Here are my Top 5 Email Marketing Practices. Applying these 5 principles can help in turning your subscribers into customers or in the very least your email won’t be considered one of those annoying emails moved to the ‘Junk Folder’!

1. Use of a Call-to-Action

If a Call-to-Action isn’t added to an email campaign, then why send out the email in the first place?

‘A call to action (CTA) is a statement designed to get an immediate response from the person reading or hearing it.’⁽¹⁾ It is important to be clear on what your call-to-action is to be used for:

• sell a product or service
• entice the reader to your website
• email subscription
• download ebooks or software
• low risk free trials

Effective CTA for recipient engagement will have eye-catching designs, be large enough to be noticed and easy to read with clear expectations ie: the recipient knows when they click what they will be getting.

2. Personalise the email

Personalising an email with company branding and email signatures is also an important practice. The recipient will know exactly who the email is from and possibly have an expectation of what they will see making them more likely to open the email to view its content.

Keep it personal, use a greeting that starts with the recipients first name rather than ‘Dear Customer’. Another way to keep create a personal connection is to use an actual person as the sender rather than the company name.

3. Optimise emails for mobile users

In 2016 Litmus reported that the total emails opened for April was 56%.⁽²⁾ Make sure that your email is responsive to mobile devices by sizing images accordingly and making sure that the CTA buttons and links are set to the recommended 45-57 pixels (about 1.6 to 2cm, the size of an adult’s index finger). ⁽³⁾

Look for responsive email templates or email platforms like Mailchimp that offer this feature, this will reduce some of the time taken that can be better used on email content.

4. Be GDPR compliant

In May of 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR]⁽⁴⁾ was introduced as part of the European data privacy act, in brief this means:

• purchased email lists are not compliant (read more from HubSpot’s article Why You Shouldn’t Buy Email Lists ⁽⁵⁾)
• if your recipients live in Europe (EU), they are protected by the GDPR
• explicit consent is required from recipients to receive emails
• opt-out options alone do not make you compliant

5. Landing Pages

Importantly make sure the subscriber is landing where you need them to be. Does the website landing page match the theme of the email? Ie: Does the URL link take them to the exact product page or software download page or does the subscriber need to navigate your website to get to the intended option. The correct landing page will ensure better user experience.

Ever wonder where you went wrong? Here are 2 mistakes made when sending out marketing campaigns.

Sending too many emails

The number 1 reason⁽⁶⁾ users unsubscribe is from too many emails from the same sender. Key finds from an email newsletter survey conducted by GetApp⁽⁶⁾ was:

• Almost 50 percent of people unsubscribe from email newsletters because they receive too many
• Nearly a fifth unsubscribed because the email looks like spam
• Only 4.3 percent unsubscribe because there is too much or not enough content

Unprofessional looking emails

Ensure the email looks professional and not spam like by checking for spelling errors, broken links or CTA buttons that are not correct. Also check for compatibility with email clients commonly found on mobile devices and desktops? Email analytics taken by Litmus in September 2019 showed the Top 10 mail clients based on tracking of 781 million opens ⁽⁷⁾ were:

• Apple Iphone
• Gmail
• Apple iPad
• Android
• Apple Mail
• Outlook
• Yahoo! Mail
• com
• Windows Live Mail
• Windows Mail

So if you want to get your message across or sell you products and services to your subscribers through email follow some of these simple effective practices and don’t forget to offer the right incentives to your audience.

Refernces

⁽¹⁾ https://www.facebook.com/thebalancecom (2011). How to Boost Your Sales with an Awesome Call to Action. [online] The Balance Small Business. Available at: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/call-to-action-1794380 [Accessed 29 Jan. 2020].

⁽²⁾  Litmus Software, Inc. (2016). April 2016 Email Market Share Stats: Mobile Rises To 56% Market Share. [online] Available at: https://litmus.com/blog/mobile-rises-to-56-market-share-longest-sustained-growth-in-2016 

‌⁽³⁾  Kolowich, L. (2018). 23 Simple Email Marketing Tips to Improve Your Open and Clickthrough Rates. [online] Hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/make-emails-more-clickable-list 

⁽⁴⁾ Burgess, M. (2017). What is GDPR? The summary guide to GDPR compliance in the UK. [online] Wired.co.uk. Available at: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gdpr-uk-eu-legislation-compliance-summary-fines-2018.

‌⁽⁵⁾  Wainwright, C. (2018). Why Buying Email Lists Is Always a Bad Idea (And How to Build Yours for Free). [online] Hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32892/why-purchasing-email-lists-is-always-a-bad-idea.aspx

‌⁽⁶⁾  Sahin, S. (2015). Why do people unsubscribe from email newsletters? [online] GetApp. Available at: https://lab.getapp.com/ 

‌‌⁽⁷⁾ Smart Insights. (2019). How do you compare? 2019 email marketing statistics compilation | Smart Insights. [online] Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/email-marketing/email-communications-strategy/statistics-sources-for-email-marketing/. .

Images

CTA - Graf, K. (2018). 21 Call to Action Examples in Writing and 3 Rules for Effective CTAs. [online] The Daily Egg. Available at: https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/call-to-action-examples/.

GDPR - EU GDPR Compliant. (2017). EU GDPR Compliant - General Data Protection Regulation - Home. [online] Available at: https://eugdprcompliant.com/ 

Unsubscribe - Swallow, E. (2011). Top Reasons Why Consumers Unsubscribe Via E-Mail, Facebook & Twitter. [online] Mashable. Available at: https://mashable.com/2011/02/08/why-consumers-unsubscribe/