Before we dive into several methods of generating backlinks through email marketing let’s take a moment and understand why you are doing it. The main reason you need to create backlinks is because you want to drive traffic to your website.
Your website is often the crown jewel of your business because it represents your company’s digital presence. As a hub for your business, your website often contains information about your products, services, culture, and most importantly your branding.
While there are various methods of using traditional SEO methods to generate backlinks to your website, many content marketers have yet to explore ways to generate backlinks from email marketing. Increasing visibility is crucial for any business and since you have worked so hard on your website, why not show it off. Follow these 6 hacks to get more backlinks from email marketing.
Engaging content
In a 1996 essay, Bill Gates coined the term “Content is King.” The above infographic is just a short but informative snapshot of what goes on within 60 seconds on the web. As you can see, there is so much going on that it’s going to be difficult to stand out as a brand. Instead of mass producing content, focus on creating quality content.
Although content marketing is not a new concept, in recent years digital marketers have strategically used content marketing to advertise their products and services through the web. Content is just as important when it comes to email marketing, whether it’s videos, images, taglines and perhaps even emoji – use whatever is needed to reach out to your audience.
For example, every minute, 1440 WordPress blogs are published and 500 hours of content are upload to YouTube. Therefore, the competition is steep which means that you need to work harder just to attract your customer’s attention. Create engaging content through storytelling and if possible include videos or infographics in your emails. Four times as many consumers would prefer to watch a video rather than reading about it.
Have a clear backlink leading back to your website or article
While this advice might seem obvious, sometimes we get caught up in designing and formatting our emails that we forget the primary reason as to why we are doing it in the first place.
Since a company’s website is the most powerful marketing tool, always make sure to include a backlink within your emails so customers can visit your website or blog articles. Pay attention to broken links as some hyperlinks might not display correctly.
Prior to sending out emails to your customers, always test your emails to ensure all your links are working through desktop viewing as well as through mobile devices. If you are unsure what to include in your email marketing campaigns, have a look at some of these email templates.
Know your target audience
Depending on your industry, your business might have a different way to communicate. The statistics above show the percentage of users that communicate through emails on their mobile phones in accordance to their sector. Shown interestingly through the numbers, TV/Radio/Film has an opening rate of 71.89% while wholesale has the lowest opening rate at only 26.88%.
The way we communicate has drastically changed over the last decade. As a brand, you need to know your target audience and understand the best methods to reach your consumers. Many companies often have a niche market in which they will find the most loyal customers.
For example, a company such as Snapchat has a younger audience in comparison to a company like LinkedIn; therefore, the way these companies communicate will be remarkably different. According to a report by Experian, 56% of brands that use emoji in their email subject lines had a higher open rate. In addition, consumers who purchase products through email spend 138% more than those who don’t receive email offers. As a result, it’s critical to know your audience and create content that engages them.
Optimize for mobile devices
According to research, more individuals of all ages are reading emails more through their mobile phones than their desktops. About 3 in 5 consumers check their emails through their phones and 75% say they use their smartphone frequently just to check their email. Whether it’s design or content, make sure that your emails are properly formatted and can be displayed on all devices.
Some of your readers might be reading your emails from a tablet or a phone; therefore, make sure that your messages are displaying correctly without any formatting issues. According to the latest research, 61% of users open their emails through their mobile, 15% on desktop and 24% in a webmail client. Some customers have opted to receive text only on their mobile phones, so consider how your emails might display to these customers. Studies show that titles with 6-13 words attract the highest and most consistent amount of traffic.
Guide your customers
Make sure that you are able to solve your customer’s problems and provide them with solutions through your offerings. Include a call to action within your emails. Creating an engaging digital marketing campaign will ensure that your customer will have a seamless customer experience and continue to engage with your email marketing offers.
Consumers often expect a business to solve their problems; therefore, by knowing more about your customers’ pain points you can provide them with products and services that match their needs. In the end, customers can walk away with a purchase that meets their needs.
Improve customer experience
Customer experience is important not only when your customers are dealing with your website or mobile app but whenever they are dealing with your company as a whole. Since emails are essentially an extension of your company’s marketing offers, you should also focus on improving customer experience here. There are roughly about 269 billion emails sent in 2017; therefore, it’s important to focus on the quality of your emails rather than quantity.
By improving customer experience, you can improve customer service and maintain high customer ratings. Gartner predicts that more than 50% of organizations will redirect their investments to customer experience innovations in 2018. As a company, you can stand out by improving your customer’s user experience the moment they interact your emails.
According to research, the opening rate for email sent in North America is 34.1%. What’s more? Improving customer experience is the new battlefield for many companies as 89% of businesses are soon expected to compete mainly on customer experience and companies that take this concept seriously will stand out from the competition.
Conclusion
Email marketing can be a powerful option for your business to grow and gain visibility online. Like the old saying, less is more, so focus on quality rather than quantity when reaching out to your customers through emails.
By improving user experience through your email marketing strategy, you can continue to maintain a strong relationship with your current customers and reach out to a new targeted audience. According to research, 52% of customers are less likely to engage with a company due to bad mobile experience. Therefore, make sure that your emails are optimized for mobile viewing and have a good layout with crucial elements such as header, titles, and images.
By following these email marketing tips and paying attention to the latest marketing trends, you can be well on your way to increase traffic to your website as well as improving your email opening rates.
This is a guest post by Sarah Saker.