Email marketing is one of the best ways to reach your customers. It’s quick, free and measurable. But you have to do it well to get the response you want – and that’s where lots of businesses hit a brick wall.
Here are our top ten email marketing tips to give your mailings a boost.
1. Know your audience. You can’t sell everything to everyone. Instead of sending out an email to your entire database, think about who is most likely to be interested in the product or service you’re trying to sell and then just send the email to them. Your mail is more likely to be opened, and then more likely to be relevant.
2. Get your subject heading right. This is the text that persuades the recipient to open your email. It needs to be short, snappy and compelling – remember that most email software doesn’t display the full subject text, and many of your prospects will be getting your email on their phones or tablets, where space is at a premium. Getting this right is a key part of how to make email newsletters successful.
3. Have a hook. A hook is something that makes the reader look twice, tells them something they didn’t know or intrigues them enough to make them read on. For business clients, the hook might be about how much money they could save. For consumers, it might be a special offer, money off, or an exclusive treat.
4. Think link. The great thing about creating demand with email newsletters is that you can include a link to your website. This not only drives traffic to your site; it allows you to take your readers to exactly the right spot. For this reason, never just link to your Home page. Always link to the sales page for the product or service you’re talking about. If you don’t have one, you can create one specifically for your email marketing campaign. The easier you make it, the more likely your customers are to buy.
5. Remember mobiles. An increasing number of people read their emails on their smartphones rather than on a PC or laptop screen. That means you have to keep your email short and sweet. Start it with your hook and compelling offer, give a bit of detail and the link you want them to follow, and then sign off.
6. Be friendly. Remember that people get lots of emails and choose pretty quickly which ones to read and which ones to delete. Keep your style light and conversational; avoid business jargon and make it clear how you can help. If you need help with tone and content, virtual assistants and online marketers can point you in the right direction.
7. A picture or two. Don’t flood your email with pictures. They often need to be downloaded separately and they can make your email slower to load – and slow loading means people just delete and move on. Use a relevant, good quality picture, preferably one that is actually of your product or the people in your business, rather than a stock photo.
8. Personalise if you can. People react far better to personal communications. If your email programme allows you to, address the emails by name, and also personalise the recipient’s company name if you can. It immediately makes the whole email much more interesting and relevant.
9. Have a call to action. Your reader should always know what to do next. If you want them to call you, make sure your number is clearly visible, and that whoever is answering that number is aware of your campaign. You might want to set up a dedicated email address so that you can track responses, or get people to sign up to an event. Always know what your call to action needs to be and make sure it’s clearly signposted in your email.
10. Test and revise. The great thing about all digital marketing is that you can change it quickly if you need to. So test your email on a sample audience before you send it to everyone, and change what doesn’t work so that you have a greater chance of success in the long term. To save time, you could outsource the testing activity to a company that provides virtual assistant services.
Why not start putting these top ten email marketing tips into practice with your next email campaign? It could help to tighten up your message, increase the number of people who open your email, and convert some of those readers to buyers.
If you’re short on time and think you could benefit from our email marketing services for small businesses, or you’d like to know more about our online assistant services feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or use our contact form in the menu above.