Email Marketing Guide
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 8:34 am
Email marketing gained momentum in the early 2000s with the widespread use of personal email accounts. You may have wondered what the best way to do email marketing is, or whether email marketing is still relevant. These are valid questions. Here are some concrete answers.
Advantages of email marketing
Is email marketing dead ?
Email, and by extension, email marketing, is by no means dead. We'd argue quite the opposite: there's never been a better time to improve your email marketing.*
Email is going nowhere
That little “*” is there for a reason. While we wholeheartedly support email as an integral part of any comprehensive marketing campaign, the other truth is that attitudes around email have changed in recent years. It’s true that open cellphone number philippines format rates for many marketing campaigns are declining. But at the same time, email as a medium is gaining in popularity. 73% of millennials say they prefer to receive marketing information via this channel over any other (social media, text, paper, etc.).
Furthermore, a whopping 99% of Internet users use email and say they check it at least once a day.
Pay attention to user experience
There it is, the warning you knew was coming. Email is a solid medium for getting your message out. Not only that, it's an incredibly good way to reach the Millennial generation, the largest generation to date.
But there are some things to do differently .
And most of those things revolve around user experience—that is, it’s about how your reader interacts with and digests the information you share. For example, if you only send emails when you have a sales pitch, you’re going to lose readers. Fast.
These days you have to mix things up; send your email list a regular newsletter filled with interesting and relevant facts about your industry and where your company stands. Send exclusive offers to subscribers only. Send links to recently published opinion pieces on your blog.
All of this is to keep your audience engaged with your message. Exclusive offers show that you value their subscription, and links to your blog show that you do more than just sell widgets.
And finally, make it personal. From a catchy subject line to tailored content, let your audience know that you care about them and value their time and attention. Let them know that you won’t waste that trust by serving them 24/7 advertising or sending them links that don’t interest them or their lives.
Advantages of email marketing
Email Marketing Best Practices
So yes, when done right, email marketing is still a solid way to generate leads and convert prospects for your business.
Here are some email marketing best practices to help you generate more leads.
1. Never buy contact lists
Your entire email campaign depends on open rates. If you’re contacting people whose information you purchased rather than gaining the information from a previous interaction, you’ll see your email performance decline. Plus, the GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation) requires consent from every European recipient before you reach out, and purchased lists typically don’t have that consent.
2. Don't use the do not reply option in the sender's address
This prevents recipients from replying or unsubscribing, which is a problem since CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003) protects recipients' right to unsubscribe at any time. Plus, your customers are more likely to open emails from someone, even if it's just because of their first name. Don't make it harder for anyone.
3. Keep visual clutter to a minimum
Never use more than an absolute maximum of three fonts, and don't require recipients to scroll horizontally to view the entire email.
4. Optimize the preview text
Customize the preview text, usually the first few words of the body of the message. Don't let your email system insert messages you don't want as part of the preview text. This can usually be done through your marketing automation tool.
5. Use an email signature
People are more likely to read and listen to your email if they know it's coming from someone, so include a signature from a real person.
6. Keep a clean email list
Your open rate plummets when you keep addresses of people who haven't unsubscribed but never open your emails. Periodically look for those who haven't engaged over a certain period and remove them from your list.
7. Pay attention to the content at the top of the page
Up to 70% of recipients won’t see your call to action (CTA) if it’s below the fold (requires scrolling). Include multiple CTAs throughout your email in different locations and formats, making sure at least one is above the fold. Keep your main message above the fold, too.
8. Get personalized
People like to receive personalized messages. They may know it was made by a computer program, but it still feels personal to them, and they like that. So use your email tools to set up your greeting to automatically include each recipient's name in the greeting.
9. Use welcome emails
This lays the foundation for a strong relationship while also checking for deliverability, which in turn helps keep your list clean. If the welcome email generates a hard bounce, you’ll know you need to remove the address from your list.
The welcome also confirms that the subscription has worked and lets people know that what they have requested is on the way. Offer something valuable or exclusive to the new subscriber and improve the click-through rate.
11. Use a confirmation link for opt-in
There seems to be a near-universal hate among marketers. The reasoning seems to be that insisting people go through an extra step will reduce sign-ups and negatively impact metrics. In our opinion, quality trumps quantity. That extra step may cause some people to drop out of the process. However, those who stick around for that extra click are demonstrating a stronger desire to receive communications from you, and to us, that sounds like better contact.
