How to Capture a Customer’s Attention with Email Marketing

With 82% of customers still opening up emails from companies (Litmus), it’s safe to say that email is still an important component to overall digital marketing strategy and should be considered as such. With the amount of emails that you and I, and our customers receive every single day, it can be hard to stand out with one email that someone will open, read completely, and share and forward to friends. So, we came up with a list of tips and must-haves to include to get your customer’s attention from here on out!

Design a Newsletter That Fits Your Brand 

It’s fairly easy to find an email template that you could use to place your content in to send to your customers. The trick is, if it doesn’t feel and look like your brand, it most likely will be ignored, or worse, marked as spam!

Email campaigns, no matter if it’s a newsletter, welcome email, follow-up email, or promotion, should always include your logo (usually the top left-hand corner is best) and your brand elements and colors. Make sure all emails are consistent across the board so readers will feel more familiar with your emails from the start.

Send a Welcome Email 

Remind readers that A) They opted into your email list and B) What they should expect from you by signing up for your list. Whether you’re sending out newsletters, updates, daily deals, weekly tips, include how many emails they should be expecting and when. Provide them with as much details as possible so they can decide if they really want to subscribe to your list or not.

What’s Your Point? 

Subscribers are most likely very busy people who get a TON of emails so it’s safe to say they most likely do not give you undivided attention. Instead of a huge block of text, try and break up your content into short, easy-to-read paragraphs and include a call-to-action and/or the main point of your email before they scroll down. If you have a lot to say, consider adding in a “read more” link at a certain point so readers can reference back and read later.

Send a test email to a business associate or co-worker to see if they can decipher the main point of your email within the first minute to measure optimum effectiveness. Your subject line should communicate the content of your email and should be easy to digest and inviting.

Make Emails and Landing Pages Mobile-Friendly 

“80% of users report reading email on mobile devices.” -Hubspot

With so many people checking emails on their phone, if an email can’t show up very well on a mobile device, you lose the readers’s attention almost immediately. Consider using a responsive template for your emails. Check out Hubspot’s email templates that auto-fit to any device. This will allow a user to view and read your email with ease, no matter if they’re on a desktop, mobile device, or tablet. 

And Shareable Too

If your content is interesting, why not include a way for users to share it? Include the content outside of the email on a page on your website to encourage users to use a direct link to visit (totally outside of an email program) and include social media links for users to easily share to friends quickly. Catching them when they’re most compelled to share will be highly effective and beneficial for you.

Know Your Spam Rules 

Are you well-informed on what you can send to customer? Keep in mind that emails should only been sent to those who have granted you permission to do so a.k.a “opting-in”. Avoid any unintended trouble by reviewing the the CAN-SPAM Act on the rules.

Be Friendly and Personal

It’s perfectly fine to use a conversational, casual tone in your emails. Readers who are opening up their in boxes are usually probably in a relaxed mindset already so businesslike, dead-pan professional-sounding emails will just feel out of place. If you’ve collected a user’s first name, feel free to include the name in a subject line or greeting to make emails more personable.

Don’t Be Afraid to Test and Ask for Feedback 

Once you have a pretty good-looking email, test to see how your different targets respond to it. Consider A/B Testing that allows you to slightly modify an email campaign into two versions and testing those two versions against each other to see which one is more effective for your particular email list.

Make emails more engaging by allowing users to reply to emails with concerns, questions, or comments. Posing a question at the end of an email transforms the email from a passive, one-way-street email, to an engaging one that invites conversation, which is not only great for social interaction, but personal feedback as well.

Incorporate an Easy Way to Unsubscribe 

Lastly, always provide a clear way for those who want to unsubscribe to your list. Receiving an unsubscribe is way better than a spam complaint.

Do you have any email marketing tips that you’d like to share? Feel free to comment below. 

If you want even more email marketing tips, check out our free ebook below for everthing you need to know about creating and measuring an effective email marketing campaign. 

About Small Screen Producer

Small Screen Producer is a full service, marketing firm located in Houston, Texas that specializes in online digital media marketing through a 4-step process. Step 1: WE PLAN a custom web presence strategy for your business through website design and development, mobile development, social media account creation and branding. STEP 2: We then POSITION your brand through Pay-Per-Click advertising and search engine optimize tactics that include on-page and off-page SEO that are Google and Bing approved. STEP 3: We then PROMOTE your brand using an Inbound marketing strategy or a content marketing strategy to help you accomplish your marketing goals. We do this through blogging, video production, infographics, call-to-actions, landing pages, and free educational offers. We help you build trust and rapport with your customer base. STEP 4: We then PROTECT your brand’s web presence with a reputation management program that monitors social media and on line reviews. Get started today with a free online marketing assessment of your company’s web presence. Your company deserves it.