How to make your email marketing campaigns go further

Email marketing can be a big part of your overall marketing strategy, working together with other components of your business to produce results. Follow our top tips and make sure that you get the most out of your email marketing strategies to make your campaigns go further.

Engaging subject lines

The first thing your subscribers will read when they receive your email is the subject line, so you need to make it engaging and curious enough for them to want to open and read on. You could have great content inside the email but, if you can’t get a user to open it, then all that effort will go to waste!

There are several different ways that you can engage with subscribers, from short and snappy subject lines; to using visuals such as emojis. You can ask a question to make the user curious – Do you need help with your marketing campaigns? – or use a sense of urgency, particularly if you’re promoting a sale for an e-commerce website; Hurry! 60% off sale finishes this Saturday could prompt users to make the most of the sale, particularly if there’s a time limit involved.

Also ensure that your email involves engaging preview text, after the subject line; this is the next thing that your subscriber will see, so this needs to be just as engaging and concise to help grab your readers’ attention. Tie this in with your subject line, so if you ask a question there, you could provide some of the answer in the preview text.

Segmentation

Segmenting your email database gives you the ability to send personalised emails that are tailored to specific groups with the areas of your business that they want to hear about the most. This works particularly well within e-commerce; for example, if you have a clothing brand which sells both menswear and womenswear, let your subscribers select what they want to hear about. If users select what they want to hear about most, they’ll be more likely to engage and ultimately, make a purchase.

There are all kinds of ways that you can segment your lists, including the behaviour, age, gender and locations. Targeting these can really help to put you on the front foot with future personalised email campaigns.

Snazzy designs

A well-designed email will keep subscribers engaged and reading, not to mention they’ll be more likely to click through to your website or landing page, rather than discard it after a brief scan. Having call to actions throughout your email – purposely made to stand out – will help increase click through to your website. Also consider other interactive elements, such as videos and gifs. Quality imagery will also catch your subscriber’s eye but only if it renders perfectly across devices and looks tidy; for example, if you have a table layout of product images, ensure these are all the same height, as mis-matched images will look messy.

“You only have 3-5 seconds to connect in email. You need to grab their attention and get them prepped and excited for the next stage in their journey. In 2018, marketers should be looking to treat email like social and bring in more bite-sized, entertaining, sticky content.” Litmus.com

Be aware of the content that you are including in your email; too much written content can cause the reader to switch off, whereas short and snappy content will most likely keep them engaged. Or perhaps your subscribers prefer longer content opposed to short and snappy; this would be a good opportunity to judge what your database respond to with some A/B testing.

The importance of testing

It’s good to regularly test numerous elements within your emails to see what works for your business and helps you to generate results. A/B testing is a great way to work out best performing subject lines, the best time and day to send your emails, and which designs work best. It can also help you work out whether your CTA’s are being clicked and what type of content helps engagement and conversions (e.g. content-focused, promotion or sale).

It’s also important to test your images and layout when you’re in the building stage, particularly as designs will vary on different devices or browsers. Your emails could look great on desktop but awful on mobile or differ drastically across email providers.

There are many different things to think about when creating an email campaign, which is why testing is very important! Keep a log of your tests and pay attention to both your open and click through rates, so you know what works and where to improve.

We’re experts when it comes to all things email marketing and love helping our clients develop strategies that work. If you’d like to speak to us about creating strategic and impressive email automations, get in touch today.