There is an amazing amount of competition in the world of email marketing when you consider that approximately 269 billion emails are sent every day. Yes, that is billion with a b. We all strive to craft the perfect email subject lines, messaging, distribution calendar, and calls to action. If you are the type to agonize over these tasks, take a deep breath and read our list of tips to keep in mind as you work to create your next email campaign.
1. Make it Easy to Subscribe
It doesn’t matter how amazing your email campaigns are if you don’t have a healthy and updated subscriber list. Offer opportunities to subscribe to your marketing database on all of your communication channels. Have a signup CTA on your website homepage, your blog page, your social media profiles, etc. You can also build your list as you participate in conferences and other industry events as well as in your brick and mortar store if you have one. Don’t ask for too much information. All you need to start the conversation is an email address.
2. Make it Easy to Unsubscribe
Providing your customers with the opportunity to opt out of your communications isn’t a choice, it’s the law. Be sure to include an “Unsubscribe” option in every email.
3. Know and Understand Your Target Audience
Segmenting email messages to different parts of your target audience is key to increased engagement and conversion rates. Messages to more targeted subgroups will allow you to send relevant information, promotions, and other offers to all portions of your customer base.
4. Send Regular Emails
You are not spamming when you send out regular emails to people who have willingly provided you with their contact information. While daily emails may be a bit overwhelming, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly messaging is a way to build and nurture relationships with your customer base. The key is to make sure there is some level of value for your customers in each email communication.
5. Keep Your Emails Short
Clear and concise messaging is key to engagement. State your purpose, provide a single call to action in the form of a landing page link and be done. Keep in mind that more and more people are accessing their emails on mobile devices and they will only be willing to scroll for so long.
7. Personalize Each Email
Personalization of messaging has become an expectation. Make your customers feel special by using their names, including information about their previous purchases, and any other information that your customer relationship management (CRM) system will provide you. Set up fields for auto-insertion from your CRM to the email messages. Personal touches in your email marketing will directly impact your conversion rates.
8. Spend Time Creating Your Subject Lines
Straightforward, non-gimmicky subject lines are best. The goal of your headline is to convince a reader to open your email and engage with the content. There is a delicate balance between interesting and ridiculous to be achieved. Also, be concise. Marketo found that the sweet spot for the length of subject lines is only 41 characters or, approximately, 7 words.
9. Split Test Your Emails
A/B split testing is the method of splitting your target audience into segments and sending each group a different version of your email to see which results in the most conversions. This strategy removes the guesswork from the marketing process as it helps you determine the types of messaging to use in future emails.
10. Create Dedicated Landing Pages for Your Campaigns
Dedicated landing pages serve multiple purposes. First, they ensure that traffic from your email campaign is sent to a web page that is completely relevant to the messaging in the email communication. Second, it helps keep your target audience focused on the specific conversion you are working towards instead of allowing them to be distracted by other information. Third, it helps you understand what portion of your website traffic is a result of a specific campaign.
11. Create and Send Value Added Emails
Communications that offer no value will quickly be ignored or deleted. Offer a mix of informational content, special promotions, and loyalty offers. This may mean segmenting your messaging a bit. Potential customers who have requested information should be sent different communication than existing customers that you have a relationship with.
12. Mix it Up
Vary the types of emails that you send to keep consumers interested in your content. Alternate plain text with images or interactive emails. Consider using a specific format for each type of communication (i.e. blogs, ads, product announcements).
13. Repeat Your Successful Emails
Take note of the email campaigns or portions of campaigns that are most successful in creating interactions and conversions. Then use those elements, messages, headline styles, etc. in future campaigns. You can always change out an image, tweak the messaging, and so on to send something slightly different. The point is, if something worked once, it will most likely work again.
14. Include Social Sharing Buttons
Make it easy for people to share your email (and other) content. Include social sharing buttons on all of your email communications and encourage readers to share the messages with their friends, family, and colleagues.
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The experts at Strategy Driven Marketing understand the challenges of creating and executing email marketing campaigns. We’ve helped numerous businesses of all sizes and from different industries in their quest to communicate and convert. Trust our experience and creative talent to do the same for your brand. Contact us today to get started!