Email marketing is a popular and effective way to reach your customers and make them realise they need your products or services in their life. However, since it’s a popular method, it means that your customers get bombarded with emails from different companies every day. In order to catch their interest and stand out from the crowd you need to be smart and have a waterproof strategy. Nearly 70% of your recipients are likely to mark your email as spam, which is a worryingly high number. To avoid that you must optimise your email marketing in the best ways possible.
We have put together some great methods and tips for you here, enjoy and good luck with your next email campaign.
1. Your subject line must be… COMPELLING!
As mentioned above, there is a high risk that nearly 70% of your recipients will report your mail as spam or put it straight to the trash. This could easily happen if your subject line comes off as too salesy or irrelevant. That’s why you should try to personalise it as much as possible and make it seem more human to connect with your target audience.
Here’s some examples on how to do that:
- Keep it sweet and consistent, use a maximum of five words.
- Include a benefit that your readers will get from reading your email.
- Use emojis (not too many) or questions, to spike their curiosity.
- Include a keyword or meaning which explains why they should read your email.
Think about all the “spammy” emails that yourself receive everyday, and avoid sounding like them.
2. Write conversational copy.
This might come as a no-brainer to some of you, but writing as you speak is actually the best way of selling anything. If you complicate things too much by using a rigid or formal language it will only serve as a hindrance for your readers and immediately throw them off. Be casual but relevant, even try sounding like a friend sometimes in your tone of voice.
Here are some tips:
- Don’t be afraid of acronyms, abbreviations, filler words, and slang (if your target audience also uses them).
- Tell stories, make references, and use analogies (pop culture references, sports metaphors).
- Use contractions to sound less robotic.
- Address your buyer as “you.”
Here’s your chance to connect with your audience and make them remember you, even if they wouldn’t buy anything from you this time, you need to remember that every interaction with your customers is a chance for your brand to claim a position in their mind for future actions.
3. Segment your email list
You wouldn’t speak to your grandmother the same way you speak with your best friend right? Different situations and different friendships require different languages and the same goes for your clients. To segment your email list is one of the best ways to really optimise your marketing strategy. This makes it easier for you to target and adjust the content for the right audience within your customers. This means, you can easily focus on what each segment needs and care about and deliver personalised emails to the right receivers.
You can segment your list by:
- Location
- Customer type (new, frequent, VIP)
- Product categories
- Purchase history
- Demographics
4. Using email automation sequences
There are endless reasons why a customer would leave something in their chart. Regardless of the reason, wouldn’t it be great to have email automation send an email to this client encouraging them to return and complete their purchase? With email automation you can send automatic emails at specific times or when certain conditions are met. For example when a customer leaves something in their chart or when they’ve just signed up to your newsletter. This allows you to nurture leads, drive sales, update your clients with new products and optimise your campaigns without having to send all these emails manually.
5. Optimise for mobile
Today most of the emails are opened on a mobile phone, in fact 80% of emails are read on a phone screen. This means, if your email is too complicated and long, or has images which do not fit properly on a mobile screen, they will not be received very well. Make sure your messages look great no matter which device your clients are using. Follow these tips:
- Maintain shortness by limiting your emails to three or four sentences, and create compelling subject lines.
- Make it scannable: If you’re designing a visual campaign, take web design principles (e.g., using a grid system) and run with them.
- Just have one clear message, if you have many different CTAs your message can be confusing.
- Keep your CTA button at the top, this makes it possible for your customers to take immediate action without having to read the whole email.
- Optimise your website for mobile devices, since it’s probably going to be the next place your readers click on and visit.
Improving your email marketing strategy takes time and effort, these are a few great tips but there are many more ways to do so. To begin, consider the tips mentioned above as a starting point. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so don’t hesitate to experiment and discover what resonates best with your audience, or reach out to us at Manifesto and we’ll gladly handle it for you with our many years of expertise in the field, we promise to optimise your brand to grow and reach new milestones!
