There are literally hundreds of ways for companies to communicate with their consumers but email is still the leading channel for gaining the best ROI. If you’re not seeing the results you want from your emails there’s a chance you may not be executing your strategy as well as you think.
Design for Mobile
Email remains the most effective digital marketing tool for both B2B and B2C marketers but the majority of email activity now takes place on mobile devices. Two-thirds of all U.S. emails were opened via mobile in the first quarter of last year. Half were accessed on smartphones, and 17% occurred on a tablet. With this many consumers using mobile to view email it’s extremely important that your emails are optimized for mobile usage. Try sticking to less text with enlarged fonts. Also make sure you have single column layout streamlined content and easy to use CTA buttons.
Subject Lines
Subject lines are one of the most important parts of an email. Without a strong subject line your email may not get opened and therefore your content will not be seen. Consider the types of subject lines that stand out to you and the content in your email. You want to peak the interest of the reader enough that they want to open your email without giving so much away they don’t need to see the content.
Call to Action
Make sure your email includes a clear call to action. If you decide to have multiple calls to action try sticking to clear and simple buttons to redirect your audience as not to dilute your message. It’s important to tell your readers what you want them to do or where they can go to find more information. Your email should mainly contain the highlights of the information you share and the other end of the CTA should be what completes your message. Whatever the action you want them to take, just make sure it’s loud and clear. And remember—with mobile, the finger is the new mouse, so make sure it’s really easy to click.
Promotional vs. Educational
Email is a great tool for featuring products and selling but don’t forget that email is a COMMUNICATION tool not just sales tool. If all you do is send products and promotions to your customer they may become bored and your open rates may drop. Share what you know and let them know how much you know. Think about a “How To” video, a blog that better educates the consumer on a specific product you offer, or a newsletter on the current happenings of your business.
A/B Testing
Which will perform better “Shop Now” or “Learn More”? A/B testing is the best way to learn the answers to these types of questions. You can do this by creating 2 versions of the exact same email but with slight changes such as the wording used, colors, or sizes of buttons. You should always be optimizing and retesting your various email campaigns. You can harvest detailed stats and begin to refine your future campaigns.
Targeting Practice
Don’t forget to keep your audiences in mind when sending email. Sometimes it’s best to create short, but highly targeted emails specific to one segment of buyers rather than one long email with a variety of content. Keep the segments of your audience in mind and try to think of 2-4 specific buying audiences that you can cater to. If this doesn’t make sense consider this; think of General Mills sending out one huge email with all of its cereal brands versus 4 brand specific emails to previous buyers. Chances are the 4 specific will get more engagement because it’s directed to the specific consumer.