appealing to every type of costumer you have – and there is a wide variety. A successful email marketing strategy takes common sense and creativity to build into something great. To achieve this, the first step is to know how your customers communicate.

Personalizing For Returns

Here’s a tip: create three to five separate email address books and have them each pertain to a certain industry like travel, business, medical, etc. When you ask for emails, be sure to put a space for them to write what they do for a living. Once you have this information, put them in the appropriate address book.

Make  separate templates – each gearing towards these particular industries. Use rhetoric that would appeal to them. If it’s the travel industry, you can say things like “rewards”, “to-go”, “guest.” For business, you can use words like “company”, “client”, or “deals.” Use lingo that they use in their day to day lives. When clients feel like they are being spoken to personally, it opens a pandora’s box of trust.

Before you send out your email blasts with the latest specials or announcements, you should configure each template accordingly. It won’t take long. The time it takes will pay for itself in returns.

Your Customers Are Your Friends

Customers are people too. They have kids, wives, and dogs – just like everyone else. According to statistics based on findings from Experian Marketing Services, the time of day where people open their emails the most is NOT during mid-morning, which is a common misconception. Instead, it’s 8pm – midnight. 21.7% of people are likely to open their emails during this time. Why is this?

Night time is the time where we are recovering from our day. We aren’t multi-tasking at the office and are relaxed enough to browse through our inbox. It’s a common thing for us to check our email before we go to bed. Consider this fact when you are building your email marketing plan. As men, our brains tend to focus more on the brand and product itself and ignore the marketing side of things.

It’s All In The Timing

Think of your main market. Are they people who work in an office? For this group, the two days in which they check their email the most is on Monday and Friday, but for two different reasons. On Monday, they are usually more focused on taking care of what they missed over the weekend so they take the time to check their inbox a little more thoroughly. On Fridays, it’s a bit more rushed since they are trying to end their day sooner.

According to the Experian poll, the weekends have the most revenue per email. In other words, people buy more things from email blasts during this time. If the goal of your business to sell and announce the latest deals, weekends should be taken advantage of.

Here’s a tip: if you send out email blasts on Saturday morning, you will have a better chance at it being seen since most people are looking for weekend sales during this time. As long as they feel like you are going to make their lives easier, it will always appeal to their eye.