The Definitive Guide to Optimize Your Email Marketing Campaign
To make your email marketing campaign completely flawless and help you get the most out of your marketing efforts, we’ve made this handy guide that will help you learn how to:
- Get More Email Opt-Ins
- Write Impressive Email Messages
- Design Effective Emails
- Improve Email Deliverability
- Get Email Open and Click-through Rates Increased
- Boost Landing Pages Conversion Rate
Let’s start with “Get More Email Opt-ins”!
Get More Email Opt-Ins
#Add a Sign Up Form to Your Home Page:
Place a sign-up form on the homepage of your website to make your visitors leave their contact information instantly. Keep the form simple, short and impressive to actuate people to fill it.
#Make It Easy to Subscribe:
People usually hesitate, when they are asked to fill a lot of personal information online. Therefore, your sign-up form should make the subscription process easier for visitors. Don’t ask for too much information, it may annoy your visitors.
#Place a Link to Sign Up in Email Signature:
Don’t let your email signature go to waste. Add a link to your subscription form below the email signature in your emails, describing advantages of your newsletter, some special offers and promotions.
#Modify the Text of Submit Button:
Whether you’re offering subscription or a free Giveaway on a landing page, it’s recommended to use benefit-driven labels in your button, such as “Get a free e-Book right now” or “Subscribe to stay tuned with us”.
#Welcome Your Each New Subscriber:
Whenever a visitor confirms his subscription, you should send a welcome letter to him. It’ll not only help you create a relationship with your potential customer, but also confirm that you’ve got the required information from the subscription form.
Write Impressive Email Messages
#Make Your E-mail Messages Unique:
People get flooded their inbox with lots of emails daily, so you need to make your email messages exclusive to stand out from the crowd. Keep your messages clear and concise, including a clickable link to register and your call to actions.
#Persuade Readers With Your Words:
Write naturally, and explain the subject clearly. To persuade people to do what you want (to accept your offer or to click the link), you need to know what solution are your readers looking for, what are you offering, why should they use it, how will they be able to use it, and who exactly will get the most out of the offer?
#Keep Subject Headings Accurate and Descriptive:
People are interested to know who is communicating with them, so include the name of your company in the heading. Use short but informative subject headings to make your readers curious in the topic of your letter.
#Don’t Waste Your Readers’ Time:
To make your emails worth reading, add a table of contents in the beginning of email content to make it easy for readers to choose which point they want to read first. Also, try to show the main points in the in the E-mail Subject Line.
#Create a Plain Text Version of Your Email:
Remember that some mobile devices and email clients cannot display HTML text, so don’t forget to use a plain text version of your message.
Design Effective Emails
#Get Personal with Smart Segmentation:
Email List Segmentation is the secret of making your digital Marketing profitable and successful. Send special messages to “welcome new campaign visitors”, using an automated welcome program.
#Don’t Code Emails Too Narrow or Too Wide:
To make sure your email will fit in the preview pane of most email clients, keep email width not more than 600 pixels.
#Put the Copy Above the Fold:
Put the copy of your email on a single screen above the fold to provide your visitors a better reading experience, enabling them read your email until the end without scrolling.
#Some Really Cool Things Won’t Work in HTML Email:
ActiveX, JavaScript, Flash, and videos usually don’t work in HTML emails. Often you can send them, but your recipient most likely would not be able to see them. That’s because most email programs block this cool stuff for safety.
#Test Emails:
Before sending your emails to clients, test them in most popular email applications such as Apple Mail, Lotus, Outlook, Eudora etc. and in different webmail services such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo.
Improve Email Deliverability
#Run Your Message Through Spam Filters:
If you don’t use spam filters, your newsletters may be mistakenly deleted or moved to the junk folder. Therefore, use a spam checker to test your mails before you send them out to the world.
#Ask Subscribers To Whitelist You:
To get to your subscribers’ white list before you send them a welcome letter, add an “add-to-sender-list request” in your subscription form. If a person forgets to add you to his whitelist while subscribing to your newsletter, repeat the request in your welcome message to remind him.
#Use Double Opt-in Confirmation Process:
The double opt-in or confirmation method is the best solution to make your single opt-in subscribers, who don’t want to receive your newsletters, agree to be on your mailing list. So, implement double opt-in method to build your email list.
#Be Careful With Attachments:
Most of the email systems have an attachment size limit, for example: Gmail allows you to send messages up to 25MB in size. So avoid sending large attachments, as this may annoy people who use slower Internet connections.
#Send Authenticated Email:
Email providers make use of authentication protocols to verify whether the sender of an incoming message is legitimate or not. So properly authenticate the “From” address.
Get Email Open and Click-through Rates Increased
#Use a Strong and Engaging Subject Line:
Write the subject line that could persuade your clients to read the whole email. Avoid writing your subject lines like advertisements.
#Use a Personalized Email Address:
Personalized email address doesn’t only help you get a unique and memorable personal email account, but also makes you seem more legitimate. So, use personalized email with such information as a name or a user name.
#A Clear Call to Action:
Include a clear call to action in your every letter that lets your readers clearly know what you expect them to do, where should they click and what should they order.
#Pay Attention to Snippet Text:
Snippet text is the first line of your message that your clients view in the preview pane. Make sure it describes the letter’s content and has a link to the offer.
#Monitor Your List Statistics:
Watch your list statistics to determine unsubscribers, inactivity and bounces, especially when you’re going to add new lists or start a new email campaign.
Boost Landing Pages Conversion Rate
#Have a Separate Landing Page for Each Offer:
Never use one landing page for multiple offers. Also, remove links to other pages or resources on your site because they can pull your subscribers away from your offer.
#Keep the Headline of E-mail and Landing Page Similar:
For better conversion, repeat the headline from your e-mail message at the top of your landing page. This is the best way to give your visitors a feeling of familiarity and tell them that they have landed on the right page.
#Pre-populate the Form on Landing Pages:
This is the one of the easiest ways to increase conversion rate. If a visitor comes to landing page from your email campaign, don’t ask him to re-type the information. Keep the forms on landing page simple and pre-filled.
#Keep It Short and Sweet:
On the landing page, try to keep all the content above the fold. Don’t let your visitors scroll up/down to find the required information. If they face any problem in finding what they’re looking for, chances are they won’t convert.
#Track Results:
Track your results to know what worked and what didn’t work and accordingly make required improvements to enhance performance. As a general rule, your landing page and email message should work together closely to achieve best results.
