If you’re thinking about incorporating an email campaign into your marketing plan, or you are currently sending out emails that are producing poor results, then you may need to reconsider your email marketing approach. Below we have outlined our top 5 best practices and tips to help you make the most of your email marketing campaigns.

Make it personal

Personalising your email for each recipient can improve open rates and click through results. Whenever possible, add personalisation to your emails by addressing the recipient by their name. Most popular email tools now allow you to use shortcodes that will be replaced with the recipient’s name once the email has been sent.
Another personal element you can add to your email is to write as if you are writing personally by speaking directly to them by using ‘you’ and signing off the email with your own name so that the reader knows that the email is coming from a real person.

Create an enticing subject line

Your subject line will make or break whether recipients open your email or delete it. It’s the first thing that users see so you need to use a subject line that readers just have to open. Come up with an honest, compelling subject line meant to grab the recipients attention and use your subject to show the benefits of reading your message without overselling it.

Avoid spam filters

If you want your email to be read and acted upon, you need to ensure your email avoids the spam folder of your recipients, as this can have a negative impact on your deliverability rates. Follow the following steps to avoid spam filters:

– Have a clear “unsubscribe” link in all your emails.
– Keep your lists up to date.
– Avoid trigger words such as, “promotion”, “limited time”, “amazing”, “cheap”, “free” and “now”.
– Use a limited number of images in the body of your email.

It also helps to make sure you have received permission from the recipient to send them emails. Make sure you include a double opt-in form to ensure the recipient has subscribed to receive emails from you. It’s also helpful to remind recipients why they are receiving your emails e.g. “you are receiving this email because you subscribed to our mailing list”.

Be mobile friendly

More and more people are opening their emails on mobile devices, so you need to ensure your email is optimized for mobile and automatically fits all screen sizes.
Make sure the design and layout of the email work well on the mobile screen as some designs don’t look great or work very well on smaller screens, which can put a customer off and in turn, reducing your click-through rates.
Just like your website, your email load time matters as well, so ensure your email isn’t filled with too many links or images as this can slow downloading speed.

Test, test, and test again

Never send an email without ensuring that every aspect of it is working correctly, this includes all links, images, and buttons. Double-check that your messages look the way you want them to by sending a test email to yourself – something that most popular email tools allow you to do. Ideally, send a test email to a variety of email platforms to ensure they will be uniform and working properly whichever platform your recipient uses.

Need help creating a new email marketing campaign or want to refresh your current one? Get in touch with us today and we will be happy to help.

Square Media is Northamptonshire’s premiere Web Design & Marketing Agency experienced in developing effective content and marketing strategies for forward-thinking companies in the local area. Our team of specialists consistently deliver outstanding results working in a variety of areas such as Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Marketing Consultancy, Pay Per Click (PPC) and AdWords Management amongst a wide range of other services.