Email marketing can be an extremely valuable tool to make sales and bring in new customers for your company. This aspect of digital marketing should not be ignored, and is definitely something your business should focus on doing well. From finding subscribers to the actual content of your emails, here are some keys to successful email marketing campaigns.
Encourage people to subscribe with a discount code or giveaway
Campaigns only work when they’re reaching enough people. No matter how great your content is, if it’s only being sent to 25 people, you’re not going to see many results. That is why it is so important to constantly be growing your email list. And one of the best ways to encourage this growth is by offering a special discount or deal people can only access by becoming a subscriber. It doesn’t have to be huge: even a coupon for 15% off their next order, or an entry in a giveaway for a gift card, can be enough to entice extra people to subscribe.
Send the right number of emails
Another aspect of email marketing besides the content that is important for success is the frequency of emails. You don’t want to overwhelm subscribers with the number of emails you’re sending, to the point that they get annoyed and unsubscribe. But you also want to be contacting your email list often enough that you stay at the top of their minds. Make sure you’re hitting the sweet spot in terms of frequency, in between too often and not often enough. Usually, one or two emails per week is plenty to provide your subscribers with all the information they need without becoming a nuisance.
Write an attention-grabbing subject line
Once you have a solid plan in place to grow your subscriber list and you have decided on an appropriate frequency, it’s time to get into the real focus: the actual content of your emails. Your content is what will determine how many of your subscribers open your emails, read them all the way through, click on links, and take actions from the emails.
You always want to kick things off with a catchy subject line. Draw people in and grab their attention with a short and intriguing subject. You’ll want to hint at the main subject of your email in a clever way. Anytime you have a sale, discount code, or offer in an email, that is a great thing to highlight in your subject line.
A word of caution though: don’t go overboard and try to get too witty or creative. If you take it too far, your subscribers may miss the point you’re trying to make, or your messages could even seem like spam.
Incorporate movement
Movement catches the eye and keeps attention more than still images. This has been seen to be true in all forms of digital marketing, and email marketing is no exception. Make use of movement in your emails to capture the attention of your readers. This doesn’t have to be an expensive or time-consuming endeavor. If you have full-blown videos you can make use of in your emails, that is great. If not, simpler options like GIFs and stickers can have the same effect.
Offer Exclusivity
People like to feel special. Offering an exclusive deal or discount in your emails can really help you spur action from your subscribers and increase success. If you include an offer in your emails that customers can’t get anywhere else, that will really encourage them to make use of it, and will increase your trackable sales from those email efforts. The exclusivity makes any deals you offer feel more limited and special, and encourages quicker action to make use of them.
Avoid Wordiness
This tends to go hand in hand with incorporating movement. You do not want your emails to be stuffed full of long paragraphs and blocks of text for your subscribers to read through. Keep things short and sweet, while still getting your point across.
One of the best ways to do this is to make use of visuals, graphics, and videos to tell your story, instead of just using words. Instead of a written list of instructions for a recipe you’re sharing, try a short video that shows each step in the process. Instead of listing out the specials you’re running this week, include an image of each, and a graphic describing what each consists of. The less full blown sentences and paragraphs you need to use, the better.
Branding
The final key to success for any email marketing campaign is the use of consistent and clear branding. You want to make your emails as recognizable for your brand as possible. Any aspect that you can customize, you should. Throughout your emails, make use of colors, fonts, and logos that are associated with your brand. Any part of your email that looks standard or generic should be redone to become customized for your brand. By paying attention to and making use of the 7 tips above, you can help your email marketing efforts really thrive.
