Easy guide to creating an effective email marketing strategy: Part 2

In part 1, we learnt about the fundamentals of email marketing. In part 2, I'll show you how to design an effective marketing email to drive your strategy.
 

What formats to use

There are a number of different formats that you can use when sending an email.  The different email formats that your company can have are:

·         Newsletters

·         Promotions

·         Event invitations

·         Holiday greetings

People respond to different email formats in different ways. For example emails for immediate attention may be successful to begin with, however if you send too many emails in this format, the urgency factor can wear off overtime. To communicate effectively you need as many formats as reasons to communicate by placing your emails into logical groupings. So let’s take a closer look at the different email formats that you can use.

Email newsletters: Newsletters should contain information rather than promotions. There should be no more than 20% promotional content, otherwise this would defeat the purpose of it being a newsletter. They should be sent on a regular and consistent basis, once a month should be good enough for most companies.

Promotional emails: A promotional email can be used to promote a single product, multiple products or a sales theme, like Christmas for example. 

Promotional emails can also be triggered by a specific customer action. For instance, if a customer buys a basket of tulips from a flower company, the company can then send promotional emails about the daffodils they may have in stock, as well as a confirmation email.

It’s recommended that you hold some information back from your email to encourage clicks on your site.

Event Invitations: You can send emails for 1 event or a series of events which should be in similar formats. It’s useful to plan when you send your emails on a calendar to keep on top of things.

Email announcements: These can be used for relationship building, greetings, thank you messages, press releases and order confirmation.

Formats which are most consistent are those with a good layout.

Branding consistently

When sending emails, you should make sure that your brand is a good match with other marketing media. Your brand reflects your company personality and it should be something that all your clients/customers can relate to. Ways to do this could be by:
 

1. Including your logo: Place your logo clearly in every email that you send.
2. Using consistent colours: When sending emails, you should use consistent colours each and every time. When doing a specific promotion, like at Christmas for example, you should work promotional colours into your brand rather than replacing them.
3. Use consistent image types: Input images types that fit your business personality.

 

When designing emails, make sure that they are based on similar email templates. Once again we’d like to remind you to keep your email content valuable and relevant to your audience.

Including Links
 
Effective emails should invite an action and push someone into making a decision. This can be done by including links within your email. There are a number of different links that you can include within your email. The following is a breakdown of link types that you can include within your email.

External links: An external link is when a person clicks on a link, opening up a browser window for a person to be directed to a web page. There is also an opportunity to create links for files to be shared on a server with email signups, e.g. join@email.com.

For mobile phones, you can include phone number links which will automatically dial when clicked on or if you include an address link you can be redirected to a map for the desired location.
 
Internal links: Internal links help to navigate people within your email if you have a lot of content. You can also place links to skip to content from the top to bottom of your email.

Text links: Avoid using the term ‘click here’ and instead use action words. The better the description, the better chance you will have of getting clicks.  Examples can be:

·         ‘Buy this item’

·         ‘Download our free catalogue’

·         ‘For more information’

Image links: It’s good to use text to help explain images, although some are intuitive like product pictures, company logos, audio icons and video icons.

Never attach files, as email blockers will filter these out. It’s always better to use links.

Creating a layout

Layouts can be created by building tables in HTML to implement cascading designs. Once again if you don’t have the IT skills to do this, you can use an email provider (EMP) to provide templates that can be customised. There are a number of sections to consider for your layout, including:

·         Visual anchors

·         Images

·         Headlines

·         Links

·         Icons

·         Divider lines

·         Background colours

·         Boarders

The most important content to consider is what is in the upper left hand side of the email. Most people start scanning this area first. It’s also the first viewed section on mobile devices if the whole email doesn’t fit the screen. 

You shouldn’t place too many visual anchors in all four corners of the email, as your audience will struggle to decide on what’s the most important content within your email. Columns can be an ideal way for customers to scan your content and organise groups of content. 

Equal columns

This places equal value to content which you have in both columns.

A larger column to the right hand side

This places emphasis on content to the right hand side of your email.

A larger column on the left hand side

This places emphasis on the content to the left hand side of your email.

 

When you have too much content in one email, it can overwhelm your customer. In these incidences it’s best to send multiple emails.

 

Sending valuable offers

It’s good to know your customers and what they want. For instance there are those who love discounts, but there may be those who think that they are cheap. So it’s more likely that people who enjoy discounts will respond to a sale and those who don’t like the idea of a discount will respond to a sneak peak of an expensive product line.

For the best results conduct a survey or watch your email tracking reports to see your customers’ value and then divide emails into different groups based on the different offer types that motivate each group.

To gain the best results possible, it’s important to match incentives to each buyer. Coupons in emails for emails can be printed out or shown on a mobile device to be redeemed in store or linked to an item in an online store. Use coupons to reward customers with offers that are not available to the general public.

Mail merge can be used to include subscribers or customers’ names with offers that aren’t available to the general public. This is a good way of personalising your emails and making your customers feel appreciated. Giveaways can also be used in exchange for personal information to offer value without discounting the value of a featured product.

Loss leaders could prove to be a beneficial way of attracting customers or clients to your business. A loss leader is a promotional price that results in a loss to the business when then product is purchased. Although you may make a loss initially, there is the potential for you to make up for this loss with repeat sales using future emails. This could prove to be an effective method in taking customers away from your competition.

Creating valuable information

It’s vital that you create valuable information on a consistent basis with genuine value to the customer each and every time because only a small proportion will be ready to buy your products/services when they receive your email. If you only limit yourselves to sending promotions and offers, your emails will be irrelevant the majority of the time.

It’s good to include information about the products and services that your company provides for new prospects. Offering tips and advice from yourself, fellow employees, satisfied customers or product suppliers can show that your company knows their stuff, which in return builds a sense of trust between yourself and your audience.

Instructions and directions for how you can get the most out of your products or services before or after a sale is a good way to make your customers feel smarter. Entertaining content involving humour and engaging stories are also a great way to attract customer attention. Finally, facts and research can give your customers more than just an opinion to purchase a product or service.

What have we learnt in Part 2

In part 2, we learnt:

·         What formats to use.

·         To brand your emails on a consistent basis.

·         To include a range of links.

·         How to create an effective layout.

·         To send valuable information.

·         To create valuable information.

In the third and final part, we will learn about writing an effective call to action, how to write an effective call to action, combining social media and mobile devices and how to maximise your email campaign results.