It’ll come as no surprise to hear that customers receive a lot of emails. 

And when we say a lot, we mean a lot. In fact, the average number of unread emails in an inbox at any given time is 200.

So, if your brand is embarking on email marketing campaigns, is all hope lost? Not at all! It’s all about sending the right type of email, or to put it more bluntly, sending emails your customers actually care about.

A mammoth 99% of consumers check their inbox every single day. But with emails having an average open rate of just 20.56% – combined with the fact that nearly 22% of engaged customers open an email within the first hour of it being sent – the need to entice, engage and satisfy your customers through email is clear for all to see.

Here are six ways you can utilise purposeful email marketing to grow your community.

Welcome messages

Whether welcoming a new customer following their first order or thanking a new subscriber immediately post-signup, welcome emails serve two distinct purposes.

Firstly, they provide reassurance to the customer – their signup was successful, their account has been created, their order has been confirmed.

Secondly, welcome emails can serve as a warm embrace to new members of your community. Introduce who you are, what you’re about and why your customer should join you. Do it right, and you may have sparked a new long-lasting relationship.

The proof’s in the pudding when it comes to welcome emails, too. More than 8 in 10 consumers will open a welcome email, generating 4x as many opens and 10x as many clicks as other email formats.

With this in mind, seize the opportunity to inspire customers and drive action – whatever form that desired action may take.

Promotional offers 

‘Customers like promotions’ is perhaps email marketing’s worst-kept secret.

But the fact of the matter is that customers like promotions so much that promotional emails are an all-but-guaranteed way to bolster your open rates, click-through rates and, ultimately, conversions.

Email marketing is often the most lucrative channel to shout about any promotions on the horizon. That’s because your email leads have already expressed some form of interest in your brand, whether through signing up to your newsletter, placing orders or being an active member of your brand community.

However, it’s key to remember: no matter how much customers like promos, nobody likes spam. 

With this in mind, don’t overload customers’ inboxes with ‘sale, sale, sale’. Instead, find a creative way to communicate friendly reminders about sales and offers that doesn’t feel spammy or intrusive.

Ensure every email is offering something unique and valuable to your customer. For example, if you’ve already notified a user of a sale, don’t notify them again until there are new products, further reductions or some other additional incentive.

Discount codes 

Businesses often think they know exactly what their customers want. In fact, according to a recent survey, 84% of small businesses are “very” or “extremely” confident they know what their customers want.

Yet the data suggests otherwise. While small business owners placed customer wellbeing check-ins at the top of their customers’ priority lists, the customers themselves begged to differ – with 67% placing coupons and discounts at the top of the list.

So, what’s the appeal of a discount code? Well, to state the obvious: customers like money off. But the advantage discount codes hold over promotional offers is the element of personalisation they allow.

If you’re promoting a discount code to a specific segment of your audience, make sure you shout about it. From rewarding high-value customers to working to win back disengaged ex-buyers, ensure your customers know that you’ve targeted them specifically. 

The advantages of this are twofold. Firstly, consumers like exclusivity – don’t be afraid to play up to this by including words such as ‘exclusive’, ‘secret’ or ‘personal’ in your email content. 

Secondly, consumers like personalisation. By telling them why they’ve received a code, you’re offering a tailored brand experience that’s likely to win more community members as a result.

Personalised suggestions 

On the topic of personalisation, according to a recent survey by Bluecore, 74% of baby boomers believe email is the most personal channel to receive communications from brands. This is generally agreed across generations, with 72% of Gen X, 64% of millennials and 60% of Gen Z believing the same.

With this in mind, don’t be afraid to get personal in your emails as a means of driving engagement and growing your community. Not only that – with 70% of millennials being frustrated with brands sending irrelevant emails, personalised emails are a sure-fire way to demonstrate relevance and, most importantly of all, value.

How do you do it right? Drill down into your customers’ behaviours, interests and habits and use this as your inspiration.

For example, 56% of online shoppers are more likely to return to a website that recommends products. So, based on your customers’ previous browsing and order history, why not suggest similar or complementary products and services? Alternatively, if customers are engaging with particular content, why not recommend further relevant resources and information?

Cart abandonment 

Cart abandonment emails provide a tried and tested means of driving email engagement. Why? Because customers care about them!

Cart abandonment emails hold a trump card – your customers have demonstrated some form of intent. Whether they intended to buy later or simply forgot to buy at the time, cart abandonment emails are a friendly nudge often welcomed by customers.

This is another great way to demonstrate personalisation to your community. Cart abandonment emails are unique to that specific customer’s browsing habits, and even something as minuscule as a cart abandonment email can make a customer feel important.

Once more, the stats only strengthen this point. 45% of cart abandonment emails are opened, with an average click-through rate of 21%. Of those who clicked, a huge 50% of users then go on to make a purchase, proving that cart abandonment emails can be super-effective in driving sales and retaining customers. From there, it’s up to you to nurture them retained customers into community members. 

Customer service 

Lastly, never underestimate the importance of high-quality customer service in your email communications.

Customer service can make or break your business. Good customer service can help to retain customers and incentivise them to become community members (even if they had a bad initial experience), whereas bad customer service is often enough to drive a consumer away from your brand forever.

With that in mind, always ensure you’re placing value and efficiency at the forefront of your customer service. Even if you utilise chatbots or landlines, ensure any public email account is being monitored regularly so any customer queries or problems can be addressed as a matter of priority. 

As a rule of thumb, make sure you’re always providing an unquestionably positive experience through quick responses and open communications every step of the way.

Purposeful email marketing can be a powerful way to grow your brand community – it’s all about sending the right emails at the right times.

At Six Circles, our recent email digest improvements give you greater control over your email content than ever before. To learn more about how this freedom can help you to build your brand community, get in touch today and request a demo of our platform.