Did you know that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your consumers? It’s one of the quickest ways to engage an online audience and provides great results. Why is that? One important reason is because your audience permits you to use their email (this is especially true since Canada’s Anti-Spam Laws have been enacted). You enter a social contract with your audience in which they allow you to send them content directly, as long as you will not bombard them with more emails than they can handle.
Now that you know how effective email marketing is, you’re ready to add it to your utility belt. Before you do that, you’d better read up on how to effectively get your users to open your email, and more importantly, click back to your website!
- Consistency
Consistent branding is so important for user recognition, trust, and success! Have you ever received an email from a company you recognized, but noticed their font was off? A detail so small was enough to put you on the defence and ask the big question – is this spam?
Consistency – in even the tiniest detail – is how you build a reputation that matters. This is why your emails should match all of your communications. Stay consistent with your brand, especially if this is your first email. You want your readers to open your first email and think, “Oh yeah, I know these guys!” rather than, “Unsubscribe! Unsubscribe! Unsubscribe!”
When it comes to email marketing, consistency moves beyond brand consistency. You should also know your industry. The frequency of the emails you send should be on trend with what’s expected of the industry. An email newsletter from a local business like a contractor or a doctor’s office should not be arriving at the same frequency as an e-blast from an e-commerce site whose purpose is to remind you of sales.
- Images
People are visual creatures. A block of text must be truly captivating to capture the attention of your audience, and since you’re most likely not emailing your audience the next Harry Potter, you should stray away from dumping large amounts of text in your email and sending it off.
Instead, make images the focus, with short and sharp bits of text to catch your viewer’s eye – or in this case – click. Yes, that means all of your images should also be clickable links back to your website!
- Great Content
Give people what they want!
Have you ever had that crazy aunt that sends a 10-page email newsletter to update the family about her personal life in grave detail once a week? Everyone’s got one. Here’s the problem with your aunt’s email campaign – she’s not giving the people what they want! Her email updates are self-serving, a product of her ego, or a tool to guilt you (you’re not really sure, you never read them). Don’t be that crazy aunt!
Instead, you should remember that content is king and that great content rules the kingdom. So how do you make your email content great? Give the people what they want! Tell them about an amazing sale or promotion you’re offering, give them the scoop on a new product, an exclusive peek at industry trends, or provide compelling and relevant content from your website. Whatever you’re telling them, make sure it’s exciting and it’s relevant. It also doesn’t hurt to have some urgency.
- Relationships
Remember why email marketing works! You know, because of that social contract you entered with your audience when they gave you their email to begin with. Well, use that social contract to your advantage!
You’re building a relationship with this person, and unfortunately, you’re on the side that may get dumped without warning. So, like a good boyfriend, make your email clients feel special!
This means you should personalize your emails! Start your email by addressing the individual you’re emailing. This also means remembering why they signed up in the first place! Deliver on their interests, rather than sending a blanket newsletter to everyone on your list. Go the extra mile.
After all, what separates a great boyfriend from a good boyfriend is remembering your favourite flower rather than getting you a generic bouquet from the grocery store.
- Optimize!
You’ve read about the best days, times, and places to send your campaign. You know that you should avoid sending emails on Mondays or that Tuesday means the most opens. You should also know that everyone planning their email marketing strategy has also looked up the best days and times to send. By sticking to the norms without doing deeper research you risk being drowned out during the most competitive days and times to send an email.
This deeper research depends directly on the type of audience you have – whether they’re an older or younger demographic, if they’re heavy mobile users or if they’re loyal to their PC. The best way to find out the best time to send out your campaign is to do your research. This means that you should always be AB testing!
- Outside the email
An entire world exists outside your email. Your audience’s experience doesn’t end with reading your email – the page you land them on is just as important! This means it should be appealing and reputable. It also means that your landing page should be mobile optimized because 66% of email opens happen on mobile.
Opens and click-through rates mean nothing if your audience is running out the door as soon as they land on your website. This is why integrated marketing is so important for your brand.
So are you ready to kick-start your email marketing campaign? We can help you figure out where to start.
