ISD’s Top 7 Email Marketing Tips
If you haven’t read it yet, I previously wrote a blog explaining why your business should be using email marketing and so to follow on I’ve compiled some of the most important tips on starting an email marketing campaign. When it comes to customer retention and customer acquisition, email can be instrumental.
Incentives
What are you offering the recipient in the email that they are going to benefit from? This may seem noticeably easier for an ecommerce site as there is plenty to offer from discounts and savings to new items and stock. There are many other reasons for users to sign up to your newsletters whether it’s for the latest blog articles, company news, charity work, fundraising, recipe tips etc.
Compelling titles
One of the main things to watch and analyse on your emails is the open rate which is simply the number of emails that have been opened that you sent out. Take a look at your inbox now and count how many you have left unopened, maybe 30 odd or is it more like 300?
Now look at the ones you have opened, what made you click on them? More often than not it was the subject/title. Seeing “HURRY! 50% off ends today!” is more likely to be opened than “September newsletter of information” (hopefully no one has ever sent out an email titled like this!)
* Also make sure they’re no more than 9 words or 50 characters long.
Calls to Action
So you’ve got them to open the email, well done! But what do you want them to do now? Whether it’s to ‘shop now’ or ‘sign up’ to an event in the future make sure there are clear CTA buttons on the email. – Just stick to one though.
Branding
This may seem obvious but make sure the email matches your brand. Use the same colour scheme as your website; put your heading and company name at the top as well as social sharing buttons. Similarly use the same type of language, in order for email marketing to work it must feel like your company is talking directly to the recipient. Not an email robot.
Keep it short
Yes you may have lots to say this month but don’t be tempted to say it all word for word in one email. Decide whether to divide them up or to write enticing sections that like to your blog where people can find the full story. Remember that users have an attention span of 8 seconds and keep this in mind when writing.
Images
Generally speaking understanding and connecting to an image is much easier and faster than understanding text. Social media posts which contain images receive more likes, shares and retweets than those which don’t and emails are no different. If the content is image based anyway such as a new product then it goes hand in hand. But for those that don’t even a good stock image can generate a positive impact. We recommend using unsplash.com for high resolution scenic photos.
If you want to see a great example of a newsletter, why not sign up to our mailing list below and see ours for yourself. We keep you updated with the latest news, blog posts, events that we’ve attended.
Compile a mailing list
Before any email marketing can take place you need to find a way to get subscribers. Offer your users an incentive to join your email list think what’s in it for them. If you’re a content whiz kid and you regularly post and share relevant information your users will want to subscribe anyway. Create an easy to find subscribe button and put in the websites header or footer.
Always make sure you have the consent of the recipient before sending out your mailing list – this is especially important if you want to send to people already in your address book.