In the digital age, brands have tons of different options for connecting with customers and promoting their products or services. In terms of audience reach and return on investment, email marketing is one of the best.
Diving into email and digital marketing can feel overwhelming, but it’s more manageable than you might think. Follow these email marketing content tips to enhance your marketing efforts and drive more conversions.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is sending promotional messages to customers who subscribe to your email list. You can promote new products, announce sales and discounts, and provide essential updates in these marketing emails.
Some common email marketing ideas include:
- Welcome emails
- Newsletters
- Abandoned cart emails
- Purchase confirmation emails
- Re-engagement emails
- Lead nurturing emails
- Informational emails
- Review requests and surveys
The sky’s the limit when it comes to email marketing. You can share anything you want to tell your customers through these messages.
Email marketing tips for small businesses
When you start using any new marketing channel, including email marketing, you may hear contradictory advice. Cut through the noise and implement these actionable email marketing tips for the best results from your campaigns.
Do not buy email addresses
To launch your email marketing campaign, you need email subscribers. It’s tempting at the beginning to grow your list by purchasing email addresses rather than waiting for people to sign up, but don’t give in to that temptation.
Buying email addresses will grow your list but won’t help your campaigns. The customers whose emails you purchased did not consent to receiving your messages, so there’s no way to know whether they’re interested in your brand or what you’re selling. They may even report your message as spam, damaging your sender reputation.
Grow your email list organically, even if it takes much longer. Buying email lists is a risky email marketing mistake to avoid.
Segment your subscriber database
One of the biggest advantages of email marketing is that it allows for convenient customer segmentation. Easily segment your subscribers into smaller groups based on factors like:
- Their age and gender
- Their location
- Their interests
- Their engagement level
- Their purchase histories
By segmenting your subscribers, you can create more targeted email marketing campaigns. For example, you can send a message to your most loyal subscribers to reward them.
Follow CAN-SPAM rules and other regulations
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law in the United States that sets rules for sending commercial email messages. If you send marketing emails to American customers or operate in the U.S., you must follow these rules. Each violation can cost you over $50,000 in penalties.
The main requirements of the Act are that you cannot use misleading header information like inaccurate subject lines, “From,” and “Reply-To” information. You also need to disclose that the message is an ad.
Make sure your opt-in process is GDPR-compliant
The European Union also sets rules for marketing messages in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This law protects consumer data from corporate infringement and requires companies to obtain customer consent before collecting or using their data.
Use a double opt-in process to add new subscribers, and make sure you comply with the GDPR. In this process, new subscribers provide their email addresses and then click a confirmation link in a message you send to get on your mailing list. That way, you know everyone on your email list truly wants to be there.
Contact new subscribers in the first 24 hours
When customers subscribe to your mailing list, they expect to hear from you right away. Waiting too long to send them a message may discourage their interest or make them think there’s a problem.
Try to send a welcome email to new subscribers as soon as possible and definitely before the 24-hour mark. You can set up an automated welcome campaign so you don’t have to track new subscribers and manually press send on the messages.
Pre-set the preview text
The preview text is the short snippet of the email that recipients see in their inboxes before they open it. Alongside the sender and the subject line, the preview text is what your subscribers use to decide whether your email is worth opening.
If you don’t adjust the preview text, it will default to part of your message. Instead, pre-set it to something more engaging and persuasive. Use this opportunity to draw readers in and convince them to open the message.
Keep your emails short and sweet
No one wants to receive a novel-length message in their inbox. To keep your audience’s attention, write marketing emails that get right to the point. Stick to one or two important topics and avoid unnecessary wordiness. Editing is your friend here.
Re-engage inactive subscribers
Sometimes, email subscribers won’t interact with your content for a while, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve permanently lost that connection. Try to re-engage inactive subscribers by sending targeted messages encouraging them to take action again.
You can even offer a reward like a discount code or free product to entice them. If the subscribers still don’t re-engage after that message, remove them from your mailing list.
Use A/B testing to fine-tune your emails
No first draft is perfect, including marketing emails. Use A/B testing to fine-tune the details and create the most impactful messages. In A/B testing, you change one message element to produce two similar yet distinct versions. Then, you send both emails to small subsets of your audience to see which performs better. The winning email is the one you send to your whole target audience.
Include one call to action button per email
Once your recipients open and read your email, what then? They need to know what to do next if they’re interested in engaging with your brand further. That’s what the call to action button is for.
