Email marketing can be an effective means of increasing sales and driving conversions, but to achieve these results you need to make sure that you are effective at getting your message across. A poorly designed campaign, whether due to uninspiring content or a lack of valid email addresses, is likely to get lost in the crowd of competing emails, while one that is well-designed and checks off the relevant boxes can be well worth the time spent devising it.
1) Use a subject line that sticks out. Cutting through the clutter of emails found in most email inboxes can be difficult, so make sure that you use a subject line that leaps out at your prospects and maximizes the chances that they will open the email to find out more.
2) Format for mobile viewing. An increasing number of emails are first read on mobile devices. As a result, it makes sense to design your emails so that they can easily be read on the smaller screens such mobile devices use. Make sure mobile readers don’t have to scroll too far to see your call to action, and format your emails so that your text will fit on a standard-sized mobile screen.
3) Offer inducements. Let’s face it; people love a bargain, especially when economic times are tough. Giving your email recipients the chance to get a discount or other special offer is a surefire way to pique their interest. Of course, your prospects can’t take advantage of an offer they don’t receive, so make sure you use an email address checker to verify the addresses on your list.
4) Monitor results. Email marketing is part art and part science. Your expertise in regards to your business can go far when it comes to designing a campaign, but to refine your campaigns going forward it is crucial to monitor the results to see what is and isn’t working. Are your subject lines too bland? Is your call to action poorly placed? Gauging the results of each email you send using performance metrics is crucial to getting a feel for which elements of your campaigns are doing well and which are not.
5) Refine your campaigns as necessary. As the results come in, make changes to the composition of your emails to improve your open and click-through rates. Email marketing is not a static endeavor. Customer tastes and preferences will change over time, so just as it makes sense to regularly clean up bad emails from your list, it also makes sense to keep a close eye on the various features of your campaigns and make changes as needed to keep performance strong.