Reinforced by high acquisition and retention rates, there’s no doubt that email marketing is an incredibly effective way to grow your brand. That said, the landscape of email marketing has changed significantly in the last few years and continues to do so.
- Email providers have developed sophisticated filtering features to identify spam based on sending behaviors (also known as reputation filtering).
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) has raised the bar for the level of personalization that consumers expect from emails.
- An increasingly mobile global environment has changed the way people engage with email content.
The key to navigating this changing landscape is to do away with short-term email marketing tricks, opting instead for time-tested and proven email strategies that will continue to work for you.
Here are just a few:
1. Testing
Getting the most out of your email marketing efforts requires a decent amount of testing and tweaking. You can hire a copywriter with a hefty per-letter pricing structure, or you can sit around a boardroom table and brainstorm all day long…but you won’t know which of your subject lines has the best pulling power until you run some basic tests.
I’m working with a client now, and we’re testing three different subject lines for each message we send out. Sometimes we’re testing a one-word change in the message (which can make a big difference), and sometimes we’re crafting three totally unique messages. The learning that comes from this exercise is really valuable to help you get a handle on what YOUR audience responds to.
If you want to lock down a solid email marketing strategy, you’re going to need data in order to make improvements. Try looking at heat maps to get some visual insight on how readers interact with your email design. Compare your email campaign performance with industry benchmarks.
Be wary when it comes to benchmarks, however. Expecting all of your campaigns to meet the “standard” 20% open rate is going to paint an inaccurate picture when it comes to segment-specific performance. Keep your benchmarks realistic and optimize incrementally to improve the overall effectiveness of your email marketing message.
2. Focus on one key point
One common problem I see in a lot of emails that come through my inbox is what we call “buffet style” marketing. The notion behind this approach is that if you lay all of your cards out on the table, then it’s likely that someone might be interested.
The problem with “buffet-style” marketing is that it overlooks actual human behavior. A confused customer is more likely to get decision fatigue and reject your message (a.k.a. delete your email). Instead, keep it simple for your reader by sending emails with a single point and compelling reason to take action. This way, the only choice their brain has to make is YES or NO.
Let’s put it this way. Which invitation are you more likely to respond to:
