Follow these 5 tips to make your email marketing more effective.
How do you keep in touch with your customers? Newsletters have been a marketing tool for decades, and with the advent of email many business owners started sending them to clients digitally. If you’ve been following our blog, you know we’ve written about this topic before, but it’s important enough I wanted to reiterate 5 top email marketing tips.
1. Create a Strong Subject Line
A subject line makes or breaks newsletters, but a lot of business owners create them as an after thought. If your subject line isn’t compelling, your email is going to end up in the trash bin or even the spam folder. Not sure how to make it compelling? Check out this helpful advice on subject line writing tips which includes email marketing tips like which words to use and avoid, ways to test the line and more.
2. Keep It Simple (and Short)
If you open an email that’s a block of text, what’s your first thought? Most people are overwhelmed by too much text; follow one of the most common writing tips: keep it simple and short. If you keep your newsletters easy to read they’re much more likely to actually be read (or at least skimmed). Steer clear of the industry jargon and make sure each article is about 3-4 sentences, and if you want to include more just add a link to a longer article on your blog.
3. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread
Are your newsletters rife with typos and spelling errors? Proofreading is one of those email marketing tips that’s extremely important for business owners to make time for – the words you write are representing your company. As this post about writing tips recommends, read your text out loud to yourself, don’t rely on spell check and practice, practice, practice.
4. Add a Few Pictures
They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so let a couple of photos speak for your company. If you have a few professional images you have the rights to, make sure you use them in your newsletters. As email marketing tips go, here’s one with legal implications: be careful about breaking copyright laws by just grabbing pictures you find online. If you’re looking for photos, browse through Flickr’s Creative Commons, and check out this post about avoiding copyright infringement.
5. Include a Call to Action
This is a step that a lot of business owners skip but is one of the most important writing tips. Make sure your newsletter includes a call to action, or a statement that prompts the reader to do something. It can be anything from a free consultation to clicking through to your site for more information. Just make sure you use strong, urgent language and you uphold your end of the bargain (e.g. if you offer a free consultation, make sure it really is free).
Do you use newsletters as a tool for your business? What other email marketing tips would you add to this list?
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Photo Credit: Rob Enslin