- Like
- Digg
- Del
- Tumblr
- VKontakte
- Buffer
- Love This
- Odnoklassniki
- Meneame
- Blogger
- Amazon
- Yahoo Mail
- Gmail
- AOL
- Newsvine
- HackerNews
- Evernote
- MySpace
- Mail.ru
- Viadeo
- Line
- Comments
- Yummly
- SMS
- Viber
- Telegram
- Subscribe
- Skype
- Facebook Messenger
- Kakao
- LiveJournal
- Yammer
- Edgar
- Fintel
- Mix
- Instapaper
- Copy Link
Table of Contents
As we know, email is a crucial channel to communicate with clients — it’s extremely popular as there are about 4.3 billion email users worldwide. Its affordable cost makes emailing a great solution for any business, from small to major companies. Therefore, we should use this opportunity to grow our business.
The first step most newcomers might have taken is searching for free email newsletter templates. And this is a good idea.
But how are you going to design these emails? And to whom are you going to send these emails? You should take a few steps before working on the very email.
1. Database
What do we need first when starting an email marketing campaign? Right, we need contacts to send our messages to. That’s why we have to build a database, as this is the backbone of our business and all email marketing campaigns. But how to motivate people to sign up?
The best practice is adding subscription forms to websites or social network accounts. But the chances are this form itself is not enough because today, Internet users see hundreds of invitations to get registered with a website. Eventually, they receive tons of promo emails in their inboxes. So how can you get noticed among competitors?
Yeah, prospects are waiting for real profit to share their email addresses with you. Give them something! Offer visitors a gift for a subscription, grab their interest with free shipping, or motivate them with free helpful content. You can also do experiments with the subscription form’s location and design.
Note: when collecting the database, to abide by the laws, including GDPR and CanSpam acts, you are to use double opt-in only.
Once your customers have ticked all checkboxes and given you their consent, you are to send them a subscription confirmation form right away!
Lamborghini, for example, sends this email:
Then, your customers are to receive a good welcome email. In this email, first of all, thank your subscribers for joining your contact base.
And also in this email, you are to tell them how to get a present from you if you promised them one.
Important: never buy contact base. First of all, to stay a law-obedient brand, and secondly, to have an active contact base that is interested in receiving your products and news.
2. Segmentation
Once our contact base is collected, we must segment our email list into groups. One of the key reasons recipients unsubscribe or even mark their emails as spam is the lack of email personalization. People hate to receive standard, faceless messages with irrelevant content. Segment your database to run effective and successful email marketing campaigns. Questionnaires and surveys help get clients to know better.
Gender, age, interests, preferences, geographical location — everything matters!
Please be advised that email design depends on the target audience, so pay maximum attention to this.
3. Email template creation
So you have a database — maybe not too rich, but don’t worry — it will grow day by day.
Now we need to create impress new subscribers with unique email marketing campaigns. Two factors are capable of doing this:
- value offer — to persuade readers to buy from you;
- email design — to make emails interesting to readers.
Value offer
Value offer does depend on your brand and your intentions. At the same time, email design will help us put it in a beautiful wrapping.
Email design
First, you will need to choose a good HTML email template builder.
When designing an email, you should consider the following:
- email template size — recommended width is 600px, while the length totally depends on your preferences;
- stay brand consistent — stick to brand design;
(Brighton website)
(Brighton email newsletter — same color, same logo, same logo location, same menu)
- images — use only high-quality photos. Compress them in order not to make emails heavy;
- include interactive elements if you please — as they are the trend #1 for 2018;
- repetitive CTA buttons — all emails have the main idea and are focused mainly on one offer (product item). If this is the case, don’t hesitate to repeat your CTA all over the email — this improves CTOR;
- responsive web design — as long as 54% of emails are opened on mobile devices, you need to ensure that the emails you send out are totally responsive.
More details on the email design you may find here. Make sure to get acknowledged with them before launching email marketing campaigns.
4. The unsubscribe link
In Western Europe and the USA, running an email campaign without the “Unsubscribe” option is illegal. The fine is $16,000 per email address in the USA and up to €20,000,000 per campaign. Sounds scary.
This is a very useful trick, btw. As those recipients who are no longer interested in your newsletters will unsubscribe. But when they do not find this link, they may report your email as spam.
It sounds a bit strange, but it’s true 😉
The unsubscribe link example by McDonald’s.
5. Subject lines
Email subject is the first thing customers face when you reach out to them. Make them descriptive, informative, and straight; in some cases, controversial subject lines drive great results.
Prior to sending emails out, check your subject line with Phrasee Pheelings. This tool will show you how effective your subject line is.
6. Measuring results
Everything is done. Your emails received their emails; some read your emails, and some even clicked the links (CTA buttons) to shop with you. Now you need to measure these results. How? A good ESP will provide a detailed report on open rates and click-rates. And a decent email campaign management system is all you need to deploy and manage email marketing campaigns.
Summing up
In addition to the aforementioned points, we would like to say — the most important thing here is your creativity and email relevance. What else? Right, you need to set goals before starting an email marketing campaign — and especially if this is your first one. Think about every detail and measure every metric of your campaigns.
May all your email marketing campaigns be catchy and successful!
- Like
- Digg
- Del
- Tumblr
- VKontakte
- Buffer
- Love This
- Odnoklassniki
- Meneame
- Blogger
- Amazon
- Yahoo Mail
- Gmail
- AOL
- Newsvine
- HackerNews
- Evernote
- MySpace
- Mail.ru
- Viadeo
- Line
- Comments
- Yummly
- SMS
- Viber
- Telegram
- Subscribe
- Skype
- Facebook Messenger
- Kakao
- LiveJournal
- Yammer
- Edgar
- Fintel
- Mix
- Instapaper
- Copy Link
Hi there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back