Effective email marketing is a tricky art form that a lot of businesses can struggle to nail. However, understanding the essential tools for refining your online marketing skills can lead to more successful interactions between your business and customers. The experts at QuickBooks point out, “One-third of Americans check their email every single day and an additional 39 percent of Americans check their email more than three times a day.” That’s a lot of eyes reading and scrolling through countless (annoying) emails. Making your company’s digital presence stand out against this abundance requires skill. You need just the right email marketing formula. Of course, it’s not easy calculating, implementing, and maintaining successful marketing techniques all on your own but you’ve got some help.
For email marketing, there are a few key elements that have proven to work well — and some that don’t. This list should give you some tips for getting started. Let’s take a look.
Where’s Your Website?
Give me a G! Give me an E! Give me a T! Give me ACOMPANYWEBSITE! Really though, pom-poms aside, creating a distinct, interesting, and accommodating website for your customers should be at the top of your list. Having a strategic email marketing plan will reap little success if the landing page your customers arrive at is confusing and bland. Or worse — doesn’t exist at all (which, if you’re jumping straight to email marketing strategies without having a website established I’ll just assume you put your socks on after your shoes). Don’t panic if you aren’t an expert with web design (yet). Instead, consider enlisting some web design professionals to help you get the job done. They can set up a website that reflects your unique business and give your customers a more helpful and inviting landing page.
It’s the digital age and having an online presence will lead to more successful interactions with old and new customers. As Big Rentz explains, “Your site needs to offer your business and/or products in an enticing manner and needs to make the consumer feel good about themselves for making the decision to trust in you for their needs. They will, in turn, refer to you and your business to friends and family for their future or immediate needs. It’s a win-win situation for all.” Once the landing page of your business is in tip-top shape, we can really start focusing on your email marketing techniques.
THE Subject Line
Okay! The website is not only up and running, but it’s been beautifully constructed to reflect your business and assist customers. Let’s start showing off all your hard work and get more interested customers to your page.
Remember that flood of emails we talked about earlier? A lot of them don’t even get opened. Instead they end up in no man’s land — AKA the trash box. However, a little marketing strategy and a lot of creativity will help your emails from being swiped into disappearance.
Subject lines are your first (and sometimes last) opportunity to catch the eye of a potential customer. Be bold. Be enticing. If it helps, think of subject lines as the tiny hairs on a Venus flytrap. Your consumers are more likely to react to the presence of a tasty bug (your emails) if you trigger their acute sense of interest. While there hasn’t been an exact relationship found between the number of characters in a subject line and read rates (yet) don’t disregard the importance of subject line length. Too long or too short can potentially cost you an opened email and thus an interested customer. It’s kind of like the small print on the golden rule: write subject lines how you would like others to write subject lines for you.
Get Creative
Once your subject lines are ready to hook your customers, let’s talk about what’s inside the emails. To go back to the (cheesy) Venus flytrap metaphor — a customer has clicked on your email because your business is something they’re interested in (good job!). However, a customer doesn’t want to waste precious energy on something they can’t actually eat — I mean, use. Being enticing to customers but also clear about sales, services, and products will lead to more successful interactions. Also, don’t be afraid to include content that is funny, bright, and unique. This will help customers keep your business in mind for any future services they might need from you.
It’s also important to know your audience! Tailoring your language, images, and website to promote your business is important but so is being relevant to your customers. Avoid using lingo that is off-putting and unfamiliar to your customers in an effort to seem like an expert in email marketing (it’s okay if you’re not!). Staying true to your voice as a company will be greatly appreciated and show your commitment to your overall business model.
You’re Almost Done
So, you’ve got the eye-catching subject lines, creative (and functioning) website, and a growing clientele list. But you’re not off the hook yet! Now it’s time to start thinking about how customers will be viewing your hard work. Short answer? With their eyes. Long answer? Studies show that customers typically use their smartphones during their initial research about a product or service and then make their purchase on a desktop or PC. This means your email marketing efforts have to be prepared for all that cross-device using.
Just in case you forgot, subject lines are very important, and moreover, they appear differently depending on what kind of device it’s being viewed on. For example: a PC reads: How to help a loved one enjoy life more with assisted living; a mobile device reads: a shortened and NSFW subject line that could really reflect poorly on your business…You see the problem? Furthermore, the navigation and content within an email can change depending on the device it’s opened on and an interested customer can quickly be scared off if everything is off kilter by several degrees when viewing it on their mobile device. In this digital age you’ve got to be flexible and adjusting your marketing across different devices will further prove your savviness (and value) as a business to customers.
Running a successful business is challenging; you don’t have to tell anyone that twice. That being said, email marketing is truly a smart, effective way of getting more interested and valuable customers interacting with your website. You’ve got a lot to be proud of, so show it off! It can seem complex and a bit baffling, but it’s nothing you and your business can’t handle.