Email marketing is still one of the most popular marketing tools for staying in touch with customers and informing them about the company and its services. Appealing and interesting newsletters offer companies the opportunity to imprint themselves in the minds of customers, strengthen trust in the brand and motivate customers to take action.
However, in order to stand out from the flood of emails sent to customers every day, it is important to convince them with appealing subject lines, interesting content and attractive CTAs. We have summarized a few basic rules and absolute no-go’s for successful email marketing for you.
1) Campaign planning & regularity
DO:
Even before you start your e-mail marketing activities, it is important to think about how you will reach the e-mail addresses of potential customers. There are many possibilities: Include a registration form in the footer of your website, link to the newsletter registration form from frequently visited pages on your website, integrate a newsletter link in your email signature, on your printed materials (flyers, brochures) or on your offers, invoices and delivery bills. Newsletter recipients can also be acquired via social media. In any case, build up your recipient list organically over the long term and do not buy email lists.
DON’T:
Both too long breaks between mailings and sending newsletters too frequently should be avoided at all costs. The right frequency also depends on the importance of the information from the customer’s point of view. It is therefore also important here to develop a certain feel for your target group. By sending out e-mails regularly, you can ensure that your company will be remembered.
2) Address & topic
DO:
One of the most important foundations for successful email marketing is addressing the right target group with the right topic. This is the only way for your readers to recognize the added value behind your service, so that higher sales and greater customer loyalty can be achieved. Many CRM systems, including 1Tool, support you in segmenting your audience. This ranges from differentiation based on demographic data to the option of sending follow-up newsletters specifically to those who have purchased a certain product, attended a certain event or clicked on a certain link in the previous newsletter. A personal salutation with the name of your customers also has a positive effect on reading rates, conversions etc.
DON’T:
Avoid mass mailings without any focus or a certain degree of individuality at all costs. If the content is not tailored to your target group, this will only lead to more unsubscribes instead of reaching your customers with your core message. However, segmentation is not only important in terms of content: you should also avoid sending all emails at once if you serve customers from different countries with different time zones. Otherwise, you will send your newsletter at an inopportune time and the result will be the same as if you hadn’t sent one at all.
3) Subject & contents
DO:
Choose a subject and preheader (= preview text) that attracts attention and makes your audience curious. Because: only if you arouse the reader’s interest will they open the newsletter and continue reading. And since these lines are the first thing the subscriber sees, they determine the success or failure of your campaign. You should therefore consider the following tips when creating your subject line:
- In short: a catchy, eye-catching subject line of 40 to 50 characters achieves the best results.
- Clearly: Get to the heart of your message and let the customer know what they can expect in the subject line.
- Personal: A personal salutation with the reader’s name is a particularly effective way of attracting attention
Even if it seems obvious, make sure that you use correct spelling and grammar in your mailings. There is nothing worse than conveying the feeling that the newsletter was created unprofessionally in a hurry and without any corrections.
DON’T:
What applies to the subject line also applies to the content: texts that are too long or too many different topics should be avoided at all costs. The motto here is also short and concise. Start with an interesting hook that encourages the subscriber to read on. An emotional appeal, for example through storytelling, increases your chances of building a bond with the reader and prevents them from being put off by overly aggressive advertising of your products or services. Figures and statistics are a good way of both informing readers and holding their attention. In this way, you break up your content and also provide the reader with useful information. A good headline structure also ensures a clear organization of your topics, whereby no more than 3-5 main topics should be dealt with within one mailing.
Another no-go in email marketing is the use of too many colors, images and animations. These should therefore be used sparingly and wisely: A few images that emphasize and break up the content are completely sufficient. If you overdo it here, you also run the risk of losing the layout of your newsletter, especially on cell phones. This is because images are often deactivated for reasons of limited data usage on cell phones, meaning that they have to be laboriously reloaded. The core message should therefore be conveyed to the reader purely via the text. With regard to the use of colors, attention should be paid to a sufficiently high contrast. Dark text on a light background is recommended.
4) Highlighting & call-to-action
DO:
Make it as easy as possible for the reader and highlight the most important points of your mailing using bold type, links or images. This makes it easy for you to control the flow of reading and ensures that the subscriber sees all the benefits, offers, etc. with certainty.
DON’T:
Don’t forget to use one or more call-to-actions. The call to action can be a simple link with further information on your website or the opportunity to contact you. This makes it easier for your customers to obtain further information about your company or your services.
5) Test & Analyze
DO:
Carry out A/B tests. These split tests aim to test two different versions of a particular variable (e.g. subject line, sender name, imagery, text length, etc.) to see which performs better. By sending the same newsletter, for example with two different subject lines, you can see what your target group is more likely to respond to and develop strategies for future mailings.
In addition, you should always keep an eye on important key figures to make the success of your newsletter campaigns measurable. Automatic campaign reports, such as those offered by 1Tool, evaluate these automatically and present them clearly in the form of diagrams and statistics. The most important key figures include opening rates, click rates, unsubscriptions, etc.
DON’T:
Do not send your newsletter without having tested it thoroughly. This includes checking the e-mail display within various e-mail programs as well as testing the layout on mobile devices. The latter is of course becoming increasingly important, as more than 60% of e-mail communication is already handled via cell phone. A responsive newsletter is therefore essential for successful e-mail marketing today. 1Tool offers the ideal solution for this: you can easily switch between the desktop and smartphone view during newsletter creation and adapt the content (e.g. columns) to mobile devices at the touch of a button.
Do you have any questions or would you like to test our e-mail marketing solution without obligation?
Then contact us by phone or at office@1tool.com
