3 Things to Keep in Mind When Creating a Successful Email Campaign

While email marketing seems to be the oldest form of digital marketing to date, it still proves to be the most powerful means a marketer has to reach consumers. In fact, according to sources, mid-sized businesses are enjoying an average of 246% ROI thanks to email marketing! And while not as glamorous social media, email is more than 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter. How are businesses finding so much success with email? The answer lies in the approach.

What’s considered “the new normal” when it comes to email marketing? Here are three things to keep in mind when creating an email campaign that will help you convert emails into sales.

1. Overall, Less is more

Unfortunately, all of us, including our customers, are swamped everyday in email. With all the promotional emails, holiday emails, birthday emails, inbox fatigue has become a real problem. Customers are willing to delete or ignore emails, download software plugins that will sort out their email for them, or even resort to creating separate email accounts for work, personal, and marketing emails (even if the emails are from brands they like). A less-is-more approach with personalization in mind can not only resolve this problem, but also provide marketers with better results and more purchases! Businesses that are willing to find out more information about their customer such as purchase history and behavior, reach out at choice moments, and personalize every message will stay ahead of the game and use email marketing to their advantage.

2. Subject Line: Take Time to Create a Winning Headline

While many businesses will focus on building large lists and sending out emails to thousands or millions of people, if the email isn’t getting opened, all that hard work doesn’t matter. If email open rates are struggling, a faulty subject line is usually the first thing to look to.

First impressions are created in the subject line of an email. Keep in mind:

• 6-10 word long subject lines tend to get the highest open rate.
• Place the most important words in the beginning.
• Be clear, descriptive, and concise; avoid filler words that can take up space in the subject line.
• Clever words help too: 16% to 26% increase in opens with subject lines using song lyrics or movie titles.
• Words to avoid (that will take your email straight to the spam box): “percent off,” “help,” “buy,” “clearance,” “click,” “cash,” “income,” “earn,” “urgent,” & “reminder”.
• The From Name is a huge part of your subject line. Having a name like “no-reply” might decrease open rates because customers don’t recognize the sender.
• The word “you” decreases opens by 5% than those without.

3. Mobile Friendly Emails Matter

Where are a majority of customers checking their email? You guessed it – their phones. Actually, it’s estimated that 63% of emails will be opened on a mobile device in 2015. In order for marketers to capitalize on this consumer behavior, they’ll need to adapt emails to consumer’s on-the-go habits.

To make an email more mobile friendly:

• Avoid font styles that are hard to read (this includes thin letters or reverse print).
• High-resolution photos and HTML that adjust to screen size are ideal. This makes the email look good on any device, whether it’s a mobile screen or a computer screen. You will want to make sure the email templates you build have Responsive Email Design (RED).
• When placing links, remember to make the buttons long and large enough for people to click so it’s visible and easy to use.
• A mobile friendly email experience doesn’t just stop at the email itself, subscribers who click on email links should be taken to a website or webpage that is mobile friendly also.

Emails are part of our everyday lives so it makes sense that customers are paying attention to emails that pay attention to them – through personalization, timing, and approach. While other online marketing tactics like social media are new & attractive, email has proven its importance in the last two decades and continues to require as much of a marketer’s attention now than it did back then.