Your email marketing campaign success is often based on a lot of complex factors. But a lot of these issues can be strategically managed so that you ensure an optimized response from your list. In this post I have written 8 tips that’ll help you improving your email marketing.
So, following are the things you should take care when developing your next email campaign:
1. Your email marketing software
The most important thing before starting any email marketing campaign is it select a trusted email marketing software. There are hundreds of email marketing software out there to choose from. I personally use GetResponse for my email marketing campaigns because of the pool of features it provides. You can choose whichever software you like but just keep in mind that it is affordable and has high delivery rate.
2. Your list.
One of the most important aspect after selecting an email marketing software is your list which is directly correlated to the success of your email marketing. Are your subscribers fresh? Have they agreed to be marketed from you? Have they shown an interest in products or services similar to your own? Make sure that your list is willing to hear from you.
3. Your subject line.
Getting any user to open your email is paramount in any email marketing campaign. The best way to determine the subject line that works best is to do A/B testing. A good way to do this is by breaking your list into three random yet equal groups and sending emails to them with different subject lines. Measure the response to each group and see what’s working. Then use the best one in consideration and in the follow up emails, try to copy the pattern.
4. Your sender information.
What info appears on the sender line of your email? Will your prospects recognize it? Do you use a brand name or a your personal name? Do they want to hear from you or your brand? A lot of times, emails get lost in the inbox without ever being opened due to an indiscernible sender name. Your sender name should be familiar to your list and always remember to use the same name throughout your campaign.
5. Track your results.
Tracking allows you to determine the statistics of your sent emails including who opened your email and who clicked on a link or multiple links within your email or even how many of them went unopened. By determining what worked and what didn’t, you can replicate success on your future emails. As described above, tracking is mainly important when testing subject lines, embedded links, and other direct response vehicles. For tracking it is important to choose an email marketing software that provides you complete control over the analytics of your emails.
6. Make sure your unsubscribe method is in place and working.
The CAN-SPAM act of 2003 requires that all the emails in any email marketing campaign must contain clear directions on how to unsubscribe from subsequent mailings. Provide an unsubscribe mechanism that allows subscribers an easy way to opt-out from receiving further emails from you or your business. And by the way if your recipients don’t want to hear from you, why waste your time sending them emails or keeping them on your list unnecessarily. Most of the email software providers today automatically add the unsubscribe option under the emails so you don’t need to worry about it.
7. You’ve used alt tags in each image
If you send HTML emails I must warn you that most of the people will not click on “Show Images” to enable viewing of images. So it is best to use ‘alt’ tags to your images if you are sending HTML emails. Almost every email client now a days disables images automatically. So, having alt tags in place will allow your readers to identify the images and there will be no loss of information.
8. Test, Test, Test!
Finally, the key to success in any email marketing campaign is to test, test, test! After each email marketing campaign, measure your opens, click-throughs, and purchases. Carefully analyze the data and document the specific dates, time, list, subject lines, and content used that produced you maximum results. Then each time you create a new email campaign refer back to the data collected and manage it accordingly.
Emails doesn’t have to be a complex form of marketing. There are a lot of best practices you can follow and some simple rules that ensure effective delivery, open rate and conversion. Just follow these simple rules presented in this article and you’ll not only be able to deliver effective email campaign, but you’ll also discover a consistent method for generation revenue for your business.
