No matter who you are or where you are, you’ve probably got an email account (or several). Even though we live in the age of social media apps and new digital landscapes, the email account is still the starting point for a myriad of services we subscribe to and buy from. This is why it’s critically important to adopt a well-developed email marketing strategy.
A successful email campaign involves much more than technical solutions. In this article we’ll cover some of those technical concepts and the crucial decisions you’ll need to make about creating content that “sticks” with your subscribers.
Why Email Marketing Is Important
MailChimp, a popular email marketing app, reports a 20.81% open rate across all of the industries that use their platform. How does your business stack up?
The “open rate” reflects the success of an email marketing campaign. If you can get someone to open an email from you, you have a chance at getting them to perform an action like: learn more, buy now, subscribe, or register.
Configure Your Email Strategy For a Higher Open Rate
Email marketing apps like MailChimp are highly configurable and give you a lot of options when it comes to organizing your email strategy. You’d do well to learn more about these concepts:
- Lists: the email list is the primary resource in your toolkit. This is the list of subscribers you’ve gained through your marketing efforts. These people are interested in what you have to offer. You can have one master list, or a segmented list.
- Campaigns: launching your email marketing strategy in one strategic symphony of activity.
- Automation: use the power of software to trigger ongoing actions as you move forward.
- Analytics: helping you find out how successful your strategy was. Make better decisions in the future using available data as your guide.
All of these details aside, in the end it’s your content that needs the most attention.
When it comes to increasing your open rate, your content is what moves the needle.
This is good news, because even though it can be hard at times, working most diligently at your content writing pays dividends over the long run. (More on this later.)
Scaling Your Email Efforts For More Subscribers
Over time, your list will grow as more users subscribe. If you’re using a self-hosted email solution, you will need to up your server power. Or, if you’re using a third-party email service, you will simply need to upgrade your account to a higher tier.
At some point, budget becomes an issue. This is why it’s important for your email content to convert. But how do you make sure that your email content is converting?
Creating Email Content That “Sticks”
There’s no magic to creating content that connects with readers. It’s just incredibly difficult and takes a lot of hard work. But the good news is there are lots of resources out there to help you. And there are practices and systems you can implement right away to get started in a sane and competent fashion. The field of content writing is vast but there are a few basic practices agreed upon all writers. If you can master these, you’ll be golden.
Establish The Purpose of Your Content
You need to know exactly what you want your readers to do before you even start writing those terrific email subject headings and body copy. What do you want the reader to do once they’ve opened your email? Here are some examples:
- Buy
- Subscribe
- Read more
- Visit store location
- Call a sales rep today
There are plenty of actions you can encourage in your readers, but obviously some will be more relevant to your business goals than others. Think carefully and deeply about what actions would be most beneficial for you on the part of your readers. Then the purpose of your writing becomes clear: to guide your readers to the appropriate action.
Write in Plain Language
Doesn’t matter if you have a high school diploma or a master’s degree. Your readers will not be impressed with your massive vocabulary. Write in simple, uncluttered language and you will be more likely to make an impression on your readers to get them to follow your Call to Action.
An Easy Way to Compose Better Email Subjects
How do you write email subjects that entice your readers to open? That’s what it’s all about, right? Increasing your open rate?
Try this: look at your own inbox. Which emails enticed you to open and read more? Take a look at the characteristics of the better subject headings.
- Did they use numbers and symbols?
- Did they use emojis?
- Did they use complete sentences?
All of the above (and various combinations) are all fair game when it comes to crafting an interesting and enticing email subject heading. Pay attention, and do likewise.
Emphasize Your Call to Action
So you’ve established your purpose and written content to highlight it. Now what? It’s time to give your readers a Call to Action (CTA). The call doesn’t need to be aggressive, but it should be clear. Using HTML buttons, for example, is an easy to emphasize the CTA within the body of your email.
Putting It All Together
As we mentioned at the start of this article, everyone uses email (even in the age of social media). So crafting a significant and memorable email campaign is a must for your marketing strategy. With the help of email marketing services like MailChimp it’s never been easier to send out a campaign, but the job of optimizing your campaign for your specific audience is on you.
- Optimize your strategy
- Know your audience
- Create content that “sticks”
- Know when ;and how to scale
If you can guide your efforts with the above points, you’ll be off to to a great start. And be sure to let us know if you have any questions or comments. We’re always happy to help.
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