5 Easy Tips to Help You Launch a Hyperlocal Email Marketing Campaign

E-mail marketing is still a very effective way to market your business. In fact, did you know that nearly 270 billion e-mails are sent every single day? However, the downside is that statistics show that only about 22 percent of retail-related e-mails are opened, while about 34 percent of other types of e-mails are opened. In addition, 45 percent of e-mails that are opened are done so on a mobile device. So, in a way, you could say that e-mail marketing is essentially becoming in line with mobile marketing.

If your business is not seeing success with its e-mail marketing campaign, then your strategy needs to be reconsidered. The key may be to create a new campaign or to simply update your campaign so that it has more of a local aspect to it. There is significant evidence that points to the future of hyperlocal e-mail marketing.

Here are five tips that will help you in creating a successful hyperlocal e-mail marketing strategy:

Tip #1: Tailor Your Customer Offers So They'll Use Them.

One way to get customers to actually open their e-mails is to send out coupons and other saving offers. You can do this by specific geographic areas. The key is to make sure that they are real offers that your customers can use; otherwise, they'll get annoying by the fake offers and stop opening the e-mails.

For this strategy to be the most effective, you will need to first conduct some research to see how your specific audience prefers to redeem offers. Do they prefer to do it person at a storefront or online? You may have to differentiate your e-mails based on target groups, but it will be worth the extra time.

Tip #2: Add Personal Touches and Reach Out in Person if You Can.

If you have ever received an e-mail yourself from a business, you probably despise receiving those e-mails that look as if they have been composed by a robot. They are boring and impersonal. Well, your audience feel the same way. They will not engage your audience. They will stop reading the moment they glance at the e-mail, even if it contains a somewhat appealing offer.

So, you want to do your best to make your e-mails sound personal. You can do this by using the name of someone from the company rather than the actual business name and avoiding photos or borders -- format the e-mail naturally instead.

Whenever you can, it can be particularly effective and beneficial for the business to go out in person to get e-mail subscribers. You can use subscriber applications, surveys, etc. Get out in the community and be social. Believe it or not, it helps.

These personal touches are a great way to connect with your community, learn more about your ideal target audience, and gain a huge boost on your e-mail marketing campaign.

Tip #3: Spread the Word Through Social Media.

Since social media is such a fantastic way to connect with your audience and help get the word out about your e-mail marketing campaign, it makes sense to use it to help with expanding the reach of your newsletter. For example, you could post snippets of your newsletter on your social media pages along with a link for your followers to sign up for your campaign.

You can also post rewards and offers for your audience to sign up to receive e-mails. You can also do a little bit of investigating to see what communities and groups that they regularly participate in online. Just be sure that you don't offer the same exact materials and incentives on social media that you are offering via e-mail because then your consumers will have no reason to sign up for your e-mail campaign.

Tip #4: Make Sure Your Subject Line Is Related to the Right Local Area.

When composing an e-mail, you want to make sure that you actually put some thought into the subject line rather than focusing only on the body of the e-mail. In fact, it may be a good idea to insert a specific city or state in the subject line in order to make your content a bit more relevant to your local audience that you're contacting. According to some research, this one little strategy can increase the e-mail open rate by up to seven percent.

While you may not see an improvement of this exact caliber, you will likely see an increase in your open and click-through rates, and this is a win-win at any rate.

Tip #5: Divide Your List by Region and Language for More Specific Marketing.

While English may be the main language of your audience, it doesn't mean that all of them do. Some of them may live in a location that is unfamiliar location. This is okay and you should embrace these types of differences. All you need to do is target your marketing campaign to match them.

Prior to dividing your list, you need to take a survey of your customers to ensure that you have correct data. Then, based on this information, you will adjust your subject lines. Don't forget to take into consideration your calls-to-action, as you may need to modify those a bit as well. Remember that work will work well for one particular region and/or language may not necessarily perform as well for a different region and/or language.

The Key Takeaway in All of This

As you tell from the information above, developing and implementing a hyperlocal e-mail marketing strategy and campaign is no easy task. There is a lot involved in it. The tips that have been provided to you above are just a few of the things that you can do to help localize your e-mail marketing. There are plenty of others things that you can do. It ultimately comes down to the amount of time and effort that you are willing to devote to your campaign.

You just need to put one foot in front of the other and take things one single step at a time. Try incorporating one strategy (maybe two) at a time and keep an eye on their performance before you go ahead with anything else.

All of this information can feel like a bit too much, and that's okay. If it does, consider reaching out to a specialist that is familiar with local marketing to help get things rolling for you, such as our team here at WebDetail. Alternatively, you can find automated programs that help get your e-mail campaign started that will free up a bit of your time that will allow you to put more focus on your local marketing.