5 Rules for Better Email Marketing You Shouldn't Ignore

If your company is using email as part of your marketing mix it’s important to optimize your email marketing for the best results. It may be tempting to try to crank out emails just to get them sent, but investing in the right email marketing techniques and design will help you get a lot more out of your efforts.

Here are 5 tips for a more effective email marketing strategy:

1. Keep it Simple

Think about the context people are in when they’re reading emails. According to Movable Ink’s Q1 2014 US Consumer Device Preference Report, 66 percent of emails were opened on either a smartphone (47.2 percent) or tablet (18.5 percent) in Q1. This means many people are consuming email on the go. When you’re on the go, you’re not in the mood to read a novel or get blasted with information. You’re likely to scan to find out if there’s anything relevant you really need to know about and skip to your next email. For users not opening email on a mobile phone or tablet, they’re probably at work on a desktop computer. This kind of environment doesn’t lead to an appetite for huge emails overloaded with content either. Keep it simple! Don’t try to cram everything you have to say down people’s throats. Give people just enough information and a relevant CTA.

2. Focus on readability

Crazy colors, unique fonts, and distracting backgrounds are a no-no. It’s important to make sure people can read your email in different browsers and without loading all the graphics. If people can’t read it, you’ve already lost the battle. Readability also includes making sure you don’t use too much text at once. Try to limit text to six sentences at a time. It’s best to break up text into different paragraphs with different headings and to use bullet points to break up chunks of information.

3. Use one CTA

Most people will open up an email and read it once. If they are interested, they may click on your CTA. This then will take them outside of the email to their internet browser. Once people do this, what are the chances they’ll come back to the email to click on an additional CTA? By having more than one CTA you potentially overwhelm users who don’t know what to click on. This could decrease your conversion rates. Stick to just one CTA to streamline the process and increase the likelihood of conversion.

4. Avoid spammy subject lines

It’s important to make sure your email is delivered to users’ inboxes and not sent straight to the spam folder. To ensure deliverability, you should avoid using certain words and phrases that may increase the likelihood your email is marked as spam.

Common words/phrases you should avoid using in your subject lines include:

• Save $
• Buy
• Limited time
• Get started
• For only
• Here
• Success
• Solution
• Avoid
• Offer

5. Send people to targeted landing pages, not your homepage

This is a quick way to get drop-offs. When you offer something specific, such as “check out this product,” or “redeem this offer,” people should be directed to a specific landing page that matches the offer. Your home page will not have messaging specifically tailored to the CTA or even a relevant next step.

What's your biggest challenge with email marketing?