Easy guide to creating an effective email marketing strategy: Part 3

In the third and final part, we will learn the final essentials on how to create an effective email marketing campaign. This includes writing an effective call to action, combining social media and mobile devices and how to maximise your email campaign results. So let’s get started….

Writing an effective call to action 

The clue is in the subheading and that is to use words that describe the action. Examples can be:

·         Visit our website

·         Call to order

·         Read the review

·         Print this email

·         Download our menu

It’s good to provide incentives like scroll down for coupon and asking people to share your email via a Facebook ‘like’ button for example.

Creating effective “from addresses and subject lines”

Unfamiliar ‘from lines’ can result in spam complaints, even when people have signed up to your email list. The easiest way for someone to determine the legitimacy of an email is by using your company name. If you are part of a larger organisation, it would be good to include your business location to add clarity to your email.

If you have a personal relationship with the person that you are sending an email to, it could be a good idea to use your first and last name. The key is to stay consistent with your subject and address lines.

When writing subject lines you have to consider that your text will get cut off after 40/50 characters. Your subject line is your gem to lure in potential customers and can effectively be the make or break point as to whether you gain a customer or not. The best way to utilise this opportunity is by describing the immediate benefit with as few a words possible. Examples of using value words could be:

·         Compare our app to the competition.

·         25% discount on web development.

A useful way to see what subject lines work best for you is by testing new ideas by using a small sample of your email list.

It’s vital that you do not use words phrases such as:

·         SALE

·         Sale!!!

·         Hurry!

·         Deal Ending!

These can be off-putting for you audience and can result in spam complaints. If you’re still struggling to come to terms with what spam exactly is, try looking at your own email accounts to see what not to do.

Combining email with social media and mobile devices

Another great way to try and enhance your opportunities is by using social media. Emails can be:

·         Forwarded

·         Shared

·         Reviewed

·         Rated

·         Liked

·         Tweeted

The last two actions can potentially have a significant impact on spreading the word about your company. By simply including links to social media pages in the body of your email such as the ‘Like Us’ Facebook icon or ‘Tweet’ icon,  there is an opportunity for your company’s services to be spread to a mass market. Vice versa as mentioned in the previous blog, your company can also use signup forms on each of your social media platforms to try and increase the number of people joining your mailing list.

Email providers (EMP’s) can be used to distribute emails automatically to inboxes, Facebook walls, Twitter pages and so on for when your email scheduled to go out. This way, you can create email content once and publish it anywhere as one campaign.

Things to consider when creating a mobile friendly design

Nowadays, a lot of people access their email inbox with mobile phones and smartphones. When people use smartphones on their computer, they tend to sort through emails to:

·         Open emails now

·         Save emails for later

·         Delete emails immediately

Therefore, it’s imperative to consider your design for mobile and to make it as mobile friendly as possible.

For companies that have retail outlets, it’s worthwhile thinking about the use of email coupons on mobile devices that can be shown on purchase in store. This is a far better method than using a lengthy process that involves a lot of typing on a mobile device.

How will email look on a mobile device

When people view content on mobile devices, content for a lot of devices is displayed from the upper left hand side of the mail. To take advantage of the upper left hand side of the email, you could place:

·    Your logo

·    Main headline

·    Images: Make sure that text is small enough beside or below it, so that people can scroll within your email.

·    Navigation links: This is for when you have a lot of content in your email, allowing people to quickly scroll through it.

Mobile call to action

As mentioned in the previous blog, mobile devices can allow people to directly dial numbers and to search for an address with map directions when clicking on a link.

Other ways to optimise mobile pages is by:

• Using simplified navigation.
• Using content that is easy to read on screen.
• Using site content that is friendly for each mobile device.
• Posting videos to YouTube, so that they will play on all devices.

You can use email content to suggest mobile friendly actions like:

• Attaching images.
• Encouraging visits to social media sites
• Checking in on location servers
• Showing emails to someone else: This works great for coupons and other offers.

Maximising your email campaign results

Managing bounced and blocked emails

When emails are undelivered, it does not necessarily mean a void opportunity. Emails which are undelivered are returned to the email sender’s address with a code saying why it was blocked. EMP’s can provide bounce reports, which can help you to define why the email bounced and provide you with a chance to take appropriate action.
Emails that are permanently undeliverable are called a hard bounce. A hard bounce is when:

·         An email address doesn’t exist.

·         An address is misspelled.

·         An address has changed.

·         An address has been abandoned.

It may be worthwhile to contact subscribers to find out their new email address or if you decide not to, it’s best to permanently delete them from your database.

Your report may suggest that you have has a soft bounce, this is when

·         Your email box is full.

·         Your email is temporarily undeliverable.

·         Your emails have been blocked.

3 soft bounces equate to a hard bounce, so it’s best just to give it up if this is the case. If you are getting irregular soft bounces, it may be best for you to send your emails at a later date.

Avoiding getting caught up by filters

Not all folders are negative, as some people may organise their emails into folders. It goes without saying that you want to avoid junk/spam folders. Most email filters are set by email companies in order protects their customers. It’s best to avoid:

·         All capital letters

·         Attachments

·         Profanities

It’s good to establish a good sender reputation with the likes of hotmail, gmail and yahoo. This is usually calculated by:

·         Length of time, people spend browsing your email.

·         The number of emails sent.

·         The number of spam complaints that you receive,

It could be useful to use a well-established EMP on your behalf that has earned their reputation with email companies and have sent emails to permission based lists in the past. Make sure that your emails are complaint with email companies’ policies to avoid future complications.

Tracking non click responses

It’s not just about tracking click data; non-click data is just as important. There are simple ways to do this, for instance you can have a special promotion that is only available to customers who ring your company up. Alternatively, you could have a unique phone number for the offer. If you have a physical store, you could provide an email print out or use mobile email confirmation. Lastly if you are sending emails for a specific event, you could use an email print out as ticket confirmation.

Automating your email marketing

There are two ways in which to send out automated in response to a customer action.

1.       Auto responder, which is a response to a:

Ø  Specific action.

Ø  Specific date.

Ø  Specific time.

Ø  A customer filling out a form.

Ø  A click on a link, picture or video.

2.   A sequence: This is a number of emails sent in response to specific events/actions. An example sequence could be:

Ø  An immediate welcome email.

Ø  A follow up email: 3 days later

Ø  An email newsletter: 1 weeks later

Ø  A promotional email or thanks for joining email: 2 weeks later

A promotional email should be sent to correspond with clicks, dates and periods of time.

Evaluating click through data

Email tracking can be done via html coding if you have the IT expertise to do so or by using an EMP. The most essential data to measure is your open email rate. Your open email rate is when images are displayed or when a link is clicked on by the user.  However, it’s important to note that people may have noticed your email without enabling images or clicking on links.

A click report notes who and how many people have clicked on your emails. The report provides an indicator of interest so that you can narrow down your focus on each of your customers. For example if:

Ø  20 people clicked on an iPhone link…and…

Ø  20 people clicked on an Android link.

The next time you were to send out an email, there would be an opportunity to customize and send out more focused emails to those who clicked on your iPhone link and for those who clicked on your Android link. This is a good way to know whether your email content is valuable and interesting to readers.

When people click on features within your email, they are engaging with you and it helps them to remember your business and message for when they are ready to buy. It’s always a good idea to leave some content out of the link, so that you know who is interested in your business and who isn’t. 

It’s also worthwhile to compare data between your email and website. If you are getting a lot of email clicks but people are not buying, then there is something wrong with your site rather than with the emails that you are sending out.

That’s the end of my guide...hopefully it will be of help!!