Marketing emails remain firmly among the most cost-effective ways to raise brand awareness and sales. However, they’re one of those techniques that are simple to learn but difficult to master. Too many marketers think about checking the task off their list and considering the job done as soon as they hit ‘send’.
However, time and skill permitting, it’s always best to constantly refine and monitor. After all, a little more time spent on perfecting the email can result in far more significant returns.
If you consider email marketing a chore and something else that has to be done rather than an opportunity, or you want to boost open rates and conversions with minimal extra effort, try this checklist to maximize every opportunity.
1. Understand What You Want to Achieve
The ‘what’ is the easy part of email marketing – content, social links, discount codes, and so on. However, the ‘why’ is just as important.
Try to understand the reason behind sending a promo email – and no, because your boss told you to or because you send one every week doesn’t count! There might come the point where an email isn’t worth sending at all as there’s no clear goal in mind.
These goals might comprise nurturing new leads, attracting more customers with special offers, or upselling to existing ones. As long as an email can have a positive impact on a business, it’s worth sending.
Most importantly of all, try not to mix messages. Settle on a goal and craft an email that stands the best chance of achieving it. Segment your audience if you have to – there’s no point trying to sell add-ons to someone that doesn’t own the original product, for example.
2. Get the Basics Right
You have a tremendous amount of control over formatting and display regarding marketing emails, so make the most of it. Get the sender field right, so it’s something people recognize and will be happy to open and take time over the subject line for the same reason. An unopened email may as well never have been sent in the first place, and there are no better tools to build interest than what people see in those two fields in their inboxes.
Even if you can’t come up with the most incredible subject line ever, at least attempt to avoid the most common mistakes.
3. Ensure A Clear Call to Action
You’ve got a goal in mind, so make sure you push readers towards completing it. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with an occasional email with the latest news, opinions, and stories, but it’s vital not to forget to sell.
If you’re promoting a specific product, make it easy for subscribers to click directly through to the product page on your website. If you’re trying to build your social following, position your links and buttons front and center. Decide what you’re doing, and make it as easy as possible to meet those goals.
4. Test Before You Send
If you’ve got a large mailing list, sending out a promo email that doesn’t work can quickly turn into a nightmare! Subscribers will reply with questions, your brand might suffer if something appears really unprofessional, and you might become the talk of Twitter. It’s therefore always a good idea to test your emails before they go out to customers. There are plenty of ways to do this, including a whole host of professional services. Then, in a pinch, send a test email to yourself and a few trusted colleagues just to make sure it works how you expect it to.
5. Keep an Eye on Stats
Sure, this is mainly a bonus point, as you have to send the email before it becomes relevant. Nevertheless, it’s easy to send the email and hope for the best. You want more clicks, more sales, and bigger returns. You could just look at revenue and sales, but the best email marketers break it down further. They look at open rates, conversions, and more based on one specific email. It’s even possible to monitor individual links in a message to see which converts best.
You won’t make any greater profits through doing this. Still, you’ll have more information that couldn’t be more relevant to your business and your audience. Use it when creating the next campaign to ensure a constant stream of improvement with every promo email you send.
Wrapping Up
The key to successful promo emails is to dig deeper into their purpose while also learning from the results. Great email marketers set themselves apart from others because they take a genuine interest in how their emails perform. Rather than hitting send representing the end of the process, it represents one of the earlier stages. They use data, customer sentiment, and even replies to ensure that the next will be even better no matter how well an email performs.
Fortunately, great marketing emails don’t need to be challenging to create and manage. Like most skills, everyone gets better with experience, but the steps outlined above represent the perfect place to start!
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