Email marketing can sometimes be thought of as a little ‘old fashioned’ by some people, especially with social media and new platforms growing in popularity all of the time. It definitely isn’t going anywhere though, and it’s one of the strongest digital marketing strategies you can have. Think of it this way, it’s one of the great ways to really connect with your customers, to keep them up to date, to share your latest offers and news and also, a brilliant way to share exclusive content as well. If you spend any time exploring brands online, you’ll definitely have noticed everyone wants you to subscribe to their newsletters or mailing list. It’s because email marketing DOES work.
In this article I want to share some top tips, but if you’re completely new to email marketing, you’re more than welcome to get in touch and we can go over the basics!
Top Tip 1
Make a plan! Yes, as with anything you do online, it’s always best started with a plan of action – and especially with email marketing. Who are the audiences you want to target? Will you divide these into groups? Perhaps your current clients, people who have signed up but never purchased off you – the options are endless. The emails you will send will be full of great content, so it’s good to plan that in advance – how often will you send emails, and what will each one focus on? Of course if it’s just an update e.g. social media news, then perhaps the topic isn’t as important. A plan of action though, will definitely help you.
Top Tip 2
Spend time on your designs. If you choose to use an email marketing platform like MailChimp for example, you can create email templates. I’d highly recommend spending time to make sure you’re happy with your design and template, is it easy to read, is it attractive?
Top Tip 3
Think hard about your subject line, and your preview text (the blurb that will show before someone opens your email). If your inbox is anything like mine, you’ve signed up to plenty of newsletters over time, but they all sort of merge into one set of emails you never open. So, you need to make YOUR subject line and preview text enticing, snappy, and encourage your subscriber to open it. Use emojis if you want!
Top Tip 4
Think: writing for the web. Yes I know it’s an email, but that doesn’t mean an essay or letter will work. Keep in mind that your subscribers are reading on their screens, and it’s treated very much like content on websites. Keep your sentences short, stick to one topic per paragraph and follow a logical structure. If you’re not confident writing for the web / your new emails, why not send the content to family and friends first for their opinion?
Top Tip 5
Here’s a big one – use email psychology to help get the results you want! We’re quite predictable in the way we react to things, us humans. Things like the colour of buttons, call to actions, pictures used, testimonials, personalisation – it all helps to get those results. For example, an excited photograph of a person with their new items, with some testimonials – what a great way to create a ‘fear of missing out’ emotion!
Email marketing is a huge subject, and I’ve only covered 5 top tips here in my article this month. There’s lots of extra resources available online, and I’d definitely recommend searching and reading around the topic to really give a boost to your email marketing strategy.