The call to action button prompts readers to take the next step. Typically, they click on it to go to a page on your website, like the home page or a product page. You need at least one call to action button per email to capture conversions. Don’t leave it out.
Optimize your emails for mobile users
Mobile devices now account for the majority of web traffic. Optimizing your emails so customers can easily read and engage with them on mobile is essential.
Use more prominent call to action buttons that readers can click with their fingers. Since mobile screens are small, add plenty of white space and use minimal text to avoid clutter. Also, make sure your image size adjusts to the smaller screen without taking over the message.
Preview and test your emails before sending them
Before you click “send,” pull up a preview of your email to check for problems. Also, send a few test emails to different devices. These extra steps will help prevent customers from seeing any embarrassing issues with your marketing emails. It’s better to take some extra time and correct any errors before the email goes out to all your subscribers.
Make sure to implement other email marketing tips, such as:
- Avoid background images
- Add social sharing buttons
- Use emotion to connect
- Showcase your brand values
- Tell a story
- Send your email at the right time
- Try out plain text emails
- Match your email campaigns with your landing pages
- Create campaigns using trending topics
Additional considerations for email marketing success
Beyond these tips for email marketing, there are a few other things to remember while designing your campaigns. Apply these email marketing best practices for better results.
Use grammar check software to maintain professionalism
There’s nothing worse than clicking send on an email and realizing a second too late that there was a major typo in it. Errors are natural, but letting them slip through to customers is unprofessional. Run all your emails through a grammar checker before sending them to make sure no errors undermine your message.
Elevate your emails with email marketing software
Building an email marketing campaign and sending messages involves many different steps. The right email marketing software can simplify those steps.
Email marketing software like Constant Contact helps you write, design, and track your promotional emails. The AI-powered writing assistant can draft messages with just a few details about what you want. Then, use the email editor to customize pre-designed templates and create stunning messages. Once you press send, you can track the results of your campaign in Constant Contact’s user-friendly email reports.
From start to finish, Constant Contact elevates your email marketing. Start a free trial now to see the software in action.
Learn how to handle angry recipients or email misunderstandings
When you send messages to a large email list, some angry responses or misunderstandings are inevitable. Don’t panic when you get less than positive responses to your emails.
If the person complaining is an active, engaged customer with a sincere concern, do your best to address the issue. Showing that customer you care can strengthen your relationship. However, if the angry recipient does not regularly engage with your brand or present a good-faith issue, you can just remove them from your email list.
Integrating marketing strategies with email campaigns
Your email marketing campaigns are just one component of your broader marketing strategies. Make sure your emails support your big-picture marketing goals and stay in line with your other brand messaging.
Use these techniques to integrate marketing strategies with your email campaigns.
Share industry-related news and updates to establish authority
Directly promotional emails may make up most of your messages, but you can also sprinkle in some purely informational content relevant to your audience. Sharing insights and industry-related news with your audience positions your brand as a strong authority. Your subscribers will start to trust your brand for information about your industry and view you as more reliable.
Use lead magnets and content offers to grow and refine your mailing list
The success of your email marketing campaigns is based on the size and quality of your mailing list. Boost your subscribers by using lead magnets like ebooks, online courses, and checklists.
For lead magnets to work, they need to appeal to your target audience. Something widely appealing, like a lottery to win a new computer, isn’t effective because it will attract subscribers who aren’t interested in your brand.
Make your lead management valuable and immediately applicable. Your subscribers don’t want to wait — they should be able to access the content right away and start working toward results. That instant gratification will make them subscribe to your email list.
Collaborate with influencers or brands to broaden your audience reach
Sometimes, you may feel stuck and concerned that you can’t organically expand your audience any further. When that happens, consider collaborating with influencers or other brands to tap into their audiences.
Collaborations like these are mutually beneficial and can significantly boost your mailing list. With an influencer, you pay them to promote your brand’s products or services to their social media followers. Hopefully, some of those followers will be interested and become part of your audience.
With a brand collaboration, both companies get their names in front of the other’s audiences. If you choose a brand in a related industry, you should be able to grow your subscribers.
Take your email marketing to the next level
Implementing these email marketing tips for beginners will help you get more out of your email campaigns. As you’re getting started, don’t stress about making everything perfect. A somewhat flawed email message can still support your marketing goals, and you’ll only get better over time.
To improve your campaigns even further, use available tools, such as grammar checkers, design tools, and email marketing automation software.
Looking for some inspiration? Try out our fill-in-the-blank email templates! Download now.
