Email still remains as one of the best ways for you to conduct marketing for your business. Forbes says that “Email Marketing Is Still The Top Way To Generate Leads” and they aren’t wrong.
However, you will no doubt have come across many issues in your own email campaign. You will have sent emails that go no response, emails no one opened, emails that were deleted. This could be rooted in a number of issues: your subject lines might not be enticing enough, your calls to action might not be attractive, your content might not be up to a standard.
Whatever the issue is that is plaguing your email marketing campaign, there are number of ways you can go about resolving it. In this article, instead of fixating on a single issue, we will discuss general tips and tricks you can implement to enhance your email marketing campaign overall.
Build Your Subscriber List
While it may seem alluring to keep growing your email list until you have thousands and thousands of contacts, if is never a good idea – let’s get that out of the way first. But, you should also never settle. Keep growing your email list naturally – have a sign up feature on your website that allows anyone to sign up. Have it visible on your home page, blog and any other place you can organically fit it in.
At the same time, make sure you clean your list frequently so that it isn’t gathering emails that are ultimately more harmful for your campaign than helpful.
In addition to just having a signup form on your website, you can use social media, giveaway, references and a variety of other ways to keep your subscriber list growing. Focus on building your subscriber list and simultaneously pruning it so it’s not infested with unwanted emails.
Understand Your Subscriber
Each and every one of your subscriber is different. You aren’t going to help your campaign any by sending the same email to every single one of your subscribers.
There are number of ways you can track your subscriber’s activities. You can use the web pages they visit, the emails they open, the products they look at, their shopping history and more to gather important data about your subscriber. In addition, you can use details like their geographical location, their age, job and other factors.
All of these factors can be used to segment your subscribers and target them with emails that are meaningful to them and as such, emails that they will open and read. Make sure you have methods in place to gather the important data about your subscriber. You will find your campaign improving as you implement segmentation and targeting practices.
Add a Personal Touch
Always add a personal touch to your emails. Nearly all email clients have a smart tag system that will automatically add the recipient’s name when you send your emails out. Use this system and the From field effectively (basically, have your given name and/or brand name in the From field).
People like being personally tended to, and you can utilize that desire to your benefit. Make sure you send relevant emails to them (via segmentation and targeting) and address your customers and clients directly in the emails.
Do Not Spam
Spam is and always will be your worst enemy. If your emails are reported as spam or if they get caught in spam traps, you are in trouble. Make sure your emails are properly formatted and don’t have poor HTML, an overload of all caps, exclamation marks and hyperbole – this will help you avoid spam traps.
In addition, if anyone reports your email as spam, make sure you take action immediately. Either remove the email address from your list so that you don’t jump into trouble or contact the person who complained and see if you can change their email schedule/content their needs.Don’t flood your subscribers’ inbox with as many emails as you can. This will definitely lead to your subscribers being annoyed. Consult MailChimp’s detailed guide for more information. But the crux of the matter is: you don’t want your emails to be categorized as spam.
Have a Crisp Layout
Your emails have to be a delight to look at. In addition to using a well-thought out color scheme and the right font choices, there are other ways to make your emails look crisp and clean.
- Use short paragraphs that integrate the right keywords and phrases that will be relevant to your readers.
- Include bullet points that will allow your readers to skim the content and take in the vital points at a glance.
- Insert pictures that stand out, but only sparingly. Use them to support the main content of your email instead of replace it.
- Have lots of white space. Instead of cluttering everything together into a huddled mess, leave space between paragraphs and pictures and keep the focus on the content.
Include Interesting Links
The ultimate point of any email marketing campaign is to increase traffic to a site or a product – usually, it’s a landing page. For your subscriber’s to get to this page, whatever it is, you need them to click on links on your emails.
Include visually striking buttons and text that will make your readers curious and want to click on them. “Find Out More!” or “Get Your Free Copy Now!” are both examples of exciting calls to action that will make your subscribers want to follow the link. Calls to action should be just that. A call to… action.
Give your subscribers a reason to interact with your brand.
Don’t Make Unsubscribing Hard
While it may seem like a good idea to make it impossible to subscribe, you will find that it will hurt your campaign. And majorly at that.
Include an unsubscribe link in all your emails and make sure that the actual process to unsubscribe is easy and hassle-free. You can include a confirmation or a message beseeching them to stay on your list, but if they don’t want to stay, let them go.
Consider the Mobile Device
70% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. That is not a number you should cast aside. 66% of email opens occur on mobile devices.
Take advantage of this. Make sure the emails you send out are all optimized for viewing in mobile devices, lest you alienate a massive portion of your subscribers. In addition, you should also look into how subject lines are displayed in mobile devices and make sure you subject lines fit – the general guideline is 7 words/41 characters.
Test, Re-Test and Test Again
You don’t want to spend time and money trying to improve your campaign and find out halfway through that not everything is working properly.
Make sure your emails look the way you want them to by sending them to a number of different emails (Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo) and viewing them on multiple mobile devices, computers and web browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari). Also ensure that all your links work and lead to the right place, the smart tags are adding the right personalization details. You don’t want to send out emails that go wrong and make your whole campaign look unprofessional.
You should also conduct A/B testing – also known as split testing – that allows you to experiment with different subject lines, calls to action, and actual to see what gets the best response from your audience. While there are conclusive days/time deemed the best day/time to send emails at, you can enhance your testing by also sending emails on different days of the week and at different times of the day to see when your campaign gets the best response rate.
Monitor Your Data
Your email marketing client should give you an in-depth analysis of your campaign’s many metrics. You should keep a close eye on this data and see how many emails were undeliverable, why your emails are bouncing, what times get the best open rates and more.
All of this data is incredibly important as you can use it to adapt your strategy on the go. Nine times out of ten, your email marketing campaign won’t reach the end with exactly the same strategy you started with. You need to make changes and adapt to the way your subscribers react to your campaign. The data you get from the email marketing client lies at the heart of this change, as it will give you clues as to what changes to make.
Content is Still King
Ultimately, your email marketing campaign is utterly pointless if you aren’t sending content that sticks to your audience. You don’t want your messages to end up in the trash, so make sure that everything you send – whether it’s promotions, news, educational information, operational messages – lives up to a certain standard.
It was Bill Gates who first said “Content is King”. No matter how much time passes, it will always be.
Have a Dedicated Landing Page
Having a dedicated landing page and directing all your email traffic to it will help your campaign massively. It is more relevant and targeted than just your homepage or your blog page.
Include the following elements in your landing page to make it stronger:
- - A strong headline to hook your readers in
- - A sub headline to support and enhance your headline
- - An image or a video that will get the purpose of your landing page across quickly
- - Social proof – customer logos, testimonials, reviews
- - A well-crafted call to action to convert subscribers into customers
Just keep in mind that your landing page and your email should convey the same message, else the purpose is lost. You don’t want an email that emphasizes on chocolate to take you to a page which advertises housing loans. Keep your landing page concise with a specific offer, an offer that is enticing to anyone who visits the page.
Your Campaign, Your Success
Becoming successful – or at least reaching a high level of success – is a very involved process. You will need to consider your marketing campaign as a whole, invent and innovate, put out fires as they pop up and give it your best effort. It’s a combination of good forethought, planning and analyzing that will give your campaigns the boost they need to climb their way to the top.
Avoid the critical mistakes, focus on the heart of your campaign and reach the success you deserve with the incredible power of email marketing.
