Engage and Convert with These 7 Email Marketing Tips
There are a lot of ways to communicate with customers, and it seems that the options are increasing every day. Despite all of the new methods and platforms, email marketing is still one of the effective ways to generate leads and sales. In one survey, 59% of marketers said that email is their most significant source of ROI. Email is a great way to get in front of people’s eyes, as checking email is the first thing most people do in the morning. With the right strategy, email marketing is still a powerful tool for increasing conversions or sales. Here are seven simple tips to enhance your email marketing ROI today:
Write a Great Subject Line
To increase sales through email marketing, you first need to get people to open up your emails. That makes your subject line the most important component of your email communication. How are you going to get people to open an email? By making them feel they absolutely must do so. If you’re giving a discount, offer it up in the subject line; if you want potential customers to take action by a specific date, express that urgency in the subject line. You can also create a mystery or present a question that potential customers feel they need to figure out, such as: “The one secret about cookies bakers don’t want you to know is in this email.”
Give
Even though your end objective may be selling more of your product or service, people don’t want to receive an onslaught of sales emails from your company every day. People are inundated with messages; take some time to consider what you can give your customers that is useful, interesting, or funny. Thoughtful communication can help you build trust and loyalty with your community, and people are more likely to buy from a company they trust. That being said, customers love a good promotion or sale and are likely to open emails about them. Just be careful not to overdo it — the industry’s best practice is to make 80% of your emails valuable information and 20% promotional.
Make it Personal
Like in IRL relationships, people feel more inclined to listen if someone is interested in them. Your brand can help build community by sending out personalized emails. Personalized marketing emails come in many forms — you can use recipients’ names in the subject line or email potential customers based on particular interests or local region. You could also capture their birthday and email them promotions on their special day. A/B testing allows you to test content with certain communities to see which headlines and content interest them best.
Use Great Design to Get Your Message Across
According to one survey, consumers spend an average of 9 seconds reading brand emails. That means you have very little time to make an impact. This is where great design can make your communications shine. Not only does excellent design make your emails look more professional and reinforce your brand identity, but it can also serve to get your point across quickly. For starters, a single-columned design is the best as it is easily translatable across all media sizes. Additionally, designing text in a hierarchical format where the most important concept is the most prominent and most visible makes it so your potential customers know what you are trying to communicate by just glancing at the email. Then, if they’re interested in learning more, they can head down to the smaller print for more details.
Call to Action
If you want something, you need to ask for it. Before you create your emails, decide what the desired action is. Do you want people to visit your website? Follow you on social media? Read your latest blog post? No matter your goal, it’s important to have clear and visible calls to action repeated throughout your email. A great call to action is clear and concise. For instance, our call to action could be: click here now to read our latest blog post on SEO.
Edit Your Email
Yes, you want to ensure that your email is free of grammatical errors and typos, but it’s also a good idea to give it a read-through for clarity and concision. Some questions to consider before hitting the send button include: Does your email say what you want to say? Is it clear what action you want the reader to take? Have you encouraged the reader to take action? Is your tone on brand? Making sure your copy is on point will make your email campaigns more effective. You can also send out test emails to yourself and co-workers to give the copy and design an overview before hitting the send button.
Consider Accessibility
Is your email accessible to all readers? Consider if the font size is accessible or if you’ve included alt-image tags for people who might not be able to load the pictures. Is your email mobile-friendly? Do you include captions for those listening to the email read aloud? Taking accessibility into consideration goes a long way in building trust and loyalty in your community.
Are you ready to get the return on your email marketing efforts but aren’t sure where to start? Contact The Marketing Dept. for a free email marketing consultation today.
