How do you send marketing emails which hit the balance between informing your audience without boring them? How do you even entice them into opening your emails? We explain how to run effective email marketing campaigns, with a spot of insider knowledge.
Use a nice, clear opt-in to boost your email marketing audience
If subscriber sign-ups to your email campaign are flagging in the first place, you may need to re-evaluate your opt-in methods. You’ve probably seen websites which use a pop-up or a box in the sidebar asking people to sign up. They can work, and they can also become horribly annoying! Anything which blocks your content is getting in the way of the very thing which bought a visitor to your site.
Less annoying is ‘sign-up for value’. A website which uses high-quality, highly relevant copy promises emails which deliver more of the same. If they’re interested, then they’ll sign up for your emails.
Some people like to offer a free download or ebook in exchange for subscriber details. We’re a bit on the fence about this. It can work, but some users may resent it.
Keep your marketing emails concise
Use the marketing email as a signpost, rather than the main event. You’re more likely to achieve a decent click-through rate if your recipients can pick the headlines that interest them, and follow the link to your site to read more. So nail those headlines down tight!
Where’s your call to action?
What do you want your recipient to do as a result of the email you send? Invite them to your website, for instance? Links, buttons, written instructions, they all work so that your readers know what to do next.
Easy now, tiger
Don’t bombard your recipients! They’ll get tired of deleting emails without reading them and many will eventually unsubscribe.
If you can, try to space out your emails so they’re not all bunched together. Lots of updates can be combined into one email if that’s appropriate. Remember what we said about using ‘headlines’ so that your reader can follow the rest of the story to the website if they’re interested. Little things like that mean they won’t have to wade through other stuff to get to the bits they like.
Send a test email
SEND A TEST EMAIL. Most email marketing platforms allow you to send a test email to yourself and wow is this important. No matter how many times you check, some mistakes just don’t appear until you see the preview. Use it to ensure that formatting is correct, links work and that copy reads correctly.
We beg you. Don’t ever skip this step. Emails are not something you can take back and this could affect your reputation.
Spam filters as far as the eye can see
Spam filters are something you’ll come up against with email marketing. To avoid getting flagged as junk, there are guidelines on email marketing websites such as MailChimp or MailerLite, and they’re well worth a look.
Try including code into the header of your website or updating your DNS records to authenticate your domain. It tells the filter that you’re a professional source, as does sending emails from a business account, and not Gmail.
Spam filters are also more likely to flag up some phrases more than others. ‘Open this great deal’ and “don’t miss out” are both email killers. Spam filters also treat emails with lots of multicoloured text or exclamation marks as suspicious. Some email clients are also wary of loading images inside emails by default, and often require the user to give permission first.
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