Email marketing is one of the cheapest and most effective channels to acquire new customers, build customer loyalty and develop your brand image.
To get the most out of this channel, you need to work on the segmentation of your lists but also work on the optimization of your campaigns, the formatting, and the content of your messages. This is where many marketers struggle.
To help you create more impactful and engaging campaigns for your contacts, I present to you 15 tips to know in email marketing.
Some of these tips may seem obvious, but it’s worth remembering them. We’ve taken a few examples from a GetVero article.
1: Create exclusive offers to make your subscribers feel privileged
Make the subscribers of your email list feel privileged. This is a very effective technique to generate interest in your content and offers, but also to build a community around your brand.
Apple understands this and uses this trick in a subtle way in its email campaigns. In this email below, Apple offers the possibility to pre-order the product and get free shipping.
We all have in mind the long lines in front of the Apple Store when new products are released. We understand that people who receive emails from Apple feel privileged.
You can also adopt more direct approaches, such as offering your contacts your new blog posts even before they are published on social networks or via the RSS feed.
This is what Groove does, which uses the formula “Early Access: “Name of the article” in the subject line of emails. This technique allows for a closer relationship between the brand and the registered contacts.
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2: Let your subscribers know that you care about them
The people on your email list certainly receive dozens, if not hundreds of emails every day. They are constantly asked to try this service, to fill out this questionnaire, download this ebook, follow this person on Twitter, etc.
In order to get their subscribers’ attention, some marketers tend to create states of urgency in an abusive way.
We advise you to be understanding towards your subscribers and to take into account the fact that they are generally overwhelmed. With this in mind, Squarespace offers its subscribers an extended trial period.
Don’t put too much pressure on your contacts. You should not create anxious and negative feelings, but on the contrary, reassure and make your contacts happy!
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3: Ask for feedback from your subscribers
It’s always gratifying when someone asks for our opinion. Customers generally appreciate companies that solicit feedback from their customers.
It shows that you are listening to your customers and it allows them to become more involved in your business.
Of course, you shouldn’t overdo the questionnaire requests, but asking for feedback from time to time can only be positive for your brand image your customer relationship, and the loyalty of your customers.
Put forward the fact that the opinion of your customers will allow your company to improve customer satisfaction.
Answering a questionnaire takes time and discourages some contacts. To improve the conversion rate of your feedback emails, you can use a technique like this one from Dollar Shave Club.
4: Put customer reviews in your marketing emails
As you know, most people who buy on the internet (e-commerce or services) read customer reviews before making their choice. Hence the success of sites like TripAdvisor.
Customer reviews or testimonials reassure potential customers and Internet users about the seriousness of professionals and the quality of products and services. They have a “reassurance” function, as we say, and a “social proof” function.
This principle can be applied to email marketing. When used in a subtle way in your emails, customer reviews can have a beneficial effect on the conversion rate of your emails.
5: Adopt a personal tone in your marketing emails
Email is a very appropriate channel to humanize your customer relationship and your brand in general.
Especially because email is used in a private context and marketing emails are often interspersed with personal messages. Take advantage of this particularity of email to humanize the way you address your contacts.
This will allow you to get closer to your customers and improve the effectiveness of your emails. Adopt a casual, informal style, use humor, derision, irony, etc.
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6: Always encourage your contacts to take action via CTAs
When designing your email marketing campaigns, you should always aim for conversion. If you send emails to your contacts, it’s because you expect something from them: a visit to your site, a registration, a response to a questionnaire, a purchase, a subscription to a trial period, a connection on social networks, the finalization of a purchase (relaunch of an abandoned cart), etc.
To improve the conversion of your emails, you must particularly work on the CTA buttons and links contained in your email, that is to say, think about their shape, their color, their location in the email, etc.
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7: Include download links
According to marketing research firm Radicati, the number of emails sent with attachments jumped 43% between 2009 and 2013, while over the same period, the number of emails without attachments increased by “only” 27%.
This evolution reflects a realization that email is a perfect platform for exchanging files. Most marketing emails do not contain download links, because they focus on the content of the message, on CTAs, and design.
