Email marketing continues to be one of the most popular and cost-effective means used by organizations, the world over to reach their potential prospects. With this post, we talk about a 7 point email marketing cheat sheet to quickly improve response rates by over 200%.
The actual sending of email is one tiny step in a larger process. There are a myriad of other requirements that need to be covered to get emails into the inbox and then read by your target audience. To make sure you get it right, here is an ultimate email marketing cheat sheet (compiled specially for you from multiple sources)
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It’s all in the subject line
The subject line is the first thing that your recipient looks at. The right subject line will get you opens. The wrong ones will get you the delete key. Also using trigger words like FREE, all caps, discounts, promotions, offers will land you in the spam folder, so be mindful of that while you finalize the subject line.
If you are sending to a large list, it helps to do A/B testing on your subject lines. May the best one win.. Amen..
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Are you human?
Email is a communication between people, so make sure the email is coming out from a real live human sender. Avoid sender names like marketing department, company names etc.
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Personalize, make the person feel special
Personalized marketing campaigns are much more effective than impersonal ones. Mass mailers without any personalization are not highly appreciated. Make sure you have accurate data for the fields that you are going to personalize like name, company name etc.
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Image or Text dilemma
Human brain processes images faster than text, make your emails visual but be sure to add relevant text as content. Break up text with professional-looking images that communicate your offer. For offerings/collaterals like e-book, white paper, case studies, videos include a picture of the cover page. HTML emails offer you the possibility of sending out images as links. This can ensure that your email remains light and loads based on an internet connection.
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Have a clearly defined Call-to-Action (CTA)
Include a prominent CTA in your email. Make your CTA\’s specific about the action the reader is expected to take (e.g. \”Download\”) Also create a sense of urgency (e.g. for a live webinar, you can say \”Register For the Webinar Now\” or \”Reserve Your Seat Today\”).
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Enable social sharing
Enable your content to go viral. If you are providing content, allow people social share options, where they can share the content on their social channels and help increase your reach.
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Unsubscribe Link
ALWAYS include an unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email marketing messages. Neglecting to do so can put you in difficult situations. Respect your prospective customer and his choices.
How did you like the email marketing cheat sheet. Hope this has been useful for you as you plan your email marketing campaigns. You might also want to read 6 Steps to Planning the Perfect Email Campaign