The right e-mail marketing tips can make all the difference in creating a successful campaign. Whether you’re sending out a sales blast or broadcasting your monthly newsletter, utilizing the right mix of tools you have at your disposal can help increase your open, conversion, and subscriber rates.
Here are a few e-mail marketing tips that will help you slay the game.
Designing an Attractive E-mail: These days, even the least creative people can design an eye-catching e-mail campaign with drag-and-drop modules, photos, and color schemes offered by e-mail marketing service providers. It may take some time to experiment with different pre-made templates or building your campaign from the ground up, but playing around and seeing what layouts work best for your brand is important so that your e-mails keep customers engaged and wanting more. Here are a few e-mail marketing tips to keep in mind and consider when designing.
• Stick to your brand colors. Consistency is key in all forms of marketing. Employ your brand’s colors and accent colors in your design and give your campaign its identity.
• Use GIFs. When appropriate, GIFs can be a powerful way to grab attention and enhance your email marketing messages.
• Use white space strategically. Let the design of your e-mail breathe by making use of spacers. It’ll give the eye a break and attract it to the elements of your e-mail that are most important.
• Use headlines. Break up different sections of your e-mail with eye-catching headlines. Experiment with font sizes and colors to create text-based visual elements to organize your content.
Writing Compelling Subject Lines: So, you’ve designed a spellbinding, beautiful, magnificent e-mail—but what’s the good if no one opens it? Your subject line is your one shot to inspire eager fingers and mouse pointers to tap, click, and open. So, what makes a good subject line? We’re so glad you asked. Here are a few e-mail marketing tips for subject lines.
• Keep it short and sweet. Not many recipients are going to read a long line of copy, and it also helps your e-mail stand out in mobile inboxes.
• Pose a question. Asking a question helps to involve your audience and to spark interest in finding the answer in the e-mail. (Ex. Do You Know the Five Cs of Diamonds?)
• Use a cliffhanger. When appropriate, a good cliffhanger is designed to give just enough information about the contents of an e-mail while piquing your recipients’ curiosity (Ex. The Secret to Radiant Skin is…).
• Make an announcement. Ensure your recipients get the message, even if they never open your e-mail, by making an announcement directly in your subject line (Ex. We’re Open Late! New Holiday Hours).
Sticking to Web Safe Fonts: To the ire and aghast of many designers, using web safe fonts in your e-mail campaigns is a solid recommendation—but what are they? Web safe fonts are included on most operating systems, meaning you can expect the font you select when designing your e-mail to appear exactly as intended to most other users who receive your campaign.
While this may significantly limit your font options and creative vision with typography, using fonts unsupported by different operating systems will automatically populate with fonts that may completely change the appearance and readability of your campaign. This may also throw off the spacing of your e-mail and undermine your aesthetic, sending the wrong message to your recipients.
Here is a list of the most common web safe fonts: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Georgia, Tahoma, Lucida, Trebuchet , Impact, Times New Roman.
Testing Your E-mail: Before you’re ready to launch your campaign, test it once, test it twice, then test it one more time. You want to ensure your e-mail copy is carefully proofread, all buttons and links are working, and any bugs in the layout or font selection are ironed out before launch. Sending a test e-mail to yourself or setting up a new list with your address to send tests to will show you how the e-mail will deliver.
At times, an e-mail may look one way when designing and may reach your inbox looking amiss (or a mess!).
