When people open their inboxes, they are more likely to click on emails that grab their attention by being personable, well written, and attractive. Emails can communicate information with people—including potential customers—about your business, leading to more website traffic, which in turn, can generate more sales. In order to create highly effective email campaigns, marketers should know not only the basics, but also how to stand out from the competition.Here are 5 tips to assist marketers in creating highly effective email campaigns.
Utilize an email marketing software
'Before choosing content for an email campaign, it can be useful to select an email marketing software tool like MailChimp, Emma, or HubSpot to assist you with building emails. A marketing software tool can help you generate emails that have beautiful designs yet also share purposeful information. Often, marketers like to use these tools because they enable them to build emails without any graphic design experience. The tool you select will allow you to easily design and personalize your emails, as well as keep your email contact lists organized.
Add a call-to-action
Every email you send out to your contact lists should include a call-to-action (CTA). CTAs are beneficial because they invite people to take action, often leading more people to your website. CTAs can come in several different forms. Marketers could choose to use a button that encourages readers to visit their website. Or, a CTA could come in the form of a link to read more on a website. Choose a style for your CTA that works best for your business. This Special Edition email newsletter, sent from National Geographic, shares 14 total CTAs throughout the email. The CTAs range from “Watch a sneak peek,” to “View the map.” National Geographic isn’t afraid to invite subscribers to learn more.
Personalize emails
Try to make sure that the emails you send out are personalized for individuals and your target audience. This can include using your contacts’ first names, instead of a generic greeting. Personalized emails can also be created for special circumstances, such as spreading awareness of a cause or alerting subscribers to out of the ordinary changes, such as store closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. These types of messages can show subscribers what your company values and also that you value them. Recently, Naked Poppy, a makeup company dedicated to providing clean beauty products for women, sent out a personalized email to its email subscribers in response to the death of George Floyd. Within the email, Naked Poppy’s founder Jaleh shared a candid reaction to his death. Her response shared how her company is taking action against racism, including donations they’ve made for the cause.
Include helpful information
Highly effective email campaigns share information with subscribers that they can find useful, entertaining and informative. Often, email campaigns can contain links to blogs, articles, or listicles. Or, an email could contain information about a sale or a product. The opportunities are endless, just make sure that the information is tailored to your target audience.One online company, Runner’s World, sends out a daily newsletter with links to helpful articles associated with running, including training advice, racing news, and inspirational stories. Runners can gain insightful information from the newsletter that helps them improve their running capabilities.
Use compelling text and images
Marketing emails should be exciting and eye-catching. Use compelling text, visuals, graphics or infographics to convey your message in interesting ways. Experiment with colors, but make sure to keep branding colors, fonts and logos consistent. For example, TheSkimm’ hosts a daily newsletter—called DailySkimm’—that focuses on sharing news in a straightforward and consistent way to millennial women. The newsletter uses a clever tone in its writing to catch its readers’ attention. For example, every newsletter portrays a daily quote, usually a humorous message from a celebrity or trending social media post. The DailySkimm’ keeps its branding consistent by using the same colors, fonts and format in every email.
Key takeaways
A successful email campaign strategy can allow your business to grow and help you stand apart from competitors. Utilize email marketing software tools to make your job easier. Make sure that your emails contain CTAs, are personalized, include useful information and have compelling content. Last, don’t forget to track your email analytics, like open rate, click-through rate, number of unsubscribers and list growth rate. Although it takes time to build an effective email campaign, in the long run, it can pay off immensely.
