With newer forms of communication gaining ground, such as text messaging, WhatsApp, and social media DMs, you’d think that ‘old fashioned’ email marketing would be fading out, right? Wrong! Studies show that when communicating with prospects and buyers, email is still the most used and requested form of communication.
On the other hand, government regulations and the prevalence of spam are making it harder for your emails to make it into your prospect’s inbox. That means to reach more buyers, you may need to rethink your email marketing strategy.
For effective email marketing, best practices focus on building and maintaining a quality, permission-based list, creating relevant and engaging content, and optimizing for high deliverability and conversions. A strategic approach ensures your emails provide value, avoid being marked as spam, get opened and read, and result in more sales. Here are some things to consider in launching an effective email strategy.
List Building and Management
A high-quality list of engaged subscribers is essential for success.
- Use double opt-in: After a prospect submits an inquiry, send a confirmation email they must click to be added to your list. This prevents fake sign-ups and ensures explicit consent, which is required by laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM.
- Offer clear incentives: Provide a valuable reason for users to subscribe, such as exclusive content, discounts, or downloadable guides. Clearly state what type of content and how often they can expect emails from you.
- Never buy email lists: Sending to purchased lists is ineffective and can damage your sender reputation, leading to lower deliverability and more spam complaints.
- Clean your list regularly: Every few months, remove inactive or unengaged subscribers. This improves your deliverability rates and ensures your metrics accurately reflect performance.
Content and Design
Sending relevant, valuable, and engaging content to your subscribers can improve your email reputation by increasing open rates, click-through rates, and other positive engagement metrics. This signals to ISPs and ESPs that your emails are welcome and appreciated by your audience, which can boost your reputation and deliverability over time.
Email content should be concise, visually appealing, and directly relevant to your audience.
- Craft compelling subject lines and preview text: Use clear, engaging, and brief subject lines (under 50 characters is a good rule) to capture attention. Optimize the preview text to provide additional context and further entice the user to open.
- Personalize your emails: Go beyond a first name. Use segmentation and data (like past purchases or browsing behavior) to deliver content that feels uniquely relevant to the recipient.
- Make it ‘skimmable’: Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and clear headings to make your emails easy to read on the go. Most readers skim rather than read in-depth.
- Prioritize a single call-to-action (CTA): While you can include secondary links, focus your email on one main CTA to guide the reader toward a specific, desired action. Make the CTA button visually distinct.
- Use a conversational tone: Write as you speak, avoiding jargon and overly formal language. Reading your copy aloud can help ensure it sounds natural.
Deliverability and Timing
Getting your email into the inbox is crucial for success.
- Don’t use a “no-reply” address: Sending from a “no-reply” address is impersonal and can negatively impact deliverability. Use a monitored address like hello@yourcompany.com instead.
- Optimize for mobile devices: Since many emails are opened on phones, use responsive templates that display correctly on any screen.
- Send consistently: Maintain a regular, predictable sending schedule so subscribers know when to expect your emails. This builds trust and keeps your sender reputation high.
- Mind your timing: Experiment with A/B testing to determine the best day and time to send emails for your specific audience. Recommended times often include mid-week and off-hours, but it varies by industry.
- Monitor your deliverability: Keep an eye on metrics like bounce rates and spam complaints to catch issues early. Authenticate your email domain to prevent spoofing and improve inbox placement.
Automation and Analysis
Automating your email marketing and tracking performance are key for long-term growth.
- Automate your welcome series: Set up an automated series of emails to be sent to new subscribers. This is a critical opportunity to make a great first impression and deliver on your sign-up promises.
- Leverage automation for specific behaviors: Use automations for actions like quote requests, post-visit follow-ups, or re-engagement emails for inactive users.
- Measure and analyze results: Regularly track and review key metrics, such as open rate, click-through rate, and conversions. Use this data to continually refine your strategy.
- A/B test your campaigns: Experiment with different subject lines, CTAs, and content to see what resonates best with your audience. Test only one element at a time to ensure clear results.
Email is still a vital tool in reaching buyers and motivating them to take action. MhCRM combines time-tested strategies with AI empowerment to help communities, retailers and manufacturers generate more sales. To learn more, visit MhCRM.com and request a demo today.
