10 Great Tips for an Effective Email Marketing Campaign
Izabela is a leading contributor to the Bouncer’s blog. She is inspired to help companies all around the world to get emails into their recipients’ inboxes
Email Marketing Top 10 Tips
To build a successful email marketing campaign, you will need the following:
- Responsive design
- Personalization
- Catchy subject lines
- The right timing
- Offer something of value to subscribers
- Relevant content
- Double opt-in
- Carefully considered links
- Segmented lists
- Calls to action
Keep reading to find out more about these email marketing strategies in detail and how you can use them to improve the success of your campaign.
Email Marketing Tips: Responsive Design
Mobile opens now accounts for more than half of all email opens, and it’s easy to see why. With most people now owning and using smartphones that make it easy for them to get access to their emails on the go, you can expect that more and more of your marketing emails are going to be opened in smartphone apps rather than on a personal computer. Because of this, it’s important to use a responsive design so that an email looks and performs great no matter what device it is opened on. Make sure that calls to action are obvious and easy to tap, and make sure that the font size is ideal for reading on a smartphone.
Best Email Marketing Tips – Personalization
Personalization is key, but it’s important to be careful how you do it. Simply entering the name of your recipient in the email can actually be harmful if the rest of the message is irrelevant to them. Personalization can also come across as suspicious if you are sending an email to a new subscriber with who you have not built a relationship with over time. When it comes to personalizing your emails, it’s about much more than simply greeting them by name. In fact, you do not have to use their name at all to personalize it – instead, send messages that acknowledge the individuality of the subscriber, such as their demographic or their purchase history with your brand.
How to Improve Email Marketing Success With Subject Lines
Subject lines are going to be the first thing that a subscriber sees when your email is delivered to their inbox, which is why it’s so important to make sure that you get this right. When crafting the subject line, it’s important to make sure that it is short, to the point, and gives the subscriber an idea of what to expect from the rest of the email. Subject lines that are no longer than 49 characters tend to have better open rates. It is also important to avoid using any spam trigger words in subject lines, as these could see your entire email sent to the spam box before the subscriber even has a chance to see it.
Email Campaign Tips – Timing
Emails with the best open rates are not being sent during business hours. In fact, sending at night is a good email marketing strategy since this is the time where most subscribers are not going to be busy at work. Some studies have even found that between 8 pm and midnight is one of the best times to send an email for opens, clickthrough, and sales. Along with this, weekend days tend to outperform weekdays, as again, subscribers have more time to pay attention to your content.
Tips for Email Marketing Campaign – Offer Something of Value
Offering something to subscribers in return for joining your email list is not only an ideal way to build up your list quickly but can also help to keep subscribers engaged. Most people are no longer interested in being bombarded with marketing emails trying to get them to buy something. The are more likely to engage with messages where there is something in it for them (WIIFM), such as exclusive content, free templates, and tools, or exclusive subscriber discounts that they can take advantage of.
Email Marketing Tips and Tricks for Content
When it comes to writing the body of your email marketing messages, it’s important to keep it short, sweet, and to the point. A few paragraphs with a call to action is not only going to be much easier to read compared to a lengthy email, but it will also leave some interest in finding out more, which encourages the reader to actually click through. If you’re writing too much in your email body, then readers aren’t as likely to click on your link to find out more since they will already have all the information that they need.
Tips for Effective Email Marketing – Double Opt-in
Using double opt-in is always a worthwhile strategy for any email marketing campaign. Unlike single opt-in, which simply collects email addresses from subscribers, double opt-in involves an additional step where the subscriber must confirm that they actually want to receive marketing emails from you. Bear in mind that with this method, you are likely to get fewer sign-ups. However, quality is always better to aim for than quantity when it comes to building your email list, and double opt-in allows you to find subscribers that are actually interested in receiving information from your brand and therefore more likely to engage.
Email Marketing: Best Practices for Links
When building emails for email marketing, it’s important to consider how and where you use links. Wherever links are added, keep these best practices in mind:
- Links should be clearly labeled and easy for the reader to identify. To achieve this, make sure that links are underlined and use a different font color to the rest of the text. Link key phrases that clearly demonstrate to the reader where they will be redirected if they click on the link.
- Make sure that any links you add actually direct to where they say they will go. This is an obvious step, but it’s easy to make mistakes. Since you can’t correct any mistakes once the email is sent, spend some time clicking through the links to check them before you deploy the email campaign.
- Make sure links are properly structured throughout the email.
- All URLs should match with the content being offered. Avoid URLs in your email that direct to pages with a different URL since this can look like phishing.
Types of Links:
- Contextual Links: These are links that are highly relevant to the content. The most important and relevant links should be placed at the top of the email. You can also add links to appropriate promotions, articles, or product pages. Placing them at the beginning of the email means that they are more likely to generate click-through.
- Bonus Content Links: These are links that include offers outside of any contextual email content. For example, you could include an invitation to join a webinar in the side navigation panel or a banner that includes a link to a special offer. Any bonus content links that you add should be clearly marked and the offer value clearly demonstrated.
- Permanent Links: Finally, consider links that are always available in any email communications that you send. For example, this could include a link to your website homepage, social network links, and more. One link that should always be available and easy to find is the link to unsubscribe, so that any recipients who no longer want to receive your content can easily opt-out.
Email Marketing Tricks – Segment and Target Different Lists
Segmented email lists provide more relevancy to the reader and generate around eighteen times more revenue compared to more general messages, with a click-through rate of almost 10% higher. While there is a time and place for sending mass messages to your email list, it’s important to segment it to make sure that your subscribers are receiving more relevant messages.
Email Marketing Tips and Techniques – Using CTAs
No email marketing message is complete without a clear call to action. Make sure that you are clear on what you want your readers to do when they receive the message and make this obvious using links or buttons within the email. For the best results, consider using multiple calls to action in your emails. For example, you can include one in the first paragraph and one at the end of the message. This reduces the risk of the call to action being overlooked and puts you in with a better chance of subscribers clicking through to buy a product or learn more.
No matter what kind of business you run, these tips and tricks can help you get the best results from email marketing.
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