Email marketing is not dead. In fact, even with the popularity of social media, it remains one of the cheapest, most effective marketing tactics available today. When it’s done right, that is–the do’s and don’ts of email marketing are important to keep in mind.
There are many types of email marketing, and people are bombarded with several different forms of digital advertising every single day. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and the cost effectiveness of email marketing proves it to be an evergreen tactic (with an insanely high ROI of 4400%!!), there’s definitely a right and wrong way to do it. The last thing you want to do is send people unsolicited spam. A good email marketing campaign should cut through all that noise with compelling, targeted, and action-oriented content.
But how exactly do you do that?
Irresistible and Skimmable Copy
While there are definitely shorter forms of digital marketing, the best marketing emails should be able to convey a compelling, strong message in a short amount of space. With phones, people can open emails anywhere and everywhere nowadays (mobile friendliness is another important component). However, if they’re receiving a large amount of emails every day, they’re not going to spend a lot of time reading, especially marketing ones.
Before you can get them to skim your email, though, you have to get them to click into it in the first place. Studies show one of the most effective ways to catch a recipient’s attention is through an eye catching subject. There are several ways to get someone’s attention through a subject. One common example in email marketing trends of a subject strategy that increases email marketing engagement is something that tells the customer they’re missing out on something. Subjects like ‘Your exclusive offer expires today!’ or ‘You’re missing out on points’ appeals to customers because people like to feel like they’re getting a good deal at just the right time.
Any email marketing specialist will recommend you always keep your brand voice consistent across all platforms. Though, it should be noted customers respond better to friendly, casual language in emails. Research shows they also tend to pay more attention to emails that have a person’s name rather than the brand name in the ‘From’ line. You just don’t want to be overly friendly to the point they want to choose ‘opt out marketing email.’ On that note, be sure to always provide an “unsubscribe link” at the end of your emails.
Goals and Target Audience In Mind
Every campaign, not just email ones, needs a goal and a target audience. Most email marketing goals are quantifiable through open click rate email marketing. You can measure how well you informed, attracted, engaged, and converted through the open click rate numbers.
Targeted email marketing will look different depending on the specific outcomes you have in mind, the product or service you’re selling, and the size of your company. Small business email marketing, for example, is not going to have the same goals as a company like Nike, because their reach is much smaller. Small businesses tend to focus more on increasing their email marketing deliverability.
One of the many benefits of email marketing is how many people you can reach. However, it’s still important to send these emails at the right time. The best time to send out a marketing email is generally going to be a weekday. This is because most people don’t check their emails on weekends. If your marketing reach is international, it’s important to keep in mind when these emails will be hitting people in different time zones.
Call To Action
The entire point of marketing is to get a potential customer to do something. Marketed emails should inform and attract enough to get the recipient to click something. Good email marketing design will have a good mix of visuals (photos, gifs, nice color palette) and copy. One of the most important aspects of email marketing design, though, is making the call to action button stand out. You don’t want the recipient to have to scroll a bunch to find it. Additionally, it should look different than everything around it. Every email marketing agency should have a graphic designer that knows effective email design.
A Good Marketing Email
The advantages of email marketing speak for themselves. As a company, you want to build long term relationships and establish brand loyalty with your customers. With the right words, each email you send should facilitate a genuine connection along with revenue. Tracking metrics will help guide your future campaigns, no matter what size business you are.