This is a shame because offering a download link in your emails can help make your emails more “useful” and increase their value. “Death to the Stock Photo understands this very well.
This site sends only one email per month to its list of subscribers, but in all of its emails is a downloadable file containing quality images. Not only are these emails visually very well designed, but they also have a real purpose.
8 Tell your subscribers what to do
Conversion problems are sometimes related to a lack of clarity in presenting the next steps to take. How can a contact convert if they don’t know what to do?
To increase the conversion rate of your emails, explain to your recipients what they should do. Be direct, clear, and precise.
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9: Use the same email subject line every time
This tip may be considered unconventional, but it’s actually very effective as long as your subscribers trust you and your brand.
This trick is especially good for transactional emails (order confirmations, etc.), as it allows your contacts to find the emails in their mailboxes more quickly.
But this technique can also be interesting for marketing emails, such as newsletters or promotional offers if you send them on a regular basis (once a day, once a week, once a month…).
If you send the same email several times, we advise you to use this technique. Provided that you have recipients attached to your brand, otherwise, your emails may be perceived as spam.
10: Include buttons in your email marketing
This is probably the simplest advice we can give. But it is not useless to remind and repeat it because it is so important: if you want your recipients to click on your email, integrate buttons!
All A/B tests show that buttons have a positive impact on conversion. Think about positioning these buttons well, highlighting them through a play on colors and shape.
Check here the 7 Tips To Make Sure Your Emails Are Read By Your Subscribers.
11: Visually amaze your contacts
Design isn’t everything, but it still counts a lot. There’s no need to gloss over the emotional power of images here.
Everyone already knows that. A single image is often much more effective than words. Highlighting HD visuals – photos, for example – is a good tactic to grab your recipients’ attention and captivate them.
If you choose to use a photo, take the time to choose your photo. It should best illustrate your value proposition. The best part: integrate a CTA button on the image, as Centerparcs does with this example.
12 Leverage your partners’ brand to build your own
If your products or services connect to other products or services or are used by major brands, take advantage of this: you have a great opportunity to improve your brand image by leveraging your partners’.
Buffer, for example, offers case studies of large customers in its emails. In the example below, the email explains how Business Insider was able to grow its Facebook presence with Buffer.
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13: Make people happy!
Generosity is the most effective technique in email marketing. Making people happy with an email is not very complicated: you just have to give them gifts, offer them discounts, special offers, etc.
To improve the effectiveness of this technique, work thoroughly on the wording of your message and its layout. It is always by adding several techniques that you obtain the best results.
If you are not ready to offer gifts or benefits to your customers (because they are too expensive for you), send them “nice” emails, for example by asking your contacts how they feel, by telling them a story, by saying nice things. These messages will allow you to reinforce your contacts’ attachment to your brand.
Read also: Top 5 Email Marketing Tools For Complete Beginners.
14: Thank the recipients of your marketing emails
There is nothing easier than saying thank you. However, some people forget and miss out on a very effective technique to humanize the customer relationship and arouse a positive emotion in the recipient.
Thanks in emails allow your contacts to realize that there is someone behind the email, someone human.
For your thanks for having the desired effect, be sincere, natural, and warm. Avoid formal thank you notes.
If you are grateful to your users, your customers, your subscribers, say it, express it. You don’t necessarily need to dedicate an entire email to thank you.
On the other hand, you can intelligently include a small thank you in each of your emails.
15: Use the 1 – 2 – 3 method
You know what you want to say in the email, but you don’t know how to say it. In many cases, this problem can be solved by using the 1 – 2 – 3 method.
This method is very simple and consists of presenting your message in the form of three points (not necessarily numbers, by the way). If you want to explain how to use a service, these points can explain the steps to follow.
Obviously, you don’t have to limit yourself to three bullet points, although, to be honest, it’s the format that seems to work best. A bullet point format has the great advantage of making your message much clearer vision and encouraging you to be more direct in your explanations.
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This technique is particularly useful in onboarding emails or welcome emails.
Hopefully, this article has taught you or brought back to mind some email marketing tips. There are many others that we haven’t covered due to space constraints.
If you have some in mind and would like to share them, feel free to do so in the comments. It’s always interesting to get feedback.