How to Boost Audience Engagement with Local Email Marketing

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Email marketing is an effective way to connect with customers and keep them updated on your company's latest news/products/services. However, it's important to target your audience correctly.

Sending mass emails to all of your customers can be overwhelming and ineffective. 

Instead, try targeting your local community with email marketing campaigns specific to their area. By doing this, you can tailor your messages to fit the needs of your local customers and create a stronger connection with them.

This article will give you nine genius ideas to make the most out of your local email marketing. 

Without further ado, let's get into it.

Read: Email Marketing & Its Importance for an Ecommerce Website

1. Have a Personal Touch

Personalized messages are more likely to be read and responded to than non-personalized messages. To create a personalized message, you first need to gather information about your customer. This can include anything from their name to their favorite product. 

Personalized emails have generated a higher click-through rate than non-personalized emails.

Also, it makes the recipient feel special and appreciated, which encourages them to keep following your business.

These emails allow you to create a more intimate relationship with your customers. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and higher customer retention rates. 

Studies have shown that when customers receive a personalized email, they are more likely to engage with the content and even take action, such as making a purchase.

Tips for personalizing emails

• Write as you speak
• Segment your audience first
• Use subscriber's browsing history to your advantage
• Wish them during anniversaries

Here’s an example of a personalized email wishing a customer happy birthday:

2. Use Local Slang

Using local slang in local email marketing can help businesses connect with customers in their area. 

When people see familiar words and phrases in emails, it helps them feel like the business is talking directly to them. This can create a stronger connection between customers and businesses and encourage people to respond to the email's message.

For example, imagine you're from Boston, and you get an email from a parlor in your area that uses lots of Boston-specific slang such as "Pahlah (Yup! That’s how Bostonians call a parlor)." You will feel that the email is more natural.

As a result, you will be more likely to respond to the message. Keep in mind that dialects can vary from region to region, so it's important to use the correct words and phrases. 

In some cases, using the wrong dialect can result in a misunderstood and insulting message.

Here’s an example of an email using local slang:

3. Give Promotions & Offers

While crafting a local email marketing campaign, giving your recipients special offers and promotions is important. This can help to increase engagement and encourage recipients to take action. 

Additionally, by providing exclusive discounts or offers, you can help to differentiate your brand from those of your competitors.

One way to give special offers and promotions to customers in local email marketing is to segment your list by location. This will allow you to target customers in a specific area with offers that are relevant to them. 

You can also use geo-targeting to serve different content to people based on their location. This will ensure that customers in your area see information about deals and promotions relevant to them.

Tips:

• Offering special promotions and discounts can be done by including a coupon or promo code in the email or providing a link that customers can use to redeem the offer.
• Also, you can highlight specific products or services that are on sale or include a time-limited promotion that encourages customers to act quickly.
• Additionally, you can include a coupon that customers can print out and use in-store.

Here’s an example of an email offering promotions:

4. Ask for Reviews

One way to increase customer engagement is to ask for reviews in your local emails. This will show your customers that you value their opinions and are interested in hearing what they say. It can also help you identify problems and improve your products and services.

When asked for a review, customers will feel appreciated, and they're more likely to take the time to do so when they've had a positive experience. 

When someone takes the time to write a review, it shows that they're engaged with your brand and more likely to continue interacting with you in the future.

In addition, you can use customer reviews as social proof to show potential customers that you're trustworthy and worth doing business with.

Tips:

• Keep it short and use phrases like "We value your time...," "We know you are busy."
• Use embedded review buttons
• Give rewards for leaving reviews

Here’s an example of an email asking for a customer’s review:

5. Optimize emails for Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular as they allow users to stay connected with the world while on the go. This trend is also reflected in email marketing, as more and more people use their mobile devices to access their emails. 

To ensure that your emails are properly displayed and easy to read on mobile devices, you should optimize them.

When Optimizing Your Emails For Mobile Devices:

• First, make sure your text is easy to read on a small screen.
• Use a simple font and avoid putting too much text on one line.
• Use a responsive template that will automatically adjust to the size of the screen.
• Pay attention to the location of your buttons and links.
• Use a simplified layout that's easy to navigate on a smaller screen.
• Include clear calls to action that are easy to tap.
• Consider using shorter subject lines.
• Use images sparingly, and make sure they are sized appropriately for mobile devices.

Here’s an example of a mobile-friendly email:

6. Segment Audience

When local businesses send out mass emails to their entire customer base, they risk having many recipients who are not interested in the content of the email. This can lead to a low engagement rate, which means that fewer people will open and click through the email.

It is important to segment your audience into groups based on their interests to improve engagement. Additionally, detailed customer profiles can be used for future marketing efforts. 

By splitting up a list of email addresses into specific groups, businesses can cater their content and message specifically to those most likely to be interested.

For example, you might want to send emails about new products to people who have already bought something from you and emails about sales to people who have never bought anything from you. 

You can also target different groups of people based on their age, location, or interests.

Here’s an example of email groups:

7. Give Value Through Newsletters

People tend to forget about local businesses, especially when big chains are around. By sending out a regular newsletter, you can remind people what your small business does and how it can help them. Ensure that your newsletter is interesting and useful. 

Write about things in your community, or post helpful tips/recipes/ideas/guides.

Newsletters are personal and can be tailored to fit the needs of a particular audience. They should be well-written and interesting, focusing on engaging the reader. You can also use it to promote events.

To Improve Audience Engagement Through Newsletters, Consider The Following Tips: 

• Keep your content relevant and timely. Make sure to include information that is of interest to your readers.
• Personalize your content whenever possible. Add the recipient's name and remind them about their contribution to the community.
• Use images and videos. They can help break up the text and capture the reader's attention.

Here’s an example of a newsletter:

8. Have a Loyalty Program in Place

Loyalty programs are special programs that offer rewards to customers who participate. When a local business promotes its loyalty program through email marketing, it reaches out to potential/existing customers and invites them to join the program.

When people sign up for a loyalty program, they are usually given a card or some other type of ID that they can use to collect points each time they make a purchase.

One can use email marketing to remind people about the loyalty program and encourage them to participate. 

You can also use it to update the program and how close people are to earning rewards. This can increase audience engagement as the loyalty program encourages more people to take advantage of the rewards.

Take a look at these seven amazing loyalty program email marketing campaign examples.

Here’s an example of a loyalty program promoting email:

9. Tell Story Through Casual Copies

To improve audience engagement, pen casual and fun copies. As opposed to academic writing, casual writing breaks through the clutter of email and provides a more personal connection to the reader.

Using easy-to-read language can make your email more engaging and interesting to read. Additionally, by using humor and being playful in your writing, you can create a more relaxed and enjoyable experience for your readers. This can encourage readers to return to your emails in the future.

Try to keep the tone light and breezy while still retaining the essential information. Also, casual writing can help create a more relaxed and informal tone, encouraging the reader to spend more time reading the email.

Here’s an example of a storytelling email:

Key Takeaways

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• Always ask for reviews in your marketing emails.
• Segment your audience based on their interests, location, and the like.
• Personalize every email to establish a relationship with your customers.
• Include local dialect/slang in your writings.
• Offer rewards to your email subscribers for responding.
• Keep your email layouts simple and optimize them for mobile devices.
• Promote loyalty programs through newsletters to improve engagement.