From the Spike Archives, our top 5 Email Marketing Best Practices from 2018 that still work today. And, probably tomorrow and the day after that. Because best practice doesn’t change very often.
Email Marketing Best Practice. You can google the heck out of that phrase and you will get list after list after list. But, they need to be updated constantly because of the changing attention of consumers and the progress in tech and platforms.
Right now we’re thinking about the following as best practices you should be putting into action today.
1. There is POWER in personalisation
Have you ever heard of the saying “a person’s name is the sweetest sound for them”? When talking to someone, one sure thing to do to catch their attention is to call them by their name. Not in a creepy way though 🙁
Imagine applying that to your email marketing strategy? Think about it, which email are you most likely to open or read? “Hi, Valued Customer” or “Hi, Bob”? I’m guessing it’s the latter. Although we’d back that “guess” up with data.
But personalisation does not end in putting your subscribers’ name in the Subject Line or copy. It’s preference centres and sending to them in their local time at the best time possible. It’s studying your customer’s behaviours and making sure you are adapting to what they want. You can start simply and use your data to get closer to sending the right message at the right time to the right person.
2. Mobile-friendly emails are “all the rage” right now
Every year, the number of people accessing their emails through their phones are growing exponentially. An email that’s not at least mobile-friendly is an email done wrong.
We are a generation that’s glued to our little buddies, wherever we go, no matter what we’re doing, our phones are always by our side. Imagine your readers getting an email and it doesn’t display correctly on their phones? You’ve just lost their interest. There’s a 0 to small chance that your reader will log in to their computer just to check on your email.
Think about and test your mobile version. It’s easy in a platform like Mailchimp to preview your mobile version and make tweaks to get it right.
3. Always consider when you send your email
Or when your readers receive their email. How rude is it when someone knocks on your door in the middle of the night while you’re sleeping? Very inconsiderate, right? Imagine your email popping in into someone’s inbox. There’s no way they’re going to open that email right then. And then being the creatures we are we’ll forget about it and need a powerful reminder to open it again #resendsftw.
4. One word: Listen.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and engage with your readers. Imagine having to listen to someone who doesn’t only talk continuously, but also doesn’t engage with you? That’s one boring conversation.
It can be applied to email marketing as well. Try including questions like “what do you think about it?” and see the difference that a question embedded in your email marketing can do.
5. A/B Testing, don’t you forget about that …
We’ve advocated this, again and again, don’t send your campaign without testing it. You’re saying you’re testing your emails? Very good! Now let’s take it up a notch, A/B Testing. This will mean that your campaigns will have two different versions and you will test them against each other. Usually, this can be done by having 2 different subject lines to see which email will get more opens, or different layout or CTA button to see which one will get more click-throughs.
A/B/C/D/E/F testing. However many versions you test have an objective you can easily measure before you start.
Keep practising, keep improving your email marketing and keep an eye out for the next email marketing best practices. They’ll probably be along soon.
If you want to discuss how best practices can double the revenue from your email marketing over the next 12 months, Contact Us. I’d love to chat.