Email marketing campaigns are perhaps the most reliable, cost-effective and efficient way to reach and connect with customers of all demographics – I mean, who doesn’t have an email address? Showing a remarkably high ROI, as well as nurturing and rewarding brand loyalty, email campaigns are a necessary addition to your marketing strategy.

To get through to your audience, however, you need to master your approach – you don’t want your content to be garbled or unprofessional, and you certainly don’t want your carefully crafted campaigns to end up in the spam folder. That’s why our team of experts have put together this handy guide to assist you in all your email marketing pursuits. From composing compelling content to refining your strategy using A/B testing – we’ve got you covered.

Set your intentions

Different email marketing campaigns are curated with distinct goals in mind, and you want to make your intentions clear before you go about creating your own.

A promotional email marketing campaign, for example, created for the purpose of promoting a specific offer or product range, will look and feel quite different from a newsletter email marketing campaign designed to keep customers engaged and informed about a brand.

It’s important that you identify the purpose of your campaign in order to tailor it, both in content and stylistically, to fit that purpose and meet your desired outcome. So, what is it specifically that you want to accomplish with your campaign? Are you keen to welcome new subscribers, re-engage inactive subscribers, or promote an offer?

In addition to discerning the customer-centric function of your email campaign, it’s also fundamental that you set SMART business goals. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based. By setting these goals early on, you identify certain metrics by which you can later track your marketing successes and pinpoint any areas of your strategy which may need improvement.

Grow your mailing list

For your email campaigns to be impactful, you must ensure they reach the target audience. To connect with engaged and interested customers, you’ll have to encourage your website visitors to subscribe to your mailing list.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to embed an opt-in form or subscribe button into your website. We recommend making it visible on your homepage or in the form of a pop-up, so your customers can’t miss it. It is also worth giving your customers an incentive to subscribe to your email newsletters – consider offering discounts or exclusive web content to new subscribers.

Another way to grow your mailing list is through events. If you host an event for your business, remember to include a sign-up form for the registry, urging your customers to input their email addresses to attend the event. With these methods, your mailing list will be filled with people who have already shown interest in your business.

Grab their attention

Now that you’ve set goals for your campaign and amassed a good number of interested subscribers, it’s time to begin crafting your email.

Before you get ahead of yourself, we want to remind you to never underestimate the influence of a good subject line. If you can write a compelling subject line, you’ll amp up engagement, but if your subject line is dull, uninformative or rambling, you risk turning customers away. Remember, the subject line is the first thing your subscribers see – if you want to improve your open rates, you’ll have to make a good first impression.

This is your opportunity to get creative. Make your subject line catchy and revealing so your customers are both intrigued and well-informed about what to expect from your email. With a limited word count (ideally, under ten words), you need to highlight and encapsulate the key features of your campaign and/or brand. Essentially, you want to engage your readers with a pithy, original summary, so keep it short and sweet.

Perfect your layout

The look of your email has the power to instantly captivate your readers, so you want to design your layout with care.

Be sure to include elements of your branding, such as logos, signature fonts and colours, because this is what makes your content recognisable and boosts your brand identity. It’s also a good idea to embed carefully selected images to make your campaign more attractive, so long as the images are relevant and not distracting.

Be mindful, though, of overdoing it. Images and logos should be used sparingly to complement and spotlight, but never obscure, the purpose and call to action (CTA) of your campaign. If you stuff your emails with overwhelming imagery and branding, your content will appear messy, unprofessional, or illegible. It is also of cardinal importance that your email campaigns translate well onto mobile devices, so avoid using large headers or images that will appear distorted on smaller screens.

Connect with your customers

With the subject line and design of your email campaign perfected, you now have to make sure that your content is compelling and your CTA is clear.

Ensure that the language used, and the tone delivered, complements your branding and resonate with your demographic. In most instances, it’s a safe bet to keep your tone and language warm and conversational to connect with your audience.

Another way to build a connection with your readers is through personalisation. You can foster brand loyalty by acknowledging your customers’ individuality and demonstrating an understanding of their needs. Adding individuals’ names in email headers is an effective way to personalise your content, and you might also consider sending certain customers recommendations for products or services similar to those they’ve purchased in the past. It is essential that you include value-adding content in all of your campaigns, such as exclusive deals, new products, or useful information about your business.

Don’t end up in the spam folder!

So, your email campaign is polished, and you’re ready to hit send, but you still face a major challenge – how can you avoid your campaign getting lumped in the dreaded spam folder?

The first precaution you should take is to avoid misleading subject lines and spam trigger words. While it is tactical for subject lines to convey a sense of urgency or inspire curiosity, it is essential that you maintain transparency about the content and intention of your email. It’s also best to avoid phrases such as “congratulations, you won…” or “cancel at any time”, as these will likely trigger spam filters.

Ensure, also, that you are complying with spam regulations so you don’t risk getting your emails banned. Include a link to an unsubscribe form on every email, giving your subscribers the option to opt out of some or all of your marketing emails. Crucially, do not send unsolicited emails to people who have not explicitly subscribed to your list or to people who have explicitly unsubscribed from it.

To retain subscribers, we recommend that you schedule your emails to be sent regularly enough to be memorable but not so regularly that they clog your subscribers’ inboxes. If you hassle your subscribers with constant emails, they’ll be more likely to send your emails to spam or unsubscribe from your mailing list entirely.

Test and refine

Now, let’s circle back to those SMART goals we made initially. There are certain options available to you to test whether your email marketing campaigns are achieving the goals you set for them.

Using Google Analytics, you can monitor how your email marketing campaigns affect your website traffic. It’s also a good idea to check each email campaign’s forward/share rate and track your mailing list growth and unsubscribe rates.

When starting out on your email marketing journey, A/B testing is an effective way to learn how best to amend your strategy. A/B testing involves curating two different versions of your campaign, sending each to a different group of recipients, and tracking the results to see which version performs better. You might also want to try A/B testing the same email but sending it at different times of the day to figure out when you are likely to receive the most engagement.

With tons of enlightening metrics such as open, click-through, bounce, and unsubscribe rates, Google Analytics and A/B testing are vital business tools. Focus on the goals you set for your campaigns and, where they are not being met, be sure to tweak your marketing strategies accordingly.

Hit ‘send’

Email marketing, when done correctly, has the potential to yield excellent results. If you follow the steps outlined in this guide, you’ll be on the right path to a highly successful business campaign.

For more expert assistance, contact the team here at Clarus Digital – our digital marketing and SEO professionals are on hand to help you drive your business forward.