Mexican Media Brands
5 Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing Campaign
The enemy of email marketing is the full inbox. Information overload puts subscribers on the defensive and is a drag on open and click-through rates, often to the point where email campaign ROI goes underwater. Nevertheless, successful email marketing is possible. The 5 suggestions that follow will enable you to subdue the full inbox enemy, and improve results.
Share
By Brad Shorr, Director of Content Strategy
Straight North
The enemy of email marketing is the full inbox. And who, these days, does not have a full inbox? Information overload puts subscribers on the defensive — they look for reasons not to open an email, not to read an email. Information overload is a drag on open and click-through rates, often to the point where email campaign ROI goes underwater.
Nevertheless, successful email marketing is possible. All five of the suggestions that follow will enable you to subdue the full inbox enemy, and improve results.
1. Test, Test, Test Subject Lines
Bad subject lines = no opens. What is a good subject line? There are mountains of theories, statistics, trends, expert opinions and best practices, but the only way to know for sure which subject lines work for your business is to spend plenty of time writing them — and even more time testing them.
To start writing subject lines, think in general terms about what a subject line can say that would make your subscribers want to read the email. You’ll probably come up with a list that looks something like this:
- Convenience
- Fear of missing out
- Hearing news first
- Learning something valuable
- Savings
- Solving a problem
- Urgency
Compose subject lines around these themes, and hone them to the right length and style. Then split test to see which themes get the best results. Ditch themes with poor results, and going forward, refine thematically effective subject lines (and the content that goes with them) through continuous testing.
2. Keep It Short
Keeping emails short, over time, makes subscribers more apt to open and read them. In a full inbox world, Short + Useful = Success. The key is to make every email short so subscribers know what to expect. When I say short, I mean short. For example:
3. Segment Mailing Lists
The more tightly your email list is targeted, the more relevant the email content will be. Emails that say too much, that cover too many themes, and that lack consistency are symptoms of an email list too broad to effectively communicate with anyone.
The nature of your business determines the best way to slice and dice the list — by geography, customer size, type of product/service used, etc. Once you’ve identified your audiences, write content that speaks to them and only them.
4. Implement Mobile Design
If subscribers open your email on a mobile phone, you must deliver a great experience. Most major email management platforms have mobile templates that display when a mobile device is being used. Selecting and tweaking mobile templates should be done with care. In the old days, “mobile-friendly” was good enough. Today, “mobile-first” is the design philosophy that ensures an outstanding user experience.
5. Market Your Marketing
Just about every business website in the world has a little sign-up box that says SUBSCRIBE TO OUR EMAIL. But this leaves BIG questions unanswered:
“Why should I sign up for your newsletter? What’s in it for me? Why should I add one more thing to my already overstuffed inbox?”
If the marketing of your email marketing doesn’t answer these questions, then you will never be able to add a critical mass of relevant, engaged subscribers.
Text above and below the subscription box should state the email’s value proposition, wherever that box appears on the website and company blog. The name of the email and any header text should further reinforce the value proposition, to strongly remind subscribers why they signed up for it. Phone and field sales reps should be trained in how to explain the value of the email and encourage customers to subscribe.
Give people a good reason to read your email, and read it they shall!
Need more information?
Brad Shorr
https://twitter.com/bradshorr
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradshorr/
Straight North
Downers Grove, IL
630-824-2172
About the Author
Brad Shorr
Brad Shorr is Director of Content Strategy at Straight North, a leading Internet marketing company in Chicago that specializes in SEO, PPC and web design services. With more than 25 years of sales and marketing experience, Brad has been featured in leading online publications including Moz, Smashing Magazine and Entrepreneur.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Technology Trends Every B2B Marketer Should Be Aware Of
This article covers five technology trends that you should be aware of in 2022. Getting hold of any or all of these would mean staying relevant and on top of the growing competition.
-
Email Isn’t Going Anywhere. But Gosh, It Needs to Change.
Email isn’t going anywhere. There are other communication channels trying to get in the game, but email is still very strong, and we have to get smarter about how we’re using it. The days of list buying, and spamming customers has to change. Just because others are still leaning on the old school methods of finding an address and spamming you doesn’t mean you have to. Get ahead of the changes before it’s too late. Here are a couple ingredients for that secret sauce to step up your email game.
-
AI Can Revolutionize Your Content Marketing
AI is taking content marketing by storm allowing you to build smarter strategies with content that’s more personalized than ever before. AI can influence everything from your graphic design to your email marketing campaigns and provide real-time reporting on your content performance. Leveraging AI is the smart move - let’s see how it’s done.