Email marketing is one of the most powerful forms of internet marketing. You can sell your products and services, affiliate promotions, etc. Imagine if you’ve just created a new product or service you want to offer to your customers and being able to sell it via email. If you’ve already built up an email marketing list then you’ve got a potential goldmine of sales right there.
However, the reality of email marketing is that it’s not as easy as it seems. Just because you’ve got a list of contacts and a new product or service that you’ve poured your heart and soul into, doesn’t mean that sales are just going to fall into your lap. People receive all sorts of emails everyday and the reality is that many of them don’t even get opened.
The task is getting people to open your emails in the first place to see what you have to offer. According to the latest research we each receive around 75 non-spam emails per day. So think about that when emailing your contacts. Now your first and foremost job is actually getting them to open the email.
If you don’t grab their attention then you will never be able to tell them about your new product or service, or whatever else it is you are offering. There are a number of things that you can do that will help get your email opened. So let’s get into how to make your email marketing campaigns stand out.
1. Get personal
Make sure your emails are personalised. People want to know who is sending them mail so make the email personal. You can do this by making sure that the first and last name of the most visible person in your company shows up in the “From” line; you can add your company name after that person’s name. Another great email marketing tip is to make sure you address the recipient by their first name. If you can’t get a person’s first name then at least use the company name so they know it’s not spam.
2. Use a compelling subject line
Your subject line needs to be compelling because it’s one of the biggest reasons why a reader will open your email or not. When coming up with a compelling subject line for you email marketing campaign try to mention a benefit to your reader. Avoid things like “free” or exclamation marks in your subject line as they are spam triggers.
3. Make the pre-header count
You need to make everything count in your emails and this includes the pre-header. The pre-header is the little sentence in the super small font that appears at the top of your email. On mobile devices this is often the first sentence your reader sees after opening an email.
4. Orient yourself to mobile devices
More and more people are starting to use mobile devices to read their emails so you need to prepare for this. The first four words or 50 characters of your subject line are the most important so you need to make sure that you frontload the most important words in your subject line. You can even use a program called Litmus to see how the subject line appears across a range of email programs and devices.
5. Hook your reader with the opener
You’ve got your reader to open your email with a compelling subject line but it’s not over. You need to keep them reading and you do that by making sure your opening line is one that is attention grabbing. You can do that with an interesting anecdote, shocking statistic, asking a question, or even addressing one of their biggest problems. You need to hook them quickly if you want them to keep reading.
6. Focus on your reader
The rest of your email needs to answer a very important question that every reader subconsciously asks, “What’s in it for me?” You need to give them a very good reason to keep reading.
7. Include a call-to-action
A call-to-action is something that you absolutely must have. You should have only one call-to-action so you’re not confusing your reader. That can be things like Sign Up Now, Join, Shop, Donate, Buy, etc. You should have the same call-to-action scattered throughout your text in at least three places. You can do so with buttons, emails, text, and links.
8. Segment your list
You don’t want to send the same email to everyone on your list because it looks like a mass email and spammy. To avoid this you should divide your list into target markets based on things like hobbies, gender, basic demographics and psychographics.
In Conclusion
Email marketing is by far one of the most powerful tools at your disposal but only if used properly. There is a lot of work that goes into crafting a great email and one of the biggest problems you’ll face is not only getting people to open the email but read all of it and then take the action you want. Hopefully this post will outline some key email marketing solutions to help you compose an email which will generate more success for your business.
What kind of success have you had with emails? What do you think your biggest sticking points are?