HOW TO CREATE SUCCESSFUL EMAIL CAMPAIGNS
Email newsletters are an essential part of an online marketing strategy. They normally offer one of the highest returns on investment but they also need to be well designed in order to obtain successful results. Have a look at the tips below and find out how to improve your email campaigns!
CHOOSE A PLATFORM Decide how you want to start sending your newsletters. You can opt for one of the several free online platforms or use email marketing software. Email marketing software solutions produce better results, they allow sending the campaign to an unlimited number of recipients and usually present a larger number of tracking and analytics options.
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PLAN YOUR CAMPAIGN It is important that you spend sometime planning your campaign before actually sending it. Make sure you know the answers to the following questions before drafting your first newsletter:
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BE RELEVANT Subscribers to your newsletter want relevant information to your products or services. Once you have identified your market segment you need to think about sending them targeted messages. Segment your newsletter list and try to develop specific offers for each target audience. If you create really specific and relevant campaigns you’ll have more chances of obtaining a successful outcome with your newsletter.
Who is you target audience? What are your objectives? What do you want to achieve? What is your budget? What will be considered as successful?
THE SUBJECT LINE The subject line is probably one of the most important parts of an email marketing campaign. It is the first point of contact, use this to make the reader open the email. Keep the subject line simple and make sure you’re telling the reader what to expect inside. Don’t use certain words like ‘free’ or ‘important’, these might trigger spam filters.
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ESTABLISH A VOICE Establish the way you’re going to communicate with your readers on your newsletter. You can adopt a formal or personal tone, once you’ve made your choice try to be consistent.
INFORM YOUR SUBSCRIBERS Communicate what your newsletter is about to your potential subscribers. Promote it on your site or blog with a short description.
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DESIGN A STRONG CAMPAIGN When you design your campaign you need to consider aspects such as:
o Offering readers the choice of both text and HTML versions of your email o Placing the logo of your company/brand on the top of your email. o Making sure you place the most important part of your message on the top 2 to 4 inches of your email design. This is the prime reading space. o Keeping the design simple and consistent. Avoid using too many colours or fonts. o Naming all the images so readers can know what they are if they’ve chosen the text version of your email. o Linking all your images to the relevant URL. o Including links to your social media profiles and your website o Making sure you include an unsubscribe link in the footer of your campaign.
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INTEGRATE YOUR EMAIL Combine your email campaign with other types of marketing strategies such as social media. Creating an integrated campaign will produce better results, reaching more channels and users.
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BUILD VALUE You need to make sure that you’re providing some kind of value in every campaign that you’re sending.
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If your subscribers don’t feel that they are being offered something new every time they receive one of your emails they will probably end up unsubscribing from your newsletter.
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TRACK RESULTS After you send your campaign track your results. Most online services and email marketing software will let you see how people are engaging with your newsletter. You can check how many people open your newsletters, what links are being clicked on and analyse all your results. Checking your analytics is important as it will help you determine if your campaign is working. It might help you consider changing the subject line or the content of your newsletter if you see that the results that you’re obtaining are much worse than what you were expecting.
Experiment with different designs and layouts. You can also use newsletter A/B testing to see what designs work better among your readers.