You’ve probably heard that email marketing is a crucial part of any marketing strategy. After all, who doesn’t love getting something in their inbox every day?
While it’s true that email marketing is important, it can also be tricky to get right. That’s why you need to follow a set of tips to ensure that your emails reach your target audience and engage them enough to keep reading your messages.
1. Personalize Your Subject Lines
When someone receives an email, the first thing they usually do is open it. To grab their attention, you need to make sure that the subject line of your email is intriguing and compelling enough to pique their curiosity. After all, it’s the first thing your potential customer sees before getting to the point of your email.
To find the right words for your subject line, you need to think about what excites you, interests your target audience, and motivates them to want to learn more about your product or service. The subject line of your email should reflect what’s inside- something that will make the reader interested in what you have to say. If you can keep their attention with a compelling subject line, you’re halfway there.
For instance, if you run a car detailing business, you might want to explore using subject lines like “Get Your Car Detailed for Free” or “Save 30% on All Work Done at Your Local Detailing Shop”.
2. Keep It Clean
You never know what kind of spam someone might try to trick you into sending. To prevent yourself from getting flagged as likely to be spam, keep your email clean of any distractions. This means avoiding anything that could potentially lead to a distraction, such as loud sounds, flashing images, or large fonts. The less there is in your email, the less likely you are to be flagged as spam.
Along those same lines, make sure that your links are relevant to the email content and that they lead to a destination that’s relevant as well. For example, if you’re selling luxury goods and your link takes the reader to the site of a fast-food restaurant, it might seem like an odd combination. However, if your link takes the reader to a site about cooking with wine, they may see it as a bonus- it’s something different and it could potentially encourage them to make a purchase. Once you establish a reliable connection between your marketing emails and a conversion, you can use the content within those emails to promote other products or services that are related.
You also need to make sure that the copy within your email isn’t too similar to what’s on the site. If you’ve been around for a while and have developed a reputation for excellent customer service, don’t be afraid to show it off in your marketing emails. After all, a good reputation is something much more tangible than just a pretty face.
3. Measure The Right Things
With any marketing strategy, it’s important to measure the success of your efforts. The same concept goes for email marketing- once you establish a reliable conversion rate from your email marketing strategy, you can start measuring the results to find out which campaigns worked and which ones didn’t.
There are a few different metrics you can use to measure the success of your email marketing strategy, but none of them exist in a vacuum. For example, if you notice that your open rates are steadily increasing but conversion rates are relatively low, that means you’re probably doing something right as far as engaging your audience goes. It also means that your subject lines are intriguing but your calls-to-action aren’t hitting their mark. You can try experimenting with different calls-to-action or trying a different approach to get your call-to-action in front of more people.
4. Use The Right Platform
You need to make sure that your email reaches as many people as possible. That means using a platform that’s widely available and accessible. If you’re looking for a free email marketing software, try out MailChimp. Not only is it incredibly easy to use, but it also has a large audience already built in.
If you’ve never used an email marketing service before, it can be tricky to know where to start. MailChimp has you covered with their beginner’s guide to getting started, which breaks down the various features available and how to use them to best effect. Along with the guide, you’ll also find a list of frequently asked questions that’ll help you get started. With all the information at your fingertips, getting started with email marketing couldn’t be easier. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do this sooner.
5. Personalize Your Follow Up
After the initial introduction, the ball is in your court. Now that you’ve gained the interest of your target audience, you need to keep the momentum going. To do that, you need to continue creating content that’s relevant to what they’re looking for and use that content to follow up with another email. The follow-up email should always build on what was discussed in the previous message. If you have multiple emails discussing different topics, use the contents of the previous emails to craft a standalone follow-up. This will help maintain their interest in what your company has to offer while also encouraging them to come back for more.
Make sure to send the follow-up email not too soon after your initial contact. Letting a few days go by will ensure that the content has had a chance to settle and that their memory of what was said has not faded too much. While a few hours might be acceptable for a quick email asking for a sale, a few days are recommended so you can gauge their interest more accurately. If you need to follow up with more than one email, do it eventually- try to space them out so the user doesn’t feel overwhelmed by too much communication at once.
Final Takeaway
To conclude our list of tips for a successful email marketing campaign, let’s take a step back and review what we’ve covered. At the end of the day, you need to follow a set of guidelines to ensure that your emails reach your target audience and engage them enough to keep reading your messages. To start, make sure that the subject line of your email is intriguing and compelling enough to pique their curiosity. Once they’ve opened your email, keep it clean of any distractions by avoiding anything that could potentially lead to a distraction, such as loud sounds, flashing images, or large fonts. You also need to make sure that the copy within your email isn’t too similar to what’s on the site. If you’ve been around for a while and have developed a reputation for excellent customer service, don’t be afraid to show it off in your marketing emails. After all, a good reputation is something much more tangible than just a pretty face. Finally, make sure to follow up with a standalone email that builds on the interest raised in the previous message. If you have multiple emails discussing different topics, use the contents of the previous emails to craft a follow-up that will encourage more people to read your messages. For additional tips and guidance, be sure to check out MailChimp’s Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing. As you get started, make sure to set benchmarks for yourself so you can measure your success later on. Happy email marketing!