Digital marketing has opened up a whole new way for us to promote businesses. You can use social media, mobile marketing, email marketing, and a few more good methods besides. Which of these is most effective, though?
The truth is that a good marketing campaign will incorporate a multi-pronged approach. So instead of just focusing on one strategy, work on creating campaigns that incorporate different elements. Perhaps you could send a teaser about your latest email newsletter via SMS or talk it up on social media.
That being said, in this post, we are going to focus on one particular marketing method – email marketing. Creating a kickass email marketing campaign is easier than you think, and we’re going to help you get started by going over the top five tips.
When you’re finished reading this article, check out the infographic below for even more tips.
1. Go Back to Basics
You don’t have to worry about split-testing email subject lines because you know your clients, right? Wrong. It’s better to assume that there is always room for improvement. Make a point of tweaking the subject lines in every campaign to find out what works best for your audience.
Think of this as split testing, except that here you’ll need to change things up with the subject line. Changing only the subject line is advantageous because you know that all other things in the email are equal.
That way, you’ll get actionable data based on the results that you achieve. Things to consider while tweaking the subject line are:
- Shorter is better
- Including the client’s name in the subject line could improve open rates by 50%
- Get creative with the subject line – don’t use the same old line every time
- Do not resort to clickbait tactics to get people to open the email
2. Refine and Update Your Subscriber Lists
How many of your emails are actually being delivered? It’s something that we tend to overlook when creating an email campaign, but it’s something that is essential. Are clients opening the emails that you send out? Are they reading them?
It’s a good idea to go through your subscriber list and isolate those email addresses that are incorrect. If possible, you could contact the person and ask her for an updated address.
Next, check the emails that have been delivered but not opened. How many times have your emails gone to a particular address and been ignored? If the last four or five have been ignored, is the subscriber still interested in receiving emails? Why not send one out to check?
The idea is to pare down your list to those most likely to be interested in it. This reduces the number of names on the list, but the advantage is that the remaining subscribers are at least interested in your emails.
3. Segment Your Lists
If there is one mistake that most marketers are guilty of, it is that they send the same emails to everyone on the list. This is bad news for two reasons:
- Subscribers receive irrelevant emails. Yes, they can just ignore them if they’re not relevant, but you’ll be wasting their time. That’s something that subscribers won’t appreciate. They may decide to unsubscribe or ignore future emails.
- Your messages are generic by nature. Creating a single message for everyone on your list is easier, but you’re sacrificing a golden opportunity to create a targeted message. The better targeted the message, the higher the potential that it will hit the mark, and the better your conversion rates will be.
Start looking at ways to divide up your subscriber list into similar groups of clients. Choose criteria that make sense to you and that could help you to identify the clients that best match your ideal target market.
4. Mobile-First Design
This is something that Google has been harping on for the last few years. It started penalizing sites that don’t display well on mobile devices. That should indicate how important this tip is. You know your clients well – how many will check their emails on their phones?
The chances are that a good many will. This means that your emails need to display flawlessly on mobile. The good news is that if it looks good on a smaller screen, it will look good on any device.
The main things to remember for mobile are:
- Use a single column structure so that people don’t have to scroll from side to side and up and down
- Ensure that the email loads fast. This means keeping it as simple as possible. Make sure that the images used are as small in size as possible, and consider cutting back on the amount of content overall.
- Use a larger font size
5. Create a Clear Call to Action
You must make sure that the call to action is as clear as possible. Tell the client exactly what the next step is. Simplify things further by ensuring that they have only one link or CTA button to press.
Final Notes
Now that you’ve gone through the top five tips, why not learn even more about how to take your email marketing to the next level? Check out the infographic below, and don’t forget to let us know which tip you found most helpful.
