As business entrepreneurs, how can you reach out to clients in such a way they are instigated to open the emails you send? How should your email convey “Hey open me now” or “I think you shouldn’t miss to click me”? What are those tips for an effective online marketing? How create an impressive email marketing plan?
To understand more, let’s be clear on the types of mails you send.
- Marketing emails are those sent with a promotional content, say new product announcement or sales promotions or newsletters or press meet follow ups or so
- Transaction emails are those automated mails sent post customer transactions, say order details, tracking of orders, confirmation on pay received, account confirmation or so. Never underestimate the power of these; these have known to see a very high open rate thus giving you a chance to do cross selling or programs for greater customer engagement!
- Operational emails are those sent on operation side of your business that your customers or clients would like to know, say a communication on maintenance activities or downtime message or so. These are important in terms of,
• winning people trust on your behavioural values,
• to show you value them,
• to let them know you’re unavailable so they don’t waste their time looking for you
• and a few similar reasons to show them the value you’re of.
For all or any of the above, there are a few common good practices for an effective email marketing as below.
- Having the subscription lists is important. Email ids of clients, customers and all prospects should go into this list. Customer service support tools for businesses like Groove help you build subscription lists and more. Not just having a list would do but make sure to include this in your communications, blogs, social media posts and in all messages you send so people know where to subscribe.
- Make sure your emails are not just information givers but a forum in which customer can engage in conversations with your business. Ensure to follow the below 3 basics,
• A great subject line triggering interests in the receivers to open the mail.
• A humble yet powerful tone or voice of the mail so you get the reader hooked onto the mail and business eventually
• Smart content based on geography, metrics data or so which would really bring in the reader to buy from you or respond to the offer or reply for further business proceedings!
• It’s good to avoid including “no reply email ids” in the reply mails readers send. Make sure to include an active email id in the reply mails so you really check and respond; this makes way for people to engage in further communications thus paving way for taking them through the sales funnel!
- You cannot engage the readers when you have a great subject line but an irrelevant or an uninteresting content. Subject line and content should complement each other. Subject line should invite the reader into your mail and content should get the reader to respond to your deals!
- Making the mails personal creates a great impression, on you, in the receiver. The receiver is always happy to see him or her being addressed by his name and the right salutation.
- Ensure your mails aren’t going to spam as this definitely puts all your effort in trash!
• Can-Spam act regulations cannot be ignored when you make the email design.
• Spam filters look for certain features in a mail before they push such mails into spam; make sure to check on these spam filter details.
• Never use all upper case, too many exclamations, too many statements looking to push people into something, and poor HTML in templates.
- Crisp content and neat aesthetics is necessary to give a great feel to the reader. Have short paragraphs, bullet and numbering whenever applicable, images and videos where necessary but not overdo. Campaign Monitor helps businesses to build and deliver email campaigns effectively; you may take a look. Ensure the images to be action-able.
- Making the main text bold gets you those readers who just skim mails
- Marking items as new attracts people so mark so when there’s something new
- The crux of email campaigns is generating traffic. Isn’t it? So it’s a must to display clear Call To Act buttons or links. Not simple CTAs work today but you got to be creative, simple and powerful too.
- If you wish to win customer trust then you must be flexible. Not just subscribe but provision to unsubscribe is even more important to show you aren’t pushing anyone into anything. No way to unsubscribe pushes senders into spam!
- More than 60% of the mails are opened in smart devices today. Ensure your mails are mobile and tablet friendly. We see quite a lot of websites not user friendly, not looking good on our mobiles and we refrain from hitting them thereafter. Don’t we?
- Something that’s untested can never be trusted. Make sure to test your mails in all major mobile devices and in all email providers, to avoid any worries later. There are a few tools which help you achieve this; check Litmus here.
- For testing purposes, send mails at different times of a day and in different days of a week, to check on the best response rate
- Use tracking tools to get the figures on open rates, click rates, bounced rates, unsubscribe numbers and more you may need. Custom campaign tracking in google analytics show details on emails driving traffic to your site and the user behaviour thereafter.
- Don’t simply dump emails but provide real values. Not always promotional, you may even send educational information or contemporary business news or so to establish a general good relationship with people.
Every store is different in types of products and services it provides and the people it targets. But we’re sure the etiquettes remain the same for communication and support. We believe this article has given you a fair idea on making the best of email communications for an effective online marketing. Ask us now if you require further assistance in the same or anything in and around eCommerce; our experts are sure to help.
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