6 Tips for Effective Marketing Emails | Local Business Marketing Tips

None of us are short of emails to read. So when you?re a marketer sending your own email what can you do to improve the chances that your email is opened, read and some nice people actually take the action you want?

1. The ?From? Field
The first thing we look at when receiving an email is the name of the sender. Do we know this person? We are way more likely to open an email that is from a person or company that we know. Personal is also better than corporate so use your own name where you can. If your recipients are not likely to know you personally try making the ?from? name a combination of your name and your company?s name. Your goal here is to simply to have your email opened.

2. Subject Line
The second thing we look at after the sender?s name is the subject line of the email. Your goal with the subject line is the same as with the ?from? field: simply to get your email opened. The research on subject lines varies (source: Smart Insights) but most comes out on the side of short subject lines with non-salesy language. Try to come up with a subject line that you would use in a ?regular? non-marketing email and you will be probably be on the right lines.

3. Email length
OK so say you?ve got someone to actually open your email. The first thing we do once we see the body of an email, is take a quick scan its length. If it looks too long, we?re likely to think ?this is too much work for now? and either delete the email right away or put it in our ?get back to this later pile? (aka we?ll never look at it again!)

So if you want your email read, keep it short. Break the text up into short paragraphs. Put the bulk of the information you need to convey on a landing page on your website so it does not have to go in the email. Use links generously in the email to drive the reader to your landing page ? research shows more links drive more click-throughs (source: Hubspot).

4. Images
As many as 66% of email recipients have images turned off by default (source: MarketingSherpa). This means the majority of people will not see your beautiful images unless they hit a button on their email client to ?download images?.

Consider what your email will look like without images. We?ve seen emails that are one big image and will simply be a big empty space when images are blocked. In this case your message is completely lost totwo-thirds of the people you send to! Check that your critical information and calls-to-action work even when the images are not there. Consider using ?alt text? for your images so at least some text comes up even when your images don?t make it through.

Finally, consider that ?normal? emails from our friends and our boss (the ones we always open and read) don?t have tons of images in them. Don?t get carried away using too many images. There is some evidence that images can help (source: Hubspot) but don?t overdo it so your email looks like glitzy marketing. If so, we reach for the ?delete? button quickly.

5. Calls-To-Action
Make sure your calls-to-action are be clear, concise and noticeable. ?If you want this, click here to buy this.? Using a hyperlink to take readers directly to your landing page. You can include calls to action as graphical buttons in the email to stand out but make sure you have some text links also in case images are off.

6. Test
Test before you send. The way an email looks is actually very dependent on the email client receiving it. An email may look quite different on your corporate Outlook than it may look on your personal Yahoo or Gmail account. Send the email to yourself or some colleagues on a range of different systems and review what it looks like, you may be surprised. If you care about how it looks on mobile devices (you probably should) make sure to take a look at it on your iPhone or Android (or even Blackberry ? they are still out there!)

There are many nuances to sending successful marketing emails. Above all, watch your resulting reports and test different approaches. The great news is that nearly everything in email marketing is measurable and you can continually test and improve what you are doing. We hope these tips start you in the right direction.

Source: http://www.wainscotmedia.com/blog/2012/08/6-tips-for-effective-marketing-emails/

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