EMAIL MARKETING TIPS TO GET BACK TO BASICS

You’re familiar with email marketing, or maybe even well-versed in it, but what if you aren’t getting the results you expected from your efforts? If this is the case, rest assured you’re not alone. While email marketing tends to generate great returns, you’re bound to run into some issues along the way.

Before you panic and give up on your email efforts, go back to the basics and make sure you’re getting those things right. Use these email marketing tips and best practices as a checklist to ensure your email campaigns have a solid foundation.

Use Email Validation Services to Clean up Your Recipient List

Before getting into the contents of your emails, first, make sure that the right people are receiving them. Chances are you have multiple campaigns intended for different segments. If you don’t have these divided by segments, then sending every email to everyone on your email list can be hurting your results.

No one likes to have their inbox overrun with tons of emails from one brand that they have no interest in. This will cause your recipients to simply delete all of your emails, unsubscribe, or send you to spam. Go back and double-check that your segments are right so your next email campaign reaches the right people and has more of a chance to reach success.
Cleaning your email list positively effects your data reliability.

Keep Your Audience in Mind

Once your segments are taken care of, you also have to keep in mind that your emails are meant for a person. This may sound pretty basic, but after some time creating campaigns, you may not even remember that a human is reading and interacting with your content.

To make your campaigns effective, it helps to have a very clear idea of who you are sending these emails to and how you hope they interact with them. Metrics and data will help, but keeping a specific person in mind while creating images, CTA’s, and all that other copy will give you a clear target. Think about what that person wants and why they’ve subscribed to your email list in the first place. It will become unbelievably easier to create campaigns that interest them and that will help you reach the results you want.

What Is Your Goal?

Defining a goal for a campaign can mean a couple of different things, so let’s focus on what you want recipients to do. Your campaign may be intended to increase purchases of a product, introduce customers to a new product or feature, or you may just want your readers to head to your blog or subscribe to your newsletter. Once this is clear, you’ll have a clear aim that will make putting your email campaign together much easier. Everything from writing copy to choosing the design of your email will be better focused on achieving your goal.

Many marketers struggle with the question of how many emails they should be sending. There isn’t a correct answer for this because it will depend on your brand and what you’re offering or trying to communicate. Since you likely have different segments, then the total amount of emails you’re sending a week won’t reach all of your customers.

Of course, limit your emails to campaigns that are worthwhile so that you don’t overwhelm your recipients. Keep a schedule to keep them all straight and so that you can keep track of how many you’re sending out to each segment. This will help you get a more visual understanding of how many campaigns you have going on so you don’t overdo it.

If your emails aren’t helpful or don’t interest your audience then they’ll get tired of them, so focus on the value of the content and if it makes sense for your audience.

Check Your Copy

When creating an email campaign, there are a few written elements and you need to get them all right. Email copywriting can seem like a puzzle that is impossible to crack, but it’s definitely something you’ll get better at with practice. For all of the elements, you’ll want to keep the same voice and style. The main elements you’ll want to simplify:

• The sender– You may not consider this copy, but think about what your email will look like in someone’s inbox. If the sender looks fishy or it’s unclear that the email is from your brand, your email may go directly to the trash.
• Subject line– The subject line is also visible when an email makes it into a recipient’s inbox. Because of this, it’s important to make it enticing while also keeping it short so that it doesn’t get cut off. You basically want to convince the receiver that your email is worth opening. There’s also a case to be made for using emojis in the subject line.
• Calls to action– Don’t overdo it with the CTA buttons. Limit your emails to just a couple of buttons and make them eye-catching by using color and positioning.
• Body copy– Don’t overthink the body of your email and do your best to keep it simple, clear, and to the point. Whatever your goal is, make this the focus of your email. Avoid making your email about multiple subjects since this can be too much for readers. Limit your text and make your email visually appealing with a natural flow.

You’re not done just yet. A/B testing your copy is also a must. Don’t just settle with what you have. Try out different subject lines to see what gets the most opens, experient with CTA placements and colors to see what gets more clicks, and play around with the body copy.

Use Attractive Images

Images should play an important role in your email campaigns. If you’re not sure how to structure your images, look for email design inspiration or a template that can give your email an effective format. Generally speaking, your images should be large and clear while also contributing something to the body copy. These should be attractive and illustrative.

Don’t overdo it with the images since this can affect load time. It also helps to compress and resize your images so that they aren’t too heavy. To make this easier, use an image cropper to get the perfect dimensions. Don’t forget the alt text for your images just in case they don’t load.

One final word on images! Don’t send your emails without first testing them! You want to make sure everything looks sharp, perfectly aligned, and that the email loads quickly.

Optimize for Mobile

A lot of people will check their email on mobile, so it makes sense to make your email campaigns mobile-friendly. If you skip optimizing for mobile, you may be missing out on a big chunk of traffic and revenue.

Before sending out your newsletter or any other campaign, send it to yourself and a few other people to test your design. To make it perfect for mobile users, limit the text, make sure your fonts are easy to read, and that your images are attractive on a mobile screen.

If you’re using a template, find one that scales down automatically so that you don’t have to do too much extra work to get it right. It’s also a good idea to think about including a shorter subject line because space is even more limited on a smaller screen. Fast load time is basic when it comes to email best practices, but this is something to revisit when optimizing for mobile.

Email Marketing Made Easy

You may already be doing some of this, and you may even think you have all of it down perfect, but it’s worth checking in on this periodically. Going back and making sure you’re sticking to the basics and best practices can help keep your campaigns from veering off the right track. To get the best results, focus your efforts here before moving onto more elaborate planning.

Congratulations, now you are ready to create an amazing email marketing campaign!