When done right, email marketing can deliver a significant sales boost, so it’s worthwhile paying attention to the basics before clicking “send”.
While it may be difficult to know where to start, there are a number of steps that you can take to sharpen your approach.
Writing for Inc, David Finkel, entrepreneur, author and chief executive of Maui Mastermind, has shared a number of tips to improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
Here are some of Finkel’s top tips.
Pay attention to list management
Value and grow your list, collect names and emails effectively, says Finkel. Centralise your list and make sure that you are using the right email platform.
Mobile compatibility and browser compatibility is important
Check your emails render properly on a mobile screen, and develop a checklist of everything you need to ensure is working and operational. Having someone else look over your email could also help with this process.
Starting with a subset could prevent angst
When working with a new list, format or email element, starting with a subset of recipients may help pick up issues associated with deliverability or formatting.
“This one tip will save you so much heartache; I’ve had emails going out to 100,000 people get stopped cold because of something we could have fixed if we had only eaten our own cooking on this tip,” Finkel writes.
Subject lines matter
It is best to avoid gimmicks in subject lines, says Finkel. While they may work once, gimmicks “erode trust and debase most brands”, he says.
Create valuable emails and reuse successful emails
Always aim to create content that is relevant and important to your audience, keeping in mind what they care about, says Finkel. And if you’ve got a successful campaign, consider sending it out again or targeting it to a different audience.
It’s time to get going
Finally, there is no time like the present to get started.
“The single biggest email marketing mistake we observe clients make is waiting to send any email until they have it ‘perfect’,” Finkel writes.
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Martin Kovacs is a journalist with experience covering the IT, consumer electronics, retail, finance and energy sectors.
