Question

Email marketing can be a successful direct marketing strategy and deliver a strong ROI when done effectively. What are 4 key strategies or considerations to use that will improve the chances of conducting a successful email campaign?

Answer 1

With over 144 billion emails sent each and every day, email marketing remains one of the elite channels for business communication.

4 key strategies or considerations to use that will improve the chances of conducting a successful email campaign are:

1. Personalize your email without using the recipient’s name- A significant element of email marketing is relationship. Does a recipient trust you? Does a recipient even know who you are? When an email jumps the gun by forcing familiarity too soon, the personalization comes across as skeevy. Intimacy is earned in real life, and it would appear to be the same way with email. Faking familiarity with the subscriber turns many wary email readers off. But this isn’t to say that all forms of personalization are off-limits. In fact, a particular brand of personalization can pay off big time.

2. The long and short of subject lines- When it comes to deciding how to craft that perfect subject line, there appears to be really only one area to avoid: the subject line of 60 to 70 characters. Marketers refer to this as the “dead zone” of subject length. According to research, which tracked over 900 million emails for its report, there is no increase in either open rate or clickthroughs at this 60-to-70 character length of subject line. Conversely, subject lines 70 characters and up tested to be most beneficial to engage readers in clicking through to the content, and subject lines 49 characters and below tested well with open rate.

3. The best content is free content: Give something away- Consumers love a free lunch—or a free template. In a study on their email list of 6,300 subscribers, Media tested various types of content to see what led to the highest rates for opens and clicks. The winner was templates and tools, just the kind of freebies that email readers want.

4. Email still reigns over Facebook and Twitter- Social media may be the young whippersnapper nipping at email’s heels, but the content king of the inbox still holds sway in social influence, according to a study by SocialTwist. Over an 18-month period, SocialTwist monitored 119 referral campaigns from leading brands and companies. The results showed a significant advantage to email’s ability to convert new customers compared to Facebook and Twitter. Of the 300,000 referrals who became new customers, 50.8 percent were reached by email, compared to 26.8 percent for Twitter and 22 percent for Facebook.

5. Mobile opens accounts for 47 percent of all email opens- Design responsively to ensure that your email looks great no matter where it’s read:

• Convert your email to a one column template for an easy mobile fix.
• Bump up the font size for improved readability on smart phones.
• Follow the iOS guideline of buttons at least 44 pixels wide by 44 pixels tall.
• Make the call-to-action obvious and easy to tap. Above the fold is preferable.
• Consider ergonomics. Many users tap and scroll with their thumb, so keep important tappable elements in the middle of the screen