Email is king and still is – a phrase that can’t resonate more truthfully about the current state of email marketing today for small businesses.
According to a fresh report industry report by Emma, 47% of marketers report that email generates the most ROI for their organization. In fact, for every $1 a business spends on email marketing, an average of $44 is pocketed in return on investment (ROI), according to the Direct Marketing Association.
To put email marketing in comparison with other marketing channels today, check the graph below:
But it gets even more interesting. Because a total number of unbelievable 269 billion emails are being sent out daily – that’s 2,5 million emails per second! Moreover, a McKinsey study says that email is 40 times more effective in getting customers than Facebook and Twitter – combined!
Combine the return of investment and the number of emails being sent out, and you get a picture of the effectiveness of email marketing – if done right. Ready to know how? In this article, we will give you different pointers on how to be more effective in email marketing.
CUSTOMIZE THE DESIGN & CONTENT FOR YOUR EMAIL CAMPAIGN
Here you get 5 tips on how to create an optimized newsletter campaign:
Follow the subject line: the first sentence of your newsletter should be a continuation of the subject line.
Make it personal: know your recipient so you can personalize the content according to your recipient’s preferences as much as possible.
Make it simple: use straightforward language and get to the point quickly.
Use bullet points: put important facts, numbers, and information in bullet points because it makes it easier for the reader to digest and remember the content.
Use short paragraphs: Short paragraphs with space between each paragraph makes it easy for the eye of the recipient to read the text.
Once your content is ready, the second most important thing in an email campaign is the placement and the words on the CTA buttons. CTA buttons are what make the reader take action and click further, for example, to your Landing page or Special offer.
What is a good CTA button, and how do you create one?
Write your CTA button in first-person with possessive words like “mine,” “your,” and “my”. Be as precise as possible on what the recipient will expect when clicking the CTA button, and use action words. Tips on well-crafted CTA text:
Some examples:
- “Yes, I want my offer”
- “Yes, I want to save 30% now”
- “Take your exclusive seat”
Use high-contrasting colors: Use high-contrasting colors on your CTA buttons that are strong and stand out from the rest of the newsletter content. For example, red or green. Different colors have different meanings and arouse different psychological responses. Each study gives different results, and the best tip here is to keep varying between different colors by A/B testing.
Position several CTA buttons: Don’t only include one CTA button. Experiment with the placement of multiple CTA buttons across your newsletter. Usually, CTA buttons are placed at the bottom of the newsletter. But there is nothing wrong with placing another CTA button in the middle of the newsletter. It all comes down to A/B testing the click-through rates.
Takeaway: Always A/B test your CTA buttons. What works for someone else might not necessarily work for you.
BEST TIME TO SEND AN EMAIL
But hey, when is actually the best time to send an email campaign? It all depends on the content of your email, whether your audience checks their email on desktop or mobile, and what business you are in. For example, if you are in the entertainment business, weekends would work best for informing your audience about a specific event. If you are in e-commerce and aiming to sell a product, the best time could be during lunch times or late afternoons after work, as your recipients have more time to actually digest the offer and most likely will make a purchase. If you are targeting the youths with a newsletter campaign, then any time of the day could be effective because youths today are pretty much connected 24/7 to the net.
A study made by Hubspot found that the following are the best days to send your business email campaign:
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
But actually, it depends on many variables, as seen in the picture on the right (click on the picture to see the full graphic).
And another study by Experian found that the best email open rates occurred during early mornings and late nights. The same study also found that Mondays have the highest transaction rates.
Takeaway: It all comes down to knowing your audience and studying your A/B open rates to optimize your email send outs in the best possible way.
Next: How to send better email (part 2)
No matter how good your newsletter content is, your emails need to get opened first. In part 2 of this article, we’ll talk about the importance of a good subject line, and you’ll find out how easy it is to make your email campaigns more effective.
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