Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels across Canada and also in the US. Doing it well is not easy, but very worth the effort. Studies consistently show that emailing a subscriber base regularly translates into revenue over time. These essential email marketing tips can set you on a strong path to fine-tune your email marketing strategy as another revenue-generating marketing channel. Learn how to notice the difference between agile vs devops.

9 Essential Email Marketing Tips for Your Business

1. Drive More Clicks To Your Landing Page With Clear & Focused Call to Action

The whole point of your email messages is to drive traffic to your landing page.  It’s really just that simple. If you’re not driving clicks to your page, your email subscribers can’t be converted into customers.

The key to driving traffic to your landing page is quite simple: have one primary call to action (CTA) in the email message. Having multiple CTAs will only distract the reader and make them confused. When they’re confused, they will leave your email or delete it.

What you want is to guide your reader to take a specific call to action. Tease them on the benefits they will get by visiting the landing page. For the best user experience, the email, CTA and landing page must be congruent.

Although you’re using one primary CTA, don’t be afraid to include it in multiple locations. You can place them early in the email above the fold, in the middle, towards the end, and remind them again in the P.S.

2. Encourage Your Readers to Reply

In the old days of direct mail, you would send out your correspondence, and then wait for your readers to act. Not anymore. Today, email marketing opens the door for meaningful conversations with your potential customers. We’re talking about real people who are interested in your business. With that in mind, you’ll want to encourage this back-and-forth in three ways:

• Enticing email subject lines: Speak directly to your subscribers and promise them something that will stand out. The best way to achieve this is with automated personalization.
• Use a distinctive and entertaining voice: Just because someone opened your email, doesn’t mean they’re actually going to read it. Always make sure your message sounds like it’s coming from a real person who cares, not an emotionless robot.
• Target content: Email marketing best practices are to segment your email lists by your subscribers’ demographics. This makes it easier to create messages that resonate with each segment’s needs and interest, making them more likely to be converted, engage with you, or at least pass it along to someone else.

The focus here is to get people to respond. That may mean just clicking a link, but wherever possible, encourage them to actually reply to your emails.  It’s the best way to show you’re interested in what your subscribers are thinking.

3. Personalization is Key

It’s a good idea to add personal elements to your emails wherever you can. Address your subscribers by name. Craft your message to dive deep, addressing their interests and needs. These practices are not only becoming more commonplace, but they’re also becoming expected.

There are many ways to achieve this personal touch:

• • Most modern email tools allow you to use short-codes that will be replaced by the recipient’s name once the email is sent out.
  • Try mixing and matching your email content by location.
  • Customize your subject lines.
  • And of course, be sure to segment your list by behaviour.

4. Make Sure Your Emails Look Great

It might sound somewhat obvious, but you may be surprised at how many businesses still send emails that look like those free, amateur websites from the ‘90s. Once you entice subscribers to open your emails with engaging subject lines it’s crucial to keep their interest, so they’ll continue to read your emails. The best way to do this is:

• Use short paragraphs and make sure that your keywords and any phrases that may be important to your readers stand out.
• Include bullet points to help people skim the important content.
• Use images sparingly – you want them to illustrate your point, not take over your content. Besides, some email providers will block images or think of them as indicators of spam. So your emails need to make sense even if the images don’t load.
• Make sure your emails look good on both mobile and desktop devices. According to Campaign Monitor, more than 70% of emails are opened on mobile apps.

5. Include Links to Your Social Media Profiles

Encouraging your readers to engage with your business on social media should be one of the key ingredients of your email marketing pie. Therefore, email marketing best practice is to include links to your social media alongside a call to action to share this promotional offer with their social media followers and friends.