Email campaigns are not easy, but often they're underestimated as to just how powerful they can be for your business.
Probably the most important thing to understand is that most email campaigns you see are BAD, they're examples of how not to put together an effective piece with the power to pull prospects.
That begs the question, what sort of behaviour as an email marketer does get the big results? Today I'll very quickly run you through five things which everyone seeking to run effective email marketing should consider, including:
Crafting Appealing Subject Lines
Having a Consistent 'Offer'
Optimising For Mobile
Automating Click Funnels
Let's do it.
1. Crafting Appealing Subject Lines
A huge, but really simple learning curve that I got over when it came to email campaigns was the subject line. Do not underestimate how powerful this is, it is often the determinant of whether someone opens or does not open your email, regardless of the content inside.
The approach that is natural for people is the 'informational' one. By that what I mean is that you simply describe the content of the email itself.
For example, if it was for our weekly newsletter (do subscribe) that might look something like this - 'The Weekly Grab - Blogs this week, the latest news, marketing tips and more!'
The problem with this approach is that you're not really getting the reader excited about anything because, this is entirely expected. Wow, you're a digital marketing agency publishing digital marketing agency content, how surprising!
Instead with subject lines I recommend the 'offer/value' approach. Use buzz words that create urgency or a sense of unique value, things like 'claim your...', 'hurry before...', 'for a limited time...'.
In each campaign you need to find a way to have some sort of VALUE OFFER, I'll go into this further in a moment but this is what you should use in the subject line.
THEN in the preview text put all your informational stuff, just to put the cherry on the cake.
2. Having a Consistent 'Offer'
When you publish email campaigns, be clear on what you want to achieve with them.
Often the idea is to use value to achieve a goal.
My recommendation, choose ONE between community building and prospecting.
Provide several opportunities throughout your campaign to click through to your 'offering', this might be to join your free community or towards your services. Do not try to do everything at once and find a way to offer these leads an easy way in.
Give them a discount, offer a free strategy session, whatever it is find a way to nail these leads which are ALREADY WARM.
Personally, I find that having at least 3-4 opportunities (buttons, links, banners, graphics) to accept your determined 'offer' is the way to go. But you need to assess your audience and determine what the appropriate number is.
3. Optimise for Mobile
If you take NOTHING from this blog, I beg of you, please listen to this.
OPTIMISE YOUR CAMPAIGNS FOR MOBILE.
A lot of people build out their campaigns on a laptop or full desktop, as a matter of fact this is almost certainly the right way to go. But what that means is that you need to consider every campaign's formatting on mobile.
Every email builder I've ever used has offered the opportunity to preview and edit the campaign for mobile.
You may need to hide certain sections on mobile, reformat things, change the images.
If you don't ensure that the campaign looks crisp on mobile, you are disenfranchising an entire market of people who will view your campaign and decide that's the last they'll be hearing from you.
Don't make the mistake of forgetting about your mobile readers, they often make up a HUGE portion of email readers and I urge anyone building out campaigns to jump into mobile previews and ensure everything is looking clean.
4. Automating Click Funnels
Now this is where we start to get to really differentiating our campaigns, making them into fully fledged marketing beasts!
Most, if not all big email marketing tools give you the chance to set up some sort of 'automation' or 'funnel' wherein you capitalise on opens, clicks or other actions on your campaign.
What I would recommend straight out of the gate for all newbies is to capitalise on anyone clicking through to your offering.
Look to set up an automation which sends an email to anyone that clicks through to your services, following up on that interest and offering them some sort of custom-feeling option that pushes them towards converting.
If you were selling a course that email may look something like the following:
Hi (name)!
Thank you so much for reading our newsletter, we noticed that you expressed interest in our featured course this week and want to offer you a complimentary strategy session to discuss things further!
This session will help you create some objectives and get direction on the best path for you. We highly recommend it to anyone entering into our community, and it's free of charge!!
You can book your personalised strategy call HERE (embed link)
Keep it swift and simple. All we're doing here is immediately capitalising on the interest shown by a reader.
Go get it!
Email marketing isn't easy, it's probably one of the lesser understood areas covered by multi-skill digital marketers. So if you're able to more deeply consider the way your outreach is structured, there is all the chances in the world you will find success.
Good luck!!
Shoot us an email at hello@grab-social.com or schedule a call through our website to learn more about email marketing plus how we can help your business elevate itself in the digital space.
Will Staber
Digital Marketing Strategist