Email marketing is a tricky business, but like any project, you need to start with a strong foundation. The success of your email marketing campaign can hinge on a few things like timing, design, and content—but falling short in just one of these areas could be enough to land your efforts in the trash folder. The below list highlights key components that you may have considered, but often go overlooked. Having all these elements in line for your next deployment are a great first step to achieving the open and click-through rates you’re aiming for.
We read hundreds of subject lines every day, but how many of them really grab hold of our attention? When planning your next campaign, be sure to craft a brief yet interesting subject line that inspires curiosity. Keep it informational, letting customers know what your email is all about, but do try to make it as irresistibly clickable as possible. Use action verbs and colloquial language when necessary, but be sure to avoid words like “Free” or “Deals”—as those can turn customers off, or prevent delivery all together.
Everyone knows that content is king, but certain content can trip up your email delivery. Words and phrases such as buy, discount, web traffic, and marketing solutions can trigger spam filters. More surprisingly, using brand names like FedEx, MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal may also land your emails in the spam folder. The lesson here? Choose your words wisely.
Be mindful of the fact that not everyone uses the same email client. What looks amazing in Gmail might look horrific in an Outlook preview pane, so it’s important to make sure email content is viewable to each customer you send it to. This is especially true for image-heavy emails. In Outlook, your customers may need to take extra steps to download the images, which is tedious and likely to disengage your audience. To avoid these problems, use text in the initial parts of your email so customers can easily assess what it’s about and if they desire to open it. Also—don’t forget about the Preview Text! Just as much effort should go into the Preview Text as the Subject Line!
Have you checked your analytics lately? If they suggest that most of your customers open emails on a smartphone, it’s high time you optimize your content for mobile. Once you’ve embarked on developing a responsive email design, make sure you check the following off your to-do list:
As mentioned earlier, email clients like Outlook can make image-heavy emails difficult to view. Before deploying these emails, make them as accessible as possible. Use background colors instead of background images; it’ll make your emails look clean and sleek while allowing Outlook users to read them with ease. To prevent longer download times, make images smaller, but not so much that they appear pixelated.
Timing is everything, and that’s certainly true for email marketing. With the general consensus being that Monday is probably not the best day to send emails, Tuesday is your next best bet. In fact, Tuesday was the most popular day to send emails in 2014.
Still stumped? Get a second opinion from someone. Ask them if your email is something they’d open or click through. We’ve personally increased email response rates by up to 130% for clients by evaluating and redesigning emails with some of these methods in mind.