Email marketing is a popular marketing strategy that can come to fruition without a budget. However, with the number of emails a regular person receives, it is important to set yourself apart in order to run a successful campaign.
According to MailChimp, the average email open rate is around 21,33%, while the average click rate is 2,62%. But don’t worry, there are ways to change that. If you struggle with your click rate, check out our tips for maximizing psychology tips in your email marketing strategy.
Tapping into Email Psychology
The first thing you need to tap into when putting together an email marketing strategy is who your target audience is. That is why you need to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a fictionalized version of the person that embodies all the characteristics you prescribe to your target audience.
Once you get to know your audience’s habits, needs and lifestyle it will be easy for you to personalize your message and find a way to let your customers ease in.
Personalize your message
The advantage of email marketing is the customer data you have access to. Knowing their preferences helps so much since modern customers appreciate a personalized touch. That being said, you should definitely include your client’s name, and personalize it in a way that indicates special status.
A good example of that would be referring to a makeup store customer as the “CEO of cat-eyes”, referring to their last purchase. It’s the little things that make all the difference! Remember, there’s no gatekeeping the secrets of marketing, meaning when your customers see what your competition is doing, they’ll expect the same from you.
Try including special offers based on customers browsing history. You can highlight their recently viewed products and even suggest products that will go well with the ones they purchased.
Let your customers ease in
What is popularly called the foot-in-the-door technique, works by firstly asking people to accomplish a small task and after that getting to the real task at hand. There are a number of ways you can let customers ease in with email marketing.
One common solution that marketers use is a double opt-in process for signing up for newsletters, meaning that when a user enters their email address, you send them a confirmation link. These two small acts prepare the user for future emails and each contact you make with them warms them up to your brand, making it more likely they’ll buy from you in the future.
You can try this method with your own variation, like making it a 3 step process, by awarding a new subscriber with a free item if they pay for shipping and later on advertising a high-end product.
Psychology Tips for your next Cold Sales Emails
The 3 best practices for cold emailing that tap into the minds of your prospects are social proof, FOMO and reciprocity. Let us show you how you can incorporate them in your next email campaign.
Social proof
Social proof is one of the most used psychology tactics, and if you think about it, you’ve probably used it in your previous campaigns. Social proof means using a real person to provide an example of an experience potential clients could have. This type of strategy shows that there are real people who use and enjoy your product/service.
The best way to get this point across in an email is with testimonials. Look for user-generated content on review sites like Yelp, but also engage in social listening and find out what people are saying about your brand on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc.
Once you accumulate positive reviews from different sources, you can regularly use them in your messaging, both in email and on social media. This strategy will not only engage your audience but also create a community centred around your brand.
The way we use social proof is by presenting a case study that describes how our client Bean Ninjas closed 70% of proposals submitted through Better Proposals resulting in an additional $8k or almost 6 figures annually!
The biggest benefit of this type of approach is that potential customers get to hear about your brand from a third-party, making them a more reliable source, as well as bringing the human factor forefront.
By making your customers your brand ambassadors, you’re bringing more credibility to your claims and you’re establishing your brand as an authority in your industry.
Whenever possible, try and use real people to talk about your brand, not just because it feels more personable but because at the end of the day, people are the ones that are buying from you, not corporations.
FOMO
FOMO or fear of missing out is a widely used psychology trick. It’s used to awaken a sense of light anxiety that something is about to happen that the targeted person is about to miss if they don’t take you up on your offer.
The best examples of using FOMO in email marketing are newsletters with a countdown. No matter the advertised product or service, the fact that the offer comes with a time limit makes it more desirable.
Another way is to point out how many product units you already sold and how many you still have in stock. Showing that other people already own your product and that you only have a certain number of the same product to sell will induce FOMO.
Testimonials also come into play here. You can use positive reviews to show how others have benefited from your product or service, i.e. showing your potential clients what they’re missing out on.
Reciprocity
The art of the “free product” may be the best-kept marketing secret. Although it may sound counterintuitive, it’s actually more cost-effective to offer a free product, or free trial because there’s a higher chance of purchase if the user feels like they are being rewarded for establishing a connection with the brand.
Sending high value or exclusive content to your subscribers without being asked is the best way to trigger reciprocity. This basically means that it’s in our nature to want to respond to a free product or service with an action that will benefit the other side. Giving away a free ebook, for example, will lead more people to follow your CTA, because they feel they’re getting something in return.
Email Psychology Examples and Templates
Here are a few examples of emails you can use for your brand. The first one focuses on reciprocity, while the second one uses FOMO to lay down its message.
#1 Example
Hello, [insert name]
I understand that you’re interested in learning about social media marketing, so I wanted to share my free ebook on the subject.
It covers everything from content creation to advertising and even influencer marketing and you can download it with the link – [insert link].
If you like it, please consider following me on Facebook [insert a link to Facebook page] and LinkedIn [insert a link to LinkedIn] where I share even more information you’ll surely find helpful.
Have a great day.
#2 Example
Hello, [Insert name]
Are you an avid runner? Because we’re looking for one that would love to take advantage of our seasonal sale on running shoes!
Be sure to move quickly, because the offer runs out at midnight! See what we did there? Make sure to catch this opportunity before we run out of stock. [insert link]
See you on the running track!
To conclude
There are different tools you can use to up your email strategy. Picking out the best strategy for you relies on your target audience, your short term and long term goals and the way your audience responds to your efforts.
Whichever strategy you choose, you’ll have to keep analyzing and studying the results to truly understand what works and what doesn’t. Our suggestion is to try combining strategies to quickly filter out what works.
Focus on your messaging first and once you are happy with the written parts, take time to play with the design and test out how different colours affect your click rate.
Now that you’re familiar with different ways of using psychology in your emails, from language to numbers and much more, you can get to the fun part and start using them in your campaigns. And always remember that it is important to set yourself apart in order to run a successful campaign.
Author bio:
Petra Odak is a Chief Marketing Officer at Better Proposals, a simple yet incredibly powerful proposal software tool that helps you send high-converting, web-based business proposals in minutes. She’s a solution-oriented marketing enthusiast with more than 5 years of experience in various fields of marketing and project management.
