Marketing
Email Marketing Best Practices
By Ryan Parlee
There are two types of people in the world. The type who let their emails stack up in their inbox, with thousands of unread messages, and the type who clicks on spam emails for the sole purpose of getting rid of that pesky notification icon on their desktop or phone. Some keep their inboxes in tip-top shape with categories and folders for organization. Others let the emails pour in with not a care in the world.
Whether you’re more email OCD, or you’re the laid back emailer with 4,000 unread messages, there are some emails that come through your inbox that you actually want to click on and read. Crazy, right?! These emails that are well timed, cut through the clutter and are useful to you. They’re optimized for the device you are on, and you spend a little bit of your time actually reading the content (or at least the headers) of it. These emails aren’t stacking up in inboxes or spam filters, they’re being read. They’re the elite emails of the world, and they’re the emails you want to be sending for your business.
Email marketing can have a large impact on your business, and there are several tactics that will bring you more success with your email marketing campaigns. Here are a few of them:
GET TO THE POINT
When you’re sending an email, have a goal. Don’t just send an email for the sake of sending an email. If you do that, you’ll end up stuffing people’s inboxes with fluff, and sooner or later, your recipient may get fed up and unsubscribe. According to a recent study, there are several big turnoffs people have with email:
The big turnoffs
1 / Receiving too many (44%)
2 / Not relevant content (37%)
3 / Text too small to read and interact with (32%)
4 / Not mobile optimized (26%)
So the first thing you have to do is define a clear goal. What’s the point of your email? Your emails should add value for your recipient, not ask for it. Create emails that give your recipient value, whether it is educational or helps them complete a task, providing value is an important part of nurturing this contact.
DON’T GET DOWN
Building a database of email subscribers takes time, and so does creating the content for each email. You may feel like you want faster results, but increasing the quantity of the emails being sent will not bring faster results. And when you see that click rate? You may get a little down. An average email sees a 2-7% open rates. So when your click-through percentage seems pretty small, remember that click rates under 10% are healthy. Increasing your open rate largely relies on having an effective, attention-getting subject line.
The open rate is important, but even more important is the click rate. This metric shows that people are actually engaging with your email. Your subject line got them hooked and brought them into your email, but if they lose interest and choose not to interact with your email, you’re still not accomplishing your goal.
NOW IT’S PERSONAL
Be sure to personalize your email where appropriate. Adding that extra touch of personalization will make your reader feel like they’re not just a number on your list. Consider having the sender be a person at your company instead of just the company itself. Along with this, it’s important to stay true to your brand in your emails. Consistently use your brand’s voice and attitude. An email is yet another touchpoint where you can strut your branding stuff, don’t miss that opportunity.
No matter what type of person you are in the email world, we can all agree on one thing: Using email best practices are much better than just blasting out an email with no strategy at all.
