Posted by 
Archived in Recent research by E-Consultancy has highlighted how valuable email continues to be for lead generation. In its study, E-Consultancy found that, along with natural search (SEO), email continues to be one of the most popular methods of generating sales on the web, with 74% of companies using it regularly.
Whilst other budgets are suffering in the recession (e.g. 12% drop in the use of paid search in the last year), email’s cost effectiveness has secured its position as the ever reliable workhorse of digital marketing.
To help you gain the maximum benefit from your email campaigns, here are 15 tips for creating emails that are opened, read and responded to:
- Offer something for free to attract subscribers – A common tactic is to offer a free eBook, discount voucher or podcast to entice people to register their email address
- Make it easy to subscribe – Have a clear subscription box on your website, with details of what they can gain from registering for your email newsletter
- Use an eye catching subject line – When your email arrives you have half a second to catch your reader’s attention before they decide whether to ignore it or delete it altogether. So use an intriguing headline that offers a benefit and a promise of what they’ll gain from reading what you have to say
- Feature interesting content ‘above the fold’ – Recipients will often glance at your email in the preview pane before deciding whether to open it or not. So position interesting content, such as an eye catching image or list of the featured topics, in the top visible part of your message
- Make it personal – People’s inbox is a private place closely guarded against unwanted visitors. So make sure you come across as a welcomed, polite guest by using your database to address recipients by name. This can dramatically improve your open rate
- Make it conversational – Your email should feel like a one-to-one conversation, rather than a single message broadcast to 1000s. So use an informal, conversational style of writing as though writing to a friend with some great information you want to share
- Make it relevant – Use what you know about your customers to make your emails more relevant to their interests. So send them details of products related to what they’re bought before or expressed an interest in to help improve your response rate
- Create a persona – A tactic used by many large organisations to make their messages more personable is to use an imaginary character as the email’s author. This can help their messages to come across as the viewpoint of another customer or independent commentator, rather than a drone towing the corporate line
- Don’t try to overtly sell – Save the sales copy for your corporate brochure. People register to receive emails from you because they want useful information, not a sales pitch.
- Offer to solve a problem – Sell through education, offer useful information that helps to solve a customer’s problem or offers them useful insight they won’t find elsewhere. Providing great content of value will build trust, demonstrate your expertise and increase the likelihood of the reader wanting to buy your product
- Keep it short – Your emails should contain nuggets of information readers can quickly consume, rather than longwinded articles. If you do have a lot of information you want to share then offer a summary or snippet in your email with a link back to the full article on your website
- Make it easy to unsubscribe – It’s good manners to make it easy for people to leave your email list, with a clear ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of your email. Otherwise you risk damaging the relationship if the recipient feels they’ve been tricked into an agreement they can’t get out of
- Be timely – Send your emails at the same time, whether it’s weekly or monthly. Then people will have the expectation of receiving your messages and are more likely to be preconditioned to open them
- Be consistent – Adopt a familiar layout, design and style of copy in every message. Then your readers will know which parts they like to read and will recognise the emails are from you. Being consistent also helps maintain your branding and the positive impression your building with every message
- Use a clear call to action – Generally speaking, the aim of your email is to persuade the recipient to click through to your website and buy your product or service. So make sure you’re providing a clear call to action which tells your reader exactly what you want them to do
- Test your messages – Send different versions of your email to different segments in your email list, with different titles, layouts and content, to see which generate the best response. Through testing what works best you can learn how to improve your emails’ effectiveness and increase the number taking action and buying your product at the end
_______________________________
BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.