The email has been around for a while (1971). We all use it for business and pleasure. Marketing people love it to create value and conversations but even if it’s not new, it’s still evolving constantly. Still, there are some basic rules that you need to follow.
The email marketing alphabet helps you to stay ahead of the curve
Analyse your data. You have a lot of information at your fingertips. Opened and click-through rates, time of opening, devices, big data mining. Use them!!!
Blasting times are over. Spamming your list or rented lists is not a good plan. Focus on reliable 1-2-1 relationships. Bring relevant information to people when they expect it. Think about segmentation and personalization.
Conversations are crucial. People don’t want your sales pitch. Build a dialogue. Allow people to interact and this begins with banning the “noreply” mentality.
Deliverability is the key. Don’t take for granted that your email always get to destination. Focus on technical infrastructure, complaints feedback, bounce management.
Explore your email approach. It works, so why change it? This is why: your audience loves some changes. Technology and standards evolve. Your competitors won’t wait ... Dare to be different !!!
Find your vibe. Best practices are great but know that this is not a holy grail. Every market has its particularities. Your audience have their habits. Your company has an identity.
Get to the point! The only purpose of an email is to generate clicks. Be brief and very clear in your email about the CTA. Don’t be afraid to use a direct-action button. Rephrase and elaborate on your landing page. Never lose the focus on conversion.
Have some fun! Email is a very creative medium. Don’t be afraid to use it and think out of the box. Get personal if your brand allows it. Play with top topical emails when possible. Surprise your audience with birthday email ...
Inject personality. Email is very easy to personalize. Use it wisely!! Subject line personalization, first name personalization. Content that fits the needs of your audience. Forget the one size fits all mentality.
Jump at moments. Email marketing is a very fast way to communicate. Use this opportunity to seize the moment. Last minute commutation, press releases, top topicals.
KISS Keep It Simple and Stupid. Don’t make your communication too difficult. Make it: Short, to the point and with a clear CTA.
Leverage the lifecycle. Identifying the right message at the right moment to the right person, should always be the goal in your communication. Don’t forget: the device, local time of the receiver, individual habits of your audience, the specific landing page.
Mobile optimization. Your message should look great on all different kind of devices. Responsive or not? Also don’t forget your landing pages! There is nothing so frustrating to get an optimized email and land on a regular non-optimized page.
Never forget to manage your list. The quality of your list is crucial in many aspects. So be sure to: handle unsubscribes, remove bounces. Always use opt-in.
Open rates. Yes, I know that it’s not an exact metric since it only gives you an indication of opened if images are rendered, but don’t neglect this metric. It will give you a precious insight of your audience involvement and can also be a very good indicator of spam problems.
Progressive profiling. Learn more from your audience through a variety of actions. Built a profile through explicit data by asking progressive questions. Enhance the profile via implicit data such as open and click-through rates.
Quality vs quantity. The size of your list is not important, the quality is. It’s not because lots of people are getting your email that they are all interested. Focus on the audience that really care and stop annoying those who don’t.
Relevance. Try to personalize as much as possible to bring your audience the content they are really interested in. Never focus on the “we”, but on the “what can we do for you”.
Segment and target. Getting down to the level of pure 1-2-1 communication is almost impossible. To get as personal as possible try to segment your target audience in like-minded segments to bring your message.
Test, test, test, ... Email marketing is the perfect medium to test, so do it. You can use A/B testing in different ways: subject lines, time of sending, personalization, number of links ....
Use what you know. Metrics are not only there to create nice looking reports. Use what you have learned from your metrics over time and keep optimizing your email marketing programs.
Verify hypothesis. Everyone thinks to know what really works for your email program. Prove it!! Benchmarks are useful, but that doesn’t mean that it will be the same in your market approach. Don’t take benchmarks for granted.
Work through it. Not every challenge will have an immediate answer or short-term solution. Especially when it comes down to spam related issues and IP warm-up. These things take time. Never give up and work towards a solution!!
X When designing your email be sure to test it against multiple email clients. Don’t forget the first impact your campaign has without the images turned on. Design using as much html as possible.
Your responsibility! Are you sure you are using the right contact database? Are all links properly tested? Did you check the rendering of your email? Are there no spelling mistakes in your copy? ....
Zero excuses. If your email marketing program is not working the way it should be, there is no one else to blame but yourself. Keep working on it until it’s right!
