There’s no other channel like email marketing.
Even after so many years and with so many other communication methods, email marketing is still a popular method a great number of companies have chosen to use.
Why, you may ask?
Well, unlike other marketing channels, email marketing allows you to connect with your target audience frequently.
According to Hubspot, there are 4 billion daily email users. Meaning there are many people (that are likely to be someone from your target market) checking their email, whether it is once a day or throughout the day.
And with every day they are checking their emails, companies are having daily opportunities to share multiple messages to their target audience through their content. What’s not to love!
While we all know email marketing is a proven tactic that can help drive leads and conversions, truth be told, it’s not always the easiest.
That’s why we have put together a list of 5 simple do’s and don’ts to help your business use email marketing effectively, drive conversions and get the results you absolutely need.
So let’s get to it!
Do’s of Email Marketing
1. Decide What Kind Of Email You Want To Send
What is your reason for your email campaign? Are you looking to promote your business in its entirety? Do you want to promote new products/services or highlight a special offer?
Whatever the reason for your email campaign, take time to research, discuss and decide what will help you use the appropriate wording and imagery for the email. Ideally, it would help you attract the customer you need for your given email.
2. Set Goals For Yourself and Your Campaign
This is an essential step when running a successful email marketing campaign. Before anything, ask yourself what you want to achieve and what your plan is to do so. If you’re unsure of where to start, here are two common email marketing goals you can use for your next campaign:
- Attracting new subscribers
There are many different ways you can attract new email subscribers, from offering incentives for your current subscribers to encouraging others to sign up to using other marketing channels such as social media.
One thing to remember, though, is, attracting new subscribers is one thing, but keeping them is another.
While incentives and awareness through other channels are a great way to gain new subscribers, let potential users know about your business and all the value you will offer them if they do sign up. When doing this, you will build a stronger foundation and relationship with them.
- Connecting with inactive subscribers
By far one of the hardest things to do, however so rewarding. One thing to remember is these inactive subscribers were once active with emails.
While some may sign up for an incentive, others need a reminder of who you are and what you can offer them.
From time to time, get in touch with your inactive subscriber list and let them know what you’ve been up to if any special events are coming up or any new services or products you are now offering.
And, if you’re unsure whether a large number of users are not interacting with your content, review your website traffic analytics.
3. Create An Eye-Catching Subject Line
Before any subscriber views your email content, they will first see your subject line. A good or not so good subject line is what will make or break a successful campaign.
Creating a subject line that will attract the reader’s interest will push them to open the email and continue reading. So before you click send on your campaign, take a look back at your subject line with the following questions in mind:
- Is it short and straight to the point?
You have between 40 and 50 characters; therefore, you have only a limited amount of space to catch your reader’s attention. So don’t be misleading. Try to get straight to the point.
- Avoid keyword stuffing and trigger words
Limit capitalising words and adding trigger words, i.e. promotion based words in the header, as this can lead to your emails going directly to spam folders.
- Personalise your subject lines
Adding the reader’s name to the subject line could help with engagement; however, this will vary from company to company.
4. Test Different Email Formats and Lengths
If you have ever seen a drop in your user engagement, consider trying different formats and lengths of your campaigns.
While many companies send email format to their database many times, this is not the best practice as many subscribers can become bored. We would recommend you try as many different ways as possible.
So, try to change the look from time to time with shorter formed emails or longer emails, emails with graphics and videos or even without. Who knows, you may find a new look that is entirely different from the status quo, which appeals to your email database.
And, just a little tip. While some companies may not have the capability, i.e. time to do it, consider breaking up and adjusting your email to suit individual groups of people. Because, it goes without saying, just no one is interested in everything; not everyone on your email list is interested in everything you do.
5. Collect Data
One final point that will help you have successful email campaigns is to gather your data to analyse after you press send on your campaigns.
Without it, you will never know what you are doing right and wrong.
Go back to your goals and what you want to achieve for your campaigns, and analyse the metrics relevant to what you want to achieve.
Don’ts of Email Marketing
1. Bombard Your Readers
Simply put, it is never a good idea to email so frequently to your database because sending too many can very often end in many turning off.
Sadly, your emails could end up in their spam folders for the foreseeable future.
And, once that happens, it can become increasingly more challenging for you to turn that back into active email users.
One way to decide how many emails you should do will vary from company to company, but if you’ve only started with email marketing, we’d suggest emailing once or twice during the month.
That’ll ensure you keep your audience at the forefront, especially in their emails, but allow enough time between that you won’t seem to be bombarding them.
2. Forget To Add A Call To Action
This is how to create an email campaign 101.
No matter how amazing your content is, your subscribers will never know where you want them to go and what you want them to do without a call to action.
And without that, you won’t have the opportunity to gain the leads and conversions you want.
So, when you are finishing your email content, think about what you want your subscribers to do after. Is it to view your website, fill out a form, or contact you? Whatever it is, add it to your copy.
3. Send Your Email Without Double Checking For Errors
Remember, first impressions matter. The same applies to email campaigns.
You have one opportunity for your readers to be interested in your campaigns, so make it count. Check your links, typos and any other things that could affect your readers interacting with your content.
4. Sending To Your Email List At The Same Time
For many email marketing tools, you will have the option to send your campaign in different ways – all at once, staggered approach, send time optimisation and so on.
While it may be okay to send emails at once in some instances, generally speaking, the best approach to sending emails to your database is the staggered approach and send-time optimisation.
Regardless of whether you’re an international business or not, your customers will view emails at different times of the day.
When you send your campaign as a send-time optimisation, you would ideally send your campaign at a time based on each client’s previous interactions with your campaigns.
On the other hand, sending your emails out in smaller batches (staggered approach) would ensure all of your emails are delivered. Whatever option you choose will help to improve your user experience and engagement.
5. Send Mass Emails To Your List
Along with testing different formats and lengths for your emails, consider splitting your list into segments and sending them separate campaigns as your database begins to increase.
This would allow you to tailor your content for the different audiences you have. For example, as a restaurant owner, you may have several audiences you could target, such as families, couples and the elderly.
While some content may overlap, you may have events or other areas that would be more relevant to one particular audience than the others. Instead of creating a mass email with one message, create messages pertinent to your audience segments to help you gain better responses.
The use of email marketing will always depend on whether you can produce a message that is authentic to your audience. So, leave the robotic-sounding content in the past and focus on providing the information your potential customers want.
Remember to keep things simple, personal and appealing for your audience, and you will soon see the success of your email marketing. Are you ready to take your email marketing to the next level?
Find out more about our email marketing services and what we can offer you.
