Email marketing introduction and tips

INTRODUCTION TO EMAIL MARKETING:

Email is a channel that you own, so take advantage of it. It is a great resource because:

1.       Your audience has already opted in

2.       You can speak directly to them in a relevant way through segmenting, targeting and testing

3.       It has a higher conversion rate than other opt-in relationship channels such as social media

There are different types of emails:

1.       Transactional: welcome email when you sign in, thank you email when you complete a purchase, confirmation email when you made a purchase, abandoned cart email when you initiate a purchase but do not complete it.

2.       Marketing: newsletter, promotions…

Key metrics:

1.       Open rate: # opens/total recipients. A good open rate is around 20% to 30%.

2.       Click to open rate: # clicks/# opens. A good click to open rate is around 20% to 30%.

3.       Conversion rate: # actions/total recipients. It depends on the industry and the email offer.

4.       Unsubscribe rate: # unsubscribes/total recipients. Should be less than 1%.

Taylor and test depending on your customers:

You can modify and do A/B testing to improve your metrics. Recommendations are to create different subject lines, images, messaging, landing pages, time of the day you send the email, and others.

GENERAL TIPS:

·         Be clear: when creating an email start with a question, what do I want to say to my customer?

·         Be concise: use short and simple words, and avoid fluffy modifiers such as amazing, memorable, powerful, beautiful, unique, innovative, it’s never been easier…

·         Define who is your customer? What do they need to know? And give them the information they need and want to read.

·         Write how your brand speaks.

·         Think about mobile.  Everything you send should be mobile-friendly, if not it is not going to perform very well.

·         Avoid jargon and catchphrases: for blogs and magazines examples are: X is the new Y, the future of X, viral… For startups examples are: adaptive, disruptive, seamless, game changer…

·         Subject line: tell what it is inside, don’t sell what it is inside, be descriptive, make it local or personal, < 50 characters, avoid all caps and exclamations, use emojis for fun (not as replacement of words)

·         Pre-header: summary and teaser (longer that the subject line, should complement each other, has to be different).

·         Headline: different from subject line, the most obvious. It is what people read.

·         Body: people are scanning, make it easy for them to scan, and images are key. Do not make false promises.

·         Call to action (CTA): make it clear. Keep it short, no more than 5 words, the majority are two words such as Buy Now. Use active language because you want customers to act now. Create a sense of urgency, so give customers a reason to act now. For instance, put a limited time frame on deals so customers won’t wait.

·         Footer: unsubscribe (make it easy to unsubscribe), address, link, little image (something fun), social media buttons.

·         Track and analyze your results.

Sources: Vertical Response, Mailchimp, General Assembly, Forbes, Huffington Post, HubSpot