Know what your customers want and get to the point. That’s my number one piece of advice for email marketing.
Of course there are lots of ways to make your emails look great but looks are only important if your readers – not you – want pretty pictures.
To maximise the effectiveness of your emails, ask your readers. Get a group of prospects together and quiz them about what would help them through the purchase process. If you’re already sending emails, obsess about your readership stats. Find out what links people are clicking. What’s the common thread? Click stats are a source of great business intelligence.
Once you know what your prospects want, deliver it. Don’t beat around the bush. Get to the point. If your readers want info put that in the subject line. Make it easy for your readers to find what they want and need.
And stop sending out newsletters with generic headlines like March Newsletter. The punters don’t want a March newsletter, they want information or your latest product offers or a discount coupon. Give it to them. Right from the start and in every way possible.
Part of getting to the point is getting to the point about the action you want people to take. Even long-term relationship building emails should have a point. And that point is to give the prospect an opportunity to express an interest in completing another purchase. Make that easy through a clear, strong call to action.
So get to it. Grab the last bulk email you sent and review it. Is the key content clear from the subject line and all the way to the end? Does your email get to the point? Or are you waffling and trying to look good? If so, stop it and do something effective. And does your email contain a strong call to action? Your CTA should be the hero of the page. It doesn’t need to be big but it should grab the eye and draw people in.