Want to achieve extraordinary results through email marketing? Here are 10 best practices to consider for your next email marketing strategy.
1. Customize email content.
One-size-fits-all email marketing campaigns won’t do much to keeping customers interested, engaged, or loyal to your brand. According to DMA, 75% of email revenue comes from personalized content. An eMarketer study also reveals that when email customization is involved, it results to at least 120% median email marketing ROI.
Tips to creating emails exclusively for target audience:
- Take advantage of the most recent customer data you’ve collected for personalized email copy.
- Highlight subscriber-relevant products in your cart abandonment reminders.
- Add location-specific images and videos to make recipients feel relevant and excited.
2. Schedule smart.
The best day and time to send automated emails to target audience depends on customer needs and preferences. However, aggregated research in 2021 concludes that it’s on Thursdays between 8am and 10am. Consider recipients’ time zones – these may be different from yours. And be conscious of not sending too many emails too frequently to increase open rates.
3. Pull people in with your killer subject lines.
Most people would just skim through subject lines and either ignore the email completely or send them straight to junk. That means you should do everything within your power to get the target audience to open it, not to get opens at any cost.
Set yourself up for success here by including the following:
- The recipient’s name
- Action verbs
- 30-50 characters tops
- Action verbs
- Attention-generating but tasteful emojis
Things that turn off recipients:
- All uppercase letters
- Typos
- Spammy keywords (free, buy now, urgent)
- Overuse of emojis
- Mismatched subject lines and email content
4. Try segmentation-triggered automation.
Segmented email campaigns, according to SuperOffice, leads to 94% open rate.
How to get started with segmentation:
- Segment by sales cycle: For new prospects or early-stage buyers, send an industry research white paper or newsletters. Free trial offers, one-on-one demo, or other transactional emails are more suitable for returning customers or those ready to make a purchase.
- Segment by company size: Small businesses have different needs, resources, and budgets than large businesses. Consider these factors when creating email copies to send.
- Segment by industry: Do your email recipients deal directly with consumers or other businesses? B2B emails must contain real data on how they can save time and money. B2C emails, on the other hand, is all about how to capture the attention of target audience effectively.
5. Inspire action.
The success of any email campaign performance reflects on whether subscribers have taken action that you expect them to take. Make sure that your email design and CTA placement make it easy for readers to know what to do next. Keep them visible, easily accessible, and hard to ignore
6. Send mobile friendly emails.
When emails are not optimized to subscribers’ choice of device, what do you expect will happen? Mostly, readers will ignore it, delete it, or worse – unsubscribe.
Did you know that mobile-friendly email campaigns generate 4x revenue than those opened from a desktop while 55% of smartphone users are encouraged to complete the buying process due to mobile-optimized messages?
Ways to optimize your campaigns for mobile devices:
- Utilize responsive email design (RED) to enable the best possible user experience regardless of device.
- Keep the subject line short and sweet.
- Make the CTA big, bold, and easy to click.
7. Make your emails skimmable.
In a fast-paced world where everyone is rushing off to do something or has little time to spare to get things done, one effective email strategy is to communicate your message as quickly as possible. This will help capture the attention of those who are ready to go through the entire buying process.
- Create the content in a way that makes it easy to read and understand.
- Use bullet points or lists to state the main idea of your email.
- Put out your offer in a highly visible place so that they don’t have to scroll below the fold just to get to the point.
8. Use a double opt-in.
This gives readers the freedom to choose whether to stay signed in or not. A double opt-in email should be placed above-the-fold, putting emphasis on the confirmation button.
9. Put the footer to good use.
There’s so much more you could be doing with your footer other than just providing the unsubscribe button, company address, and all legally required information. It must be structured in such a way that reassures readers that they will be able to reach a real person in case they want to reply.
Some ideas to include in email footer:
- Your unique selling proposition e.g. worldwide free returns or 100% money-back guarantee
- Logos of sites or brands that features your company or content
- Customer quotes acting as a social proof
10. Use a professional email marketing tool
Your business is bound to grow, and so does your email list too! With a dedicated email marketing tool, you have access to data-driven metrics that can help improve your email strategy and performance.
What is the goal of your email marketing strategy?
It all depends on your goal – whether you want to achieve more opens, more conversions, or more revenue per email sent. Sign up for a free trial with Riptide and maximize potential opportunities to connect and engage with your target audience.
