10 Ways Email Marketing Can Transform Your Business

Posted by Denny Averill

Email marketing is an essential tool for growing your business online and can be used to generate a large, and extremely loyal, customer base.

However, with over 144 billion emails being sent every day, it is important to get your message right. If you don’t, it’s more likely you will be lost amongst the other white noise.

The following 10 tips will ensure your next email marketing campaign is successful:

1. Personalisation

Adding a specific name to your email is easy, but it can also appear false. In fact, in today’s security conscious society it may even seem suspicious.

Personalising your email is a great way to build a relationship and secure long term customers, but, you must do it via targeting correctly. Show that you know your customer base by sending them emails they might want to read.

The crowd’s wisdom has a lot to say about the way email marketing has evolved. When marketers were asked what – in their opinion – was the biggest change email marketing will go through 5 years from now, most of them mentioned content, data and personalisation.

The study was performed by econsultancy.

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Five years from now, 76% of company respondents said that email communication will be completely personalised, and 74% agree that email is still one of the most efficient ways of obtaining an increased return on investment.

2. Subject lines

A subject line shouldn’t go beyond the 60-70 character mark. Longer subjects lines will make receivers ignore your email.

Keep it very short and catchy but if you want it longer, make sure it’s very informative. Either technique works!

A subject line has a huge impact on your audience. It sets the tone for whether or not your email will be opened. It is fundamental that you stay on topic.

Today’s email marketing trends are driven by social and mobile influences. With the rise in mobile technology, the subject line of a marketer’s email has to be shorter to grab your readers attention.

Mobile devices show fewer characters than desktop devices, and mobile email apps such as those compatible with the iPhone only display about 35 characters of an email’s subject line in an inbox. That being said, smart marketers should make their headlines range between 20 and 40 characters to maximize efficiency and make sure their emails get opened.

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3. Timing

Sending your email at the right time will increase the likelihood of it being read. Research suggests that between 8pm (21%) and before going to bed (22%) is the best time.

This is because less businesses use this time slot and people are generally more able to look at their emails thoroughly, rather than a quick glance during the business day.

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4. Give it away!

What you are able to give away may depend upon your business. But some popular choices are templates and online calculators, alternatively an e-book or free information is always gratefully received; and remembered.

Giveaways for marketing purposes have always been a great way of winning more customers. But with the advent of social media, they’ve become a fundamental aspect of a company’s online success.

5. Reading

Statistics show that 42.3% of emails are now read on a mobile or handheld device. Your email must be designed to look good no matter what device it is opened on. Consumers will quickly switch to a different supplier if your messages are not clear and easy to read.

Make sure your email marketing follows these design tips:

• A one column template will allow it to be read anywhere.
• Increase your font size to make it easier for the smaller screens
• Aim for a message that is at least 44 pixels wide and 44 pixels tall.
• The call to action should be easy to spot and tap on.
• Items which need to be tapped should be in the centre of the screen. This makes them easy to tap, but not by accident.

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6. The weekend

The weekend is a time for people to relax and unwind; this often means they are out doing the things they enjoy.

However, they will still have their cell phone with them and be able to receive emails. Research has shown that emails received on the weekend are far more likely to be read and acted upon than those received during the week; with the exclusion of the eight to midnight slot.

7. Subscriber list

There are many ways to build a subscriber list. However, there is most likely plenty of names on your list who have become inactive. These are the potential customers you need to reach out to first!

The best way to reach out to them is to point out what has changed on your site and how it may be of interest to them. It does not need to be a long email; just enough to get their attention.

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8. Animation

People are becoming used to seeing videos everywhere and the same is now becoming true of emails. A short video or even an animated picture can relay a message much faster than the equivalent words. An animation also captures the reader’s attention and encourages them to read your email!

9. Offers

There are an increasing number of tools available which will enable you to understand the profile of your customer. This can then be used to create predictive intelligence information; in effect you will be able to calculate which offers they will respond to and what they are likely to buy. You can then target specific market sectors or even individuals to get the right response.

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10. Location

It is also possible to send an email which mentions landmarks local to a group of customers. This will help to make the email personal and can attract them to visit a physical shop as well as browse online.

About Denny

Denny Averill is a regular contributor at many sites and mainly focuses on business and marketing related topics. He also writes for Romax who offer direct mail marketing and mail distribution services.

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