Image courtesy of Maria Mosley’s photostream
Developing email marketing campaigns can be stressful. You spent long periods of time designing an email, proofed every word for hours and spent days coming up with the best subject line you could think of. Now once the email goes out, you look at your analytics report and notice that the open rate isn’t what you were expecting. I have compiled a list of tips that will help make your next email campaign successful.
1. Designing your email – Do not make the entire email one large image; it has the chance to be marked as spam. Keep the width of the email between 500-600 pixels and use a simple layout. Sometimes simple is better. Be straight to the point so you don’t waste your reader’s time. Keep the email wording between one and two paragraphs. If you have more information, link the additional information back to your website.
2. Give users an easy way to unsubscribe from your emails – Legally you have to let your subscribers unsubscribe from your emails. Some companies have a message at the bottom that will say something like “please respond to this email with “stop” if you would like to be removed from our emails”. That can be annoying for the user and for you. Instead, using email marketing software such as Mail Chimp or Constant Contact, which allows you to create a link at the bottom of the email that will link back to their website and automatically remove them from your email list.
3. Link to website – If you are trying to gain business or bring awareness to your company, make sure to create a link to your website page and insert it into your email template. This is easier for the user to find out more about your company than having to back track and look you up through Google.
4. Track your email blasts – It is a wise idea to track your email blasts so you can see how many people opened the email, how many bounced and how many clicked the link to their website. It will give you better knowledge of what email template worked well, times or day of the week. When you schedule your next email you can design, set the date and time correctly. The average open rate is between 20-30%, if your open rate is in that range, that is a good thing, don’t be disappointed if you were expecting 80% or higher.
5. Get creative – Would you open an email that read “Open me”? Don’t just come up with the obvious, try and think out of the box. If you are having a hard time thinking of something, have a brain storm session with some colleagues.
6. Overselling – Avoid using phrases such as click here, free, buy now and don’t delete. Using all caps and exclamation marks will almost always guarantee you email will get lost in spam.
7. Time your email correctly – E-Nor finds it is the best to send out emails on Tuesdays and Thursdays around 11:00am. According to MailChimp, Tuesday and Thursday are the highest volume days. They discovered through their own research that subscribers are more likely to open emails between 2-5pm. But in all honestly, it depends on your subscribers and what their schedule is like. If your emailing people who work at an office, emailing them first thing in the morning might be a good time or if your emailing college students, maybe the evening when they are less likely to be in class.
In all reality, everyone’s inbox is overflowing with work, personal and junk emails. Email marketing is an easy and cheap way to get your message out to your target audience, just don’t overuse. Following these simple tips will help you create a successful email campaign and get your message read.
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