Are your emails as effective as they could be? If you want to use best email practices to breathe life back into your email marketing, here are some tips for better email.
Mobile friendly design
It’s important that your email is readable on any platform because email is more frequently being read on mobile devices.
Make your calls to action more visible by having at least one toward the top of the email. Calls to action below the fold may never be seen.
When designing the email, think about it from the audience’s perspective. For example, would you go through the effort to zoom to push a button in an email? Probably not. Make the buttons large enough to be pressed on a small screen.
Multiple columns and navigation menus are unreadable in emails on smartphones. Keep it to one column and get rid of side navigation. That will make the email less cluttered, easier to scan, and the main text more readable.
Intelligent sending
A positive relationship with email service providers must be created and maintained. You do this by watching to see how your deployments are being interpreted by the providers. Watch your hard bounce-backs, and monitor your sender score. Any problems should be addressed promptly. You don’t want email transmission problems caused by email service providers in the future.
Ignoring this could mean that your time and effort have been wasted because a large portion of your audience may never even see the email.
Simple Multi-channel approach
Because customers will go to multiple channels to find information before a final decision is made, effective integrated campaigns will use multi-channel touch points that remain.
When using multi-channel touch points, remember that your message and design elements need to remain consistent to provide a cohesive brand experience for the customer.
There should always be an effort to reinforce the brand so don’t distract from it by trying out a new design in one customer interaction in a campaign. Keep your message and branding cohesive.
Shift your tactics
Continuously adjust your methodology to get better results. Ask yourself if you are covering your basics well. The basics are: Who, What, When, Where, and How.
- Who is your intended audience and are you reaching them?
- What is your message and is it being received as intended?
- When should you send the emails? Is there a better time or day for your audience?
- How should the emails be presented, is the design drawing the attention of your audience where you want it?
It’s a mistake to think that you shouldn’t mess with a good thing. Your emails may be getting some good results, but your audience will not always respond the same way to the same thing. You will have to be ready to change your approach to keep their attention.
Include Personalization
Recipients prefer personalized content with not only their name but their interests as well. The To and From fields in the email should look personal. Also, dynamic content in the email can include personalized content that shows that you know what they’re interested in, but it should tie in with your offering.
Only use content your audience can easily scan through
Your target audience should be able to completely understand your message without reading all of the text. Using the correct wording in the subject line and every attention-grabbing thing on the page should tell them what they need to know.
If it’s a message they would like to know more about they will then read all of the content or go straight to the call to action.
Avoid long paragraphs of text. Each word must be meaningful and move your audience toward the call to action.
Narrow down the list
Before you send out your email, make sure the list is narrowed to your true target audience. This goes back to the Who mentioned above. Make sure you’re reaching your people. Then you can focus your talking points to them and not a broader range of people that would require a harder sell.
If you can follow those simple tips for better email, then you will be using the best email practices and your email transmission will go off without a hitch.
- Your emails should be short and to the point.
- Integrated multi-channel touchpoints will help your customers make their decisions faster, but make sure that you keep your message and design consistent.
- Your list should include your target audience only so that you can focus your message.
- Include dynamic elements that will personalize the email so your recipient will be more likely to open it.
- Keep email service providers happy by monitoring your sending and watching out for any issues like hard bounce-backs
- Make your design mobile friendly by reducing clutter, making text large and readable, and making buttons large enough to push on a small screen.
- Be ready to make changes to your methods. Your design, message, and even the time of day you send the emails can make a difference in whether your audience will be receptive.
Some of these strategies are easily combined. If your list is narrowed and your message is focused, you can keep your message short and to the point. This will help you to have a mobile friendly email that is clutter free.
Use best email practices and your email transmissions will be more effective. How can you tell which strategies are working for you? Only change one thing at a time when you are making modifications so you have a better idea of what works and what doesn’t. Too many variables will make it impossible to know what it was that your audience liked or didn’t like.
Email is an effective marketing strategy. Make the most of it by using best practices. People are using email more than ever before so now is the time to reach your audience by sending effective emails. By following these tips for better email, your call to action won’t go unnoticed and you can have more effective email transmissions.
