Have you updated your contact list recently? Have you added new clients or made sure your database updates automatically? Try and make this a regular process, any eager customer you delay adding to your list is an opportunity missed. From here you can consider grouping them based on behaviours or demographics. You could group new subscribers from the last three months to send a newsletter introducing them to your brand, unique selling propositions or products. This is basic email segmentation and the more customer information you can gather to do this, the better. Who you are sending your content to is the most important part of the whole process so do what you can to grow and optimise your database.
Every time you send an email, decide on your goal first. Do you want to make sales? Do you want to generate traffic to your website? Do you want to educate your audience and build trust with your brand? Decide on this first so you can optimise your content accordingly. Consistency plays a big role in any form of digital marketing success, and email is no different. By setting clear goals and objectives you will be able to plan your marketing schedule and decide what emails you need to send, and when, for best return on investment.
It doesn’t matter how good your email is if no one opens it. Your subject line should be short, succinct and grab the attention of your audience without any false promises. There’s nothing worse than opening an email to find out that it’s clickbait. Eliminate any filler words but try to ask a question or promote the most vital part of the email. That means if you’re having a sale, say so. If you’re answering a question your audience may have, pose it in the subject. If you don’t have anything to pinpoint that adds value to their inbox, you shouldn’t be sending an email in the first place.
A pre-header is that little bit of text under the subject line when you sift through your inbox. Consider this another opportunity to grab your subscribers’ attention and get them to open your email.
Your email should be a stepping stone to another platform. One of the most important elements of achieving your sales or marketing goal is to ensure you include a ‘call to action’ with each piece of information you share. Are you promoting a value adding blog post on your website? Summarise it and ask your audience to click through to read the full article. Are you trying to sell a product? Highlight a key feature or offer and have them click to shop. Keep it short, to the point and engaging. This isn’t the place for a long essay. Remember email is a sales and marketing tool, not your company blog.
This is the fun part. There are a number of ways to design emails from basic templates to custom design and custom coded options. Regardless of the avenue you choose to go down it’s important that your email is highly visual, which means it should be more image heavy than text. Include large images or animations or try adding GIFs if you really want to level up. It’s also important to utilise your company branding. If this is strong, it should be easy. Make use of bold colour, consistent choices of font and of course, your logo.
If you’re after a custom eDM or a step-by-step in all things email marketing, get in touch with us here.
