11 email marketing tips for beginners

• Make your subject line catchy

Your subject line is a vital part of the email. It is the first bit of information that your customer will see so you need to make this ‘pop’. There are different things you can do in your subject line that will make it stand out such as asking a rhetorical question to engage them or including a promise/offer to pique their interest.

• Have a good opening line

Always try to make your opening line as eye catching as possible so that whoever may be reading the email wants to read more. You don’t want them to get bored and end up deleting the email before reading it all the way through so it’s vital to hook them in at the start.

• Personalise

Even though you may be sending an email to hundreds if not thousands of people, it’s best always tailor your email as if you are speaking to just one person. This way the person that receives it is more likely to read on and action, as they think you have taken time out to message them personally. According to research from Campaign Monitor, emails with subject lines that include the recipient’s name are 26% more likely to be opened.

• Know your goal

Make sure you know exactly what you want your email to achieve and ensure that is clear in the messaging so that the reader does not get confused and so that your communication is kept simple.

• Test, test, test

You can A/B test pretty much all elements of your email – from the subject line, to the images used, to the intro you use and the offer you put out. You can also test the time and date you send your emails out. Make sure you test as many elements as possible as it will quickly allow you to build a picture of what works for your audience and what doesn’t. Then…..

• Measure what gains the most attention

If you send an email that works well and you receive good feedback from it, keep an eye on what you did in that email that drove the positive response. Similarly, if an email doesn’t go to plan or you don’t achieve your objective then you can measure what techniques gain more attention than others. It’s really easy to do, there is no guess work in email marketing and any email marketing software you use (we use Mailchimp as it’s really easy to navigate) will allow you to track who opened your email, what links were clicked, what subject line worked best and how many people unsubscribed. So you’ll get a picture of how well your campaigns are performing and can therefore optimise and improve future email effectiveness.

• Easy subscription

If you are offering any type of subscription, make it easy to sign up so that the reader does not have to fill in a huge form that is going to take up a significant amount of their time. Instead, keep things minimal and simple to persuade more people to act.

• Allow for different viewing platforms

Not everyone will be viewing your email on the same platform. Some may be viewing on mobile, some on desktop. So always take into consideration how it may look on each device. Be sure to send yourself a test email and view it on your phone, desktop and tablet to check it looks good enough to send on all platforms.

• Direct call to action

Once your customer knows what you are offering, make sure it is simple to act upon. For example, create a reader offer flash early on in the email or if you want them to visit a social media page; create a clear link to the specific page.

• Take care where your email lands

You do not want your email landing in someone’s Spam (or Junk) folder. There are things you can do to avoid hitting the spam filters such as, avoiding trigger words like “As seen on” and “free” in your subject lines. Make sure you obey the laws that govern digital marketing communications and always ensure you are compliant with GDPR.

• Automate

Email marketing lends well to automation and automating your emails helps improve the relevancy and timeliness of your campaigns. You can use triggers and workflows to automatically send messages to consumers after they take a specific action.

In addition to improving the relevancy and timeliness of your campaigns, marketing automation can also help you save time and money in the process. With automation, you don’t have to worry about waiting around for the perfect moment to send a message, your automation system takes care of that for you.

These are my top email marketing tips for beginners. Good luck!

Read more:

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