In a world where social media is all encompassing in the marketing world, it can be easy to overlook the power and cut-through of email. Businesses ignore this tactic at their peril because an optimised campaign in this field will result in a healthy mailing list and strong consumer base of regular customers.
This is not to denigrate what Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google + have to offer because they have their use. Yet when it comes to social shares, likes and retweets versus buy-in and sales, there is a clear winner on the scale of priorities.
Here we will examine some of the best techniques to optimisation, drawing in as many eyeballs and garnering the most sales as possible.
Give a personal touch
Should your email not be sent to a specific individual with a personable touch, then it will be lost in a pile of junk or spam mail. Consider this as a rule of thumb with any email approach – the more generic the email, the less likely you will see cut-through.
From the subject line to the opening introduction and throughout the copy, have that consumer’s name front and center of your focus. Showcase your enterprise’s ability to engage with people and cater the message to them – not just a bland message sent to a faceless figure in the company.
Think in time segments
So you’ve got the text and software geared and spent months curating a long list of potential customers. That’s a great start, but do not make the mistake of sending out your campaign at the wrong time.
Put yourself in the shoe of the receiver. Should you be an accounting firm wanting to outline a new offer to local businesses, think about when they would like to open this email. The ideal time slot for any mainstream 9am-5pm business is during that early 9am-9.30am schedule on a Tuesday morning.
Monday’s are generally when employees are getting re-accustomed from the weekend and Tuesday is early enough in the week to absorb the notice and follow through on a sale.
Be mobile savvy
Smartphones are the communication mode of choice for the overwhelming majority of individuals, making it paramount that any message sent is compatible with iPhones and Android devices.
If you happen to be running your campaign through a popular platform such as MailChimp, then it will provide you a demonstration as to how your email will be presented on mobile.
Should you not be able to access this preview, find a software application that will, or at worst, run a draft campaign internally and check it for yourself. Any campaign that has text or images out of proportion will fail to gain any cut-through.
As we mentioned, social media does have its use. For email marketing campaigns, allowing receivers to share and connect with an enterprise on this format opens modes of communication and allows your campaign to go viral.
This is easy to achieve should your company already have these accounts established. If your campaign is enticing enough, the simplest means of sending that message is through a group Facebook share or tweet.
Make a call to action
Amid all the bells and whistles of persuasive language, multimedia and aesthetic presentation, you are wanting the end user to opt in. That might not necessarily mean an immediate purchase on the spot, but it could mean a newsletter subscription or follow that allows you to track their account.
A call to action will often result in a landing page where you send the user to a link where they provide this information. Do not leave this section until the very end because the longer the email, the less likely for click-through given the short attention spans. Make this a priority.