Maximise the Success of Your Email Marketing

Over the years, email has grown to become a necessity of everyday life. The tool-of-choice for communication on every subject, both business and personal – but with more and more emails arriving in our inboxes – more and more sit unread.

Email marketing is still one of the most successful marketing tactics out there and can deliver the greatest return on investment compared to other channels.

Build a Strong Mailing List

However great your email, if it’s being sent to the wrong people then it’s a wasted effort. Building up an email list of current and potential customers who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, will mean your emails aren’t falling on deaf ears and will be more likely to generate the results you’re hoping to achieve.

Having an email subscription option on the homepage and on marketing communications, will make it easy for people to sign up to your emails with completely minimal effort from you.

Design

A poorly designed email will not fill your readers with confidence. Really show off your branding, add your logo to the top and make it consistent with your existing online presence – familiarity will lead to trust.

As well as looking professional and enticing, it will make it easier for your audience to instantly recognise who has sent them an email.

Make an impact and convey key messages through well thought out imagery – one good image can do the work of 1000 words. Nobody wants to sit and trawl through paragraphs and paragraphs of text, so keep it minimal and focus on your key message.

Make it Responsive

With the use of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices gradually taking over, all of your email designs should be responsive so they render correctly across all devices. Since most people receive notifications when they receive a new email and messages can be checked with one simple tap, getting your name in front of people is easier than ever before.

Subject Line is Key

The first hurdle to get over is making your subject line intriguing enough to make people want to read more. Most people’s inboxes will be overflowing with tons of emails, so your subject line needs to jump out in front of them:

• Keep it clear, concise and show what you have to offer
• Dare to be different, playing it too safe will get your email lost in amongst others
• Try using statistics or power words to draw people in
• Build up a personal relationship with your audience, add their first name to the subject line and make them feel as though you’re interested in them as a person. However, be cautious around how you’re using their name – you don’t want to come across as spammy

Enticing From the Start

Once your efforts have paid off and people are opening your emails, don’t fall at the next hurdle and have them disregard your efforts. Grab their attention the second they open your email. Long, wordy emails are going to lose a reader’s interest –  keep it short, sweet and get to the point almost instantly.

An easy-to-read, eye-catching header will give your customers confidence in you and the interest they need to carry on reading. Make sure you communicate who you are, what you’re about and what you can offer. Don’t be afraid of adding a call to action right from the start. Getting your featured content or promotional offer across straight away will keep your audience engaged.

Another way of turning people away, is by being too serious. Although you may want to share all of your technical expertise, will your readers want to hear it? Speak like you would if talking to their face, develop a natural voice and add a human element.

 What Have You Got to Offer?

You’ve made your point but how do you keep their attention long enough for them to read on? Put yourself in the shoes of the reader, what would you want to hear? People want something in return; whether it’s a discount, some useful information or a service to make their lives easier. There needs to be a positive outcome for your readers when they open your email.

• Keep it exclusive: Make a big point that it’s for a limited time only and provide a deadline to avoid the “I’ll come back to it later” response
• Reiterate the benefits of your products or services to show people what they’re missing
• People want to avoid day-to-day inconveniences, so highlight how you can solve a problem they’re facing
• Reach out to your readers on a personal level, ask for reviews / comments on how your company could improve
• Avoid “sales talk”, jumping straight in with sales will put people off instantly, don’t sell before they’re ready to buy

Strong Call to Actions

Make it clear exactly what message you’re getting across and what action you want your reader to take next. A good CTA will draw their attention and persuade them to click through – make it in their best interest to buy. If you’re sending out a longer email, don’t hesitate to use the same CTA multiple times to remind them exactly what you’re offering.

Share it Again

If you’ve put the time into writing great content, get it out there! Add your social media icons to your email. If people like what they see, they’ll share it with their audience and this will increase the reach of your email.

Analyse to Improve

Once you’ve sent out an email, don’t stop there. Knowing what has worked and what hasn’t will give you the information you need to get it even better next time.

Most email service providers will provide you with key metrics and data to allow you to analyse the performance of your campaign. With the ability to see how many people opened and engaged with your email, monitoring its success once it’s out there will give you stronger ideas for your next email campaign. Don’t brush these numbers under the carpet, use them to your advantage.

• If you’re getting a 2% click through rate, then clearly something needs to be done, why is nobody wanting to hear what you have to say?
• Where are your subscribers located? Should you be segmenting your mailing list and sending out your email in multiple languages or by geographical location?
• Did you time it right? Knowing your audience and when they’re most likely to read your email is the key to success – You won’t know until you test!

Statistics from www.outboundengine.com and www.campaignmonitor.com