Three tips to create email campaigns that cut through
Over 246 billion emails are sent and received each day – and over 67% of those are spam.
With email one of the few media channels your business maintains full control and ownership over, it’s one of your most valuable marketing channels; so how do you cut through the noise and create emails that convert?
It starts with understanding the value of your subscribers (they are worth their weight in gold by the way), and giving them high quality, relevant content that considers where they are in their journey with you and helps them solve a problem.
Here are three tips to help you create email campaigns that cut through
1 PERSONALISE
Every person on your subscription list is different – whether they have different interests/needs/desires, or whether they’re brand new to your business or a long time fan. Use tags, groups, and fields within your email list to segment your data, which you can use to deliver customised, relevant content to the right person at the right time.
In action
B2B: request new subscribers select or note their title or department when opting in to your list, or include as a category you update each month. Directors or Managers are more likely to be key decision makers and will be interested in very different content or material compared to an end user, administrator or productive team member.
B2C: add one or two fields to your sign up form to collect location information or interest areas / hobbies depending on your product / service. Use that information to send targeted campaigns, for example if you’re running a sale at or for a certain location.
2 QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
We all get lots of clutter in our inboxes, but when we know to expect high quality, relevant and interesting content from a provider, we’ll actively engage or filter those out from the rest. Instead of worrying about how often you should be communicating to your list, focus instead on the objective of your campaign and be crystal clear on how your message will help your reader.
In action:
Use this checklist to help you create a quality email campaign:
Does the subject line and preview text set expectations of the email?
Have you personalised the content – either including a name or segmented based on interest / relevance?
Are your hyperlinks useful?
Does your email help solve a problem
3 REVIEW AND REFINE
Email marketing isn’t something you should set and forget. When you start each campaign, begin with the end in mind, asking yourself “What do we want to achieve, and how are we helping our reader”. On completion of the campaign (within 7 days) review key metrics including open rate and click through rate. Use this to refine your copy and content. You should also analyse your unsubscribes at least monthly.
In action:
When it comes to analysing unsubscribes, be sure to review the reason (if provided). The top three reasons people unsubscribe are:
Too many emails from the sender
Irrelevant content
Looks like spam
If the contacts unsubscribing from your list are in your target market and they have nominated one of these reasons, you’re making a mistake with your content and you should review and refine your next campaign.
When you treat your subscribers how they deserve by providing personalised, high quality, and relevant content, email can be an incredibly powerful tool to engage people with your business, product, or service - and should be a staple in your marketing mix.
I’m putting together a special series dedicated to maximising your email marketing efforts, including simple tips, tricks and tools you can use to create great emails, with ideas and inspiration on how to grow your email list.
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