12. Do a lot of A/B testing
Advantages of email marketing
Is email marketing dead ?
Email, and by extension, email marketing, is by no means dead. We'd argue quite the opposite: there's never been a better time to improve your email marketing.*
Email is going nowhere
That little “*” is there for a reason. While we wholeheartedly support email as an integral part of any comprehensive marketing campaign, the other truth is that attitudes around email have changed in recent years. It’s true that open cellphone number philippines format rates for many marketing campaigns are declining. But at the same time, email as a medium is gaining in popularity. 73% of millennials say they prefer to receive marketing information via this channel over any other (social media, text, paper, etc.).
Furthermore, a whopping 99% of Internet users use email and say they check it at least once a day.
Pay attention to user experience
There it is, the warning you knew was coming. Email is a solid medium for getting your message out. Not only that, it's an incredibly good way to reach the Millennial generation, the largest generation to date.
But there are some things to do differently .
And most of those things revolve around user experience—that is, it’s about how your reader interacts with and digests the information you share. For example, if you only send emails when you have a sales pitch, you’re going to lose readers. Fast.
These days you have to mix things up; send your email list a regular newsletter filled with interesting and relevant facts about your industry and where your company stands. Send exclusive offers to subscribers only. Send links to recently published opinion pieces on your blog.
All of this is to keep your audience engaged with your message. Exclusive offers show that you value their subscription, and links to your blog show that you do more than just sell widgets.
And finally, make it personal. From a catchy subject line to tailored content, let your audience know that you care about them and value their time and attention. Let them know that you won’t waste that trust by serving them 24/7 advertising or sending them links that don’t interest them or their lives.
Advantages of email marketing
Email Marketing Best Practices
So yes, when done right, email marketing is still a solid way to generate leads and convert prospects for your business.
Here are some email marketing best practices to help you generate more leads.
1. Never buy contact lists
Your entire email campaign depends on open rates. If you’re contacting people whose information you purchased rather than gaining the information from a previous interaction, you’ll see your email performance decline. Plus, the GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation) requires consent from every European recipient before you reach out, and purchased lists typically don’t have that consent.
2. Don't use the do not reply option in the sender's address
This prevents recipients from replying or unsubscribing, which is a problem since CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003) protects recipients' right to unsubscribe at any time. Plus, your customers are more likely to open emails from someone, even if it's just because of their first name. Don't make it harder for anyone.
3. Keep visual clutter to a minimum
Never use more than an absolute maximum of three fonts, and don't require recipients to scroll horizontally to view the entire email.
4. Optimize the preview text
Customize the preview text, usually the first few words of the body of the message. Don't let your email system insert messages you don't want as part of the preview text. This can usually be done through your marketing automation tool.
5. Use an email signature
People are more likely to read and listen to your email if they know it's coming from someone, so include a signature from a real person.
6. Keep a clean email list
Your open rate plummets when you keep addresses of people who haven't unsubscribed but never open your emails. Periodically look for those who haven't engaged over a certain period and remove them from your list.
7. Pay attention to the content at the top of the page
Up to 70% of recipients won’t see your call to action (CTA) if it’s below the fold (requires scrolling). Include multiple CTAs throughout your email in different locations and formats, making sure at least one is above the fold. Keep your main message above the fold, too.
8. Get personalized
People like to receive personalized messages. They may know it was made by a computer program, but it still feels personal to them, and they like that. So use your email tools to set up your greeting to automatically include each recipient's name in the greeting.
9. Use welcome emails
This lays the foundation for a strong relationship while also checking for deliverability, which in turn helps keep your list clean. If the welcome email generates a hard bounce, you’ll know you need to remove the address from your list.
The welcome also confirms that the subscription has worked and lets people know that what they have requested is on the way. Offer something valuable or exclusive to the new subscriber and improve the click-through rate.
11. Use a confirmation link for opt-in
There seems to be a near-universal hate among marketers. The reasoning seems to be that insisting people go through an extra step will reduce sign-ups and negatively impact metrics. In our opinion, quality trumps quantity. That extra step may cause some people to drop out of the process. However, those who stick around for that extra click are demonstrating a stronger desire to receive communications from you, and to us, that sounds like better contact.
12. Do a lot of A/B testing