How to improve your Email Marketing

Wednesday, June 1st, 2016

The number of times we have received emails marketing this or that only to swipe and delete them immediately are certainly countless. So one might wonder – are mail shots even worth going to all that trouble for? Well, if you put some thought into them, they can prove to be an excellent marketing tool.

First Impressions Count

They do, more than you may think. Think of your mail shots as the face of what you represent, your brand ambassador, so to speak. This is what will either turn a potential clients to actual ones, or make them unsubscribe to your mail shots. Thus, it is imperative that your newsletter experience flows seamlessly with the look and feel of your brand and website design. Adapt colour schemes as well as font choices to make it easy on the eye, too.

You are what you write

Set a friendly tone and be concise. Nobody wants to read long newsletters – nobody has time for that anyway. Straight to the point and get to the gist as quickly as possible. Also, use keywords and make it easy for your audience to scan for the  information you want them to acknowledge, through the use of bullets and subheadings. Last but not least, check your work. It is paramount that you ensure that your email is proofread, as poor language usage reflects negatively on the company.

Keep your audience in mind

Segmentation is the keyword here. Use it! Target your audience and send them information you know they will appreciate. If you collect certain information in addition to the users’ emails, use that to your advantage by sending them targeted content. A trick is to think like the person receiving your mail, rather than the person sending it. Would you yourself be interested to read it? You must also take into consideration the fact that in this day and age, people generally access their emails on their mobile devices, meaning that if the email is not optimised for phones or tablets, the email will appear to be too messy to go through, hence ending up in their trash bin.

Before you send…

Make it easy for the customer to understand what you want them to do in that newsletter. Add buttons to take them to wherever it is you want them to go, be it your website, a particular product page or social media channel. In fact, adding social media buttons encourages customers to interact with you on all platforms possible.

Before sending out your newsletter, make the subject line stand out. Don’t make it too complex, it might alienate your customers. You’re now ready to test your mailshot by sending it to a selected few friends first, then you’re good to go!

Collect and analyse feedback

Interpret reports on a regular basis in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Focus on open and click rates and the number of unsubscribes while analysing the particular mailshot that would have produced such results. This will help you gauge, more accurately, how to improve and optimise your future mailshots.