Email is one of the most popular channels for businesses to connect with customers and potential clients. It has a high ROI, and is a great way to build trust and loyalty with a target audience.
However, it’s important to understand the importance of building a quality list and maintaining your subscriber base. An unsubscribed or spammed list can negatively impact deliverability rates, and damage your brand reputation. A low-quality list can also result in low open and click rates, which can lead to a loss of subscribers.
If you’re looking to start or improve your email marketing strategy, here are some best practices to keep in mind:
Creating valuable content is the most important element of any successful campaign. Email copy should be concise and compelling, while still conveying a clear message. Infographics, maps and charts are a great way to communicate product benefits in an easily digestible format.
Images are another important aspect of effective email marketing, and can help increase the engagement and conversion of your emails. Ensure your images are high-quality, don’t violate any copyright laws and are optimized for both desktop and mobile devices.
A quality email distribution list is essential to success, but many marketers make the mistake of using rented or purchased email lists. These lists often include fake email addresses, are full of spam trap hits and other bad addresses and can cause serious deliverability issues. Maintaining a high-quality subscriber list can take time, but it is well worth the effort.
Emails should be sent regularly to keep your business top of mind with your audience. Ideally, emails should be scheduled to send at the same time each week or day. This will help ensure that the audience is consistently receiving a regular stream of valuable content, and won’t miss an update or special offer.
An effective email should be engaging, with a clear call-to-action and a link to your website. Including a social media handle in the footer of your email is a great way to encourage people to share your message with their friends and followers.
It’s also important to personalize your emails as much as possible. Using the subscriber’s name in the subject line or first line of the body of the email is a great place to start. Adding a person’s name to an email shows that you care about them as a customer, and makes them feel special. Using their first name in a personalized email increases the likelihood of it being opened, compared to a generic title such as ‘Dear Customer’. Using dynamic personalization within the body of the email is a powerful way to further increase engagement, such as by suggesting similar items that they may be interested in, or offering a discount on a product or service they have previously viewed.