Top 10 tips for Email Marketing

Amy Rutter, Digital Marketing Consultant at zero G media divulges her top tips for a successful email marketing campaign…

Some may think that email marketing is dying a death to social media, but it’s is still a very effective and valid method of reaching your customers that should be an imperative part of your digital marketing strategy. Of course you will need a well designed template to start with, you can learn to do this in Dreamweaver in our post - How to Create Email Templates using Dreamweaver.

You’ve already got your subscribers – you know they’re interested in your company so that’s half the battle won. The next trick is to get your email noticed, opened and then acted upon.

So let’s look at 10 important things to consider when putting together an email campaign:

For a really in-depth, hands on guide to running campaigns, check out our 1-day Email Marketing Course

Email Marketing Top Tips!

1. From field

Ensure you set up a customised email address that will appear as the sender in the recipient’s inbox. If it says the name of your marketing agency or software or worse, is full of jargon, it’s likely to be deleted more or less immediately. Consider changing it to something that is more recognisable, like your company name or even make it more personal, such as ‘Emma from XX Company’.

2. Subject line

Be specific, with your primary focus on the first few words. When your customer is scanning their inbox, it rests on the first word or two catching their eye. Keep it short and punchy. Consider asking a question to encourage them to open the email – but don’t trick them by suggesting it contains something it doesn’t; you run the real risk of losing trust and custom. We have covered this in more detail in our post - Email Marketing Tips – Attention Grabbing Subject Lines

3. Snippet

This is something that many emails fail on time and time again. The snippet is the first line of the email that is displayed in many web-based inboxes and in the mailboxes of smartphones. Don’t leave your snippet as ‘Can’t read this email properly?’. You’re missing out on a golden opportunity. Your snippet should reflect something that’s in the email – use your wording cleverly to entice your customer to open it.

4. Headline

It seems obvious but the point has to be made – make your headline concise yet impactful. Call your reader to action: why should they take the time to read your content?

5. Preview pane

Depending on the email client, some recipients will have a preview pane showing the lefthand side of the email or the top half. Use an appropriate layout that maximises the use of the preview pane: have a prominent call to action that stands out. Place links to your website, news, social media presence, a button to donate – whatever it is that you may want people to click on – in the top third on the left. Bear in mind that readers will scan the copy so have your key element at the top.

6. Images

When you browse through an email the images are going to be one of the first things that catch your eye. Make them interesting and relevant to the subject. Depending on your product, even consider an email that is primarily an image with very little text. This would work very well for a charity like Oxfam, for example. Show your readers why you want and need them.

Ensure your email works well even if your images are blocked too; some email clients block images.

7. Focus on the benefits

The question you have to keep asking yourself is ‘Is my customer going to want to read this?’. Make your email appealing to the eye and consider varying the design and template – see what works best for you. Reward them at the bottom of the email for reading to the end with a joke, giveaway or interesting fact. This will encourage your customers to read right the way through to the end of your future emails.

8. By-links

Send your readers information on areas of the email they click on. For example, if someone clicks on a link in your content to job vacancies, send them a follow-up email of openings in the organisation.

9. Test

Send a sample of your email campaign to a small section of your database – varying the subject line, image, perhaps even adjusting the day and time [possible link to ‘The Best Day for Email Marketing’ article] and see which is most effective. You can then send the best of the bunch to the rest of your database.

10. Review

Once your email has landed, have a good study of your campaign report. It will give you detailed information on the number of sends, uniques opens, bounces, link clicks, purchases, forward to friends and so on. It will even show you exactly how many people clicked on each particular link – see if after sending a couple of emails, you can spot which area of the email is getting the most clicks and in the future put your most prominent call to action here. Your report will be crucial in planning your next campaign.

Now you have a great checklist to use before you send your emails, but when should you send them? Well, as if you haven’t guessed, we’ve written a post about that too! The Best Day for Email Marketing

Related posts:

1. Facebook Email – How do I get a Facebook email address?
2. The Best Day for Email Marketing
3. Email marketing: why you should be investing!
4. Tweeting in a nutshell – What to tweet and how often
5. Social Media – a simple Guide – the basics

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Related posts:

1. Facebook Email – How do I get a Facebook email address?
2. The Best Day for Email Marketing
3. Email marketing: why you should be investing!
4. Tweeting in a nutshell – What to tweet and how often
5. Social Media – a simple Guide – the basics

Tags

email marketing, email marketing tips, email marketing training, from field, headline, images, Social Media Training, subject line

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