The 4 Golden Rules to Email Marketing

Does email marketing really work? There are thousands of success stories that seem to indicate that it’s an extremely powerful tool. As a business owner or digital outreach professional, however, you need actionable strategies, not anecdotes.

In reality, it’s not a question of whether email campaigns work but rather how you can make them work for you. No marketing tool is 100% foolproof, so it’s up to you to ensure that you use email intelligently. Here are a few tips on what defines successful email marketing and how to make your next campaign shine.

The State of High-Quality Email Marketing

Email marketers must work through various challenges to achieve their goals. Make sure you follow these four golden rules:

1. Don’t Be a Spammer

According to Statista, spam messages comprised almost 60% of all worldwide email traffic as of September 2017. Although spam often includes questionable content, such as phishing messages and other security threats, a great deal of it is valid marketing that consumers just aren’t interested in reading.

How can you distinguish your content from spam so that audiences want to engage with you?

Sending messages when people are more likely to open them could go a long way towards improving ROI for large campaigns.

The Data & Marketing Association suggests paying attention to the little details. For instance, emails sent on certain days of the week and at certain times of day have higher open rates.

Triggered campaigns involve sending messages in response to events performed by consumers, such as purchases or subscriptions. These kinds of emails have significantly higher click rates than other unsolicited mass communications.

Being more selective about why you send emails might make communication feel more organic and enjoyable to consumers.

2. Write Better

Maintaining high writing quality standards isn’t just about being a stickler for the rules of grammar and spelling. Research suggests that grammar errors make written materials harder to read and less believable. According to the BBC, some entrepreneurs and market watchers believe that spelling errors in online content are responsible for the loss of millions in potential digital revenue each year.

What Defines Superior Written Content?

Ideally, your email copy should

• • Capture attention with a strong subject line, especially since almost two-thirds of people use subject lines to decide whether to open messages,
  • Be organized around a simple theme,
  • Include links in ways that flow naturally with the surrounding text,
  • Use short paragraphs and message lengths to accommodate the fact that 66% of emails are read by consumers using mobile devices, and
  • Create a consistent brand voice by using elements like contractions, jargon, casual language, and first-, second- and third-person speech carefully.

3. Build a Narrative

Whether they build on emails, blogs or social media posts, some of the most effective digital marketing campaigns are the ones that tell good stories. By creating a narrative that persists throughout your entire campaign, you can make it easier for people to get invested quickly and stay engaged for the long haul.

Suppose that your company sells computers or smartphones. From time to time, you might use emails to share juicy technological tidbits about the development process. These are great ways to drum up interest before a product launch, and if you target subscribers or prior customers, you can focus on more lucrative markets that are already interested in your brand.

Email campaigns can also strengthen your brand storytelling in other areas.

Perhaps you’re running a publicity initiative to highlight a new business partnership. What better opportunity is there to combine your email messages with videos or press releases that explain why and how you’re making the change?

Using emails to promote new blogs and other rich media content is a great way to drive lucrative traffic.

Your emails don’t have to be epic works of art to heighten engagement, but simply sharing story elements and behind-the-scenes details can make them far more interesting. Narrative-driven email marketing also makes your brand more approachable.

4. Provide Genuine, Relevant Value

Your audiences don’t owe you anything. They’re doing you a huge favor by reading your emails. Shouldn’t you make it worth their while?

There are many ways to provide value that persuades people to engage with your messages.

Some marketers stick with the promotional route by sharing coupons or special offers in their outreach drives. Others focus on delivering better customer experiences by personalizing their emails, which has the power to increase open rates, capture more clicks and raise the chances that someone will make a transaction.

What’s right for your marketing strategy?

Choose value elements that are relevant to your audiences. For instance, sending offers that correspond to expressed preferences and personalized market research is typically more effective than mass-mailing coupons to thousands of people who might not even want the product in question.

Should You Work With a Professional?

Like other aspects of digital outreach, email marketing functions best when you use established best practices and controlled campaign management to improve your outlook. As a business owner, blogger, site designer or SEO professional, however, you may not have time to add such tasks to your already-insane workload.

Consulting with a professional email content service can dramatically improve the efficiency and ROI of your email marketing campaigns. Well-written content reflects highly upon your organization and leverages the power of language to nudge potential clients toward becoming loyal consumers. Why not place an order on Textbroker to give your email copy the impact that lets it stand out?

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