Six Email Marketing Tips
According to McKinsey, email marketing is one of the most effective methods of customer acquisition. So then why do so many Jewish businesses and non-profits struggle with it? And why do they still stick with static newspaper campaigns that don’t drive any sales or awareness? Both are great questions. And we have six answers for you that will help you design better email marketing campaigns and ditch the print ads:
Stop using print ad creative as your email ad.
In 2014, print advertising’s only advantage is branding & brand recall; someone sees a print ad and maybe they’ll remember that brand when it’s time to purchase or donate. Email marketing is