3 Quick Tips for Email Marketing.
Email marketing can be a great way to re-engage potential clients and current customers. You can distribute helpful information, promote a limited time offer, and drive traffic to your website. There are a lot of factors that play into your open rate, click rate, and conversion rate, but here are 3 crucial details that are essential for getting your email subscribers from seeing your email in their inbox to taking a desired action.
Email marketing is a great way for small businesses to promote sales offers and encourage website visits - without spending money on ads.
Write a Benefit-Oriented Subject Line
Nail down in less than 9 words why your email will improve their day with an obtainable benefit. Use action words and descriptive language to pique curiosity and encourage them to click on your email. This element is what makes the difference between a 10% open rate and a 60% open rate.
Craft together a unique subject line that avoids sounding click-baity and appeals to a direct benefit. Capitalization does not always matter, but using an emoji once in awhile can boost your open rate, as it causes your email to stand out in an inbox full of plain words.
Make your outlined benefit clear and concise. If you are promoting a sales offer, outline the offer and how long it will be available. If you are promoting a blog, include the benefit of the topic you wrote about. If you are just trying to drive more website traffic, try and think of an attraction that would pique the reader’s curiosity to click and learn more.
For example, if you are promoting your 20% discount on in-store purchases only through the weekend, your subject line could look something like this: 20% Off Any In-Store Purchase Ends Sunday.
If you are distributing your latest webinar video about how to run Google Ads for small businesses, your subject line could look something like this: Triple Your Conversion Rates with Google Ads, or 3 Mistakes That Waste Thousands of Google Ad Dollars. Include something that is directly relevant to your audience and appeals to an immediate benefit or pain point.
Subject lines are virtually the sole determinant of whether or not your emails get opened, so it wouldn’t hurt to take a look through Optinmonster’s list of best email subject lines.
Personalize Your Email’s Content
If you are using an email marketing platform like Mailchimp, you can personalize your email content. Add a personal touch to each email by using merge tags that replace each piece of code with a user’s name, company, significant date, or other piece of relevant information that is specific to them.
Including a name in the subject line or preview text can help tailor your email to each individual audience member and help increase open rates. It can also be very helpful in the body copy of the email for situations where you have a very similar message that you need to send to several people, but do not want to send it dozens of times manually, just to change a couple minor details.
For example, if you are sending out an email to notify a customer that their monthly subscription is due, you can replace each subscription amount with a merge tag that pulls their specified amount from their audience profile. Instead of sending dozens of individual emails that say “Hello, your monthly subscription amount of $12 is due tomorrow,” you can send dozens of emails at once with the text “Hello |FNAME|, your monthly subscription amount of |AMOUNT| is due tomorrow.” That way, you can streamline automation and add a personal touch.
To read more on merge tags and how to use them, check out Mailchimp’s merge tag cheat sheet.
Make Your Email Content Clear and Concise
Write your email the same way you would write a sales letter. You are presenting an opportunity to the reader and ending it by requesting an action. Don’t clutter your email with mass amounts of irrelevant text. Stay focused on the primary objective of your email and write for your audience.
Use language that they would use and don’t provide overwhelming amounts of detail. Irrelevant detail is where lots of email marketing journeys fall off. You should be able to convey your message in less than 10 sentences, or less than 125 words. Only under specific circumstances will your audience want to read a long email. Try and keep your copy down to one or two paragraphs.
Make your content relevant to the reader. Know who you are writing to and avoid generic terms that don’t directly apply to them. There is a reason email marketing platforms allow you to tag and segment your audience, and you should be utilizing that tool to target your messaging down to a T.
Most importantly, don’t be boring. Your email needs to take your readers from point A to point Z, and you can’t do that without a little excitement. In less than 125 words, tell your audience why they got this email, why it will benefit specifically them, and what they need to do right now in order to achieve that immediate benefit. Write to them as an individual, rather than a group. Make it feel like an organic conversation that they would be interested in.
When you are writing content for email marketing campaigns, always keep in mind who you are writing to and the purpose for your writing to them. If you are trying to re-engage potential clients, give them a reason to be interested in what your have to say and click to learn more. If you are trying to promote sales, clearly state your limited time offer and tailor the content of the message to your audience. If they often purchase dress shirts from your store, write about saving money on dress shirts.
When participating in email marketing, one crucial element is knowing how often to contact your audience. Too many times and they’ll unsubscribe quicker than your got them on your list. Not enough, and they’ll forget about your brand and disconnect from your relevance. 1 - 3 times a week is not a bad number for local businesses to start out at. Just avoid sending out several emails a day.
Lastly, Your email content should be engaging and should include relevant links. Add imagery when possible to help catch their eye and keep them engaged. Above all else, your content needs to be persuasive and laser-focused on getting them to take action. Appeal to them, draw them in, write directly to them, and entertain them with value.
By following these key guidelines for email marketing, you’ll be converting leads increasing your repeat sales in no time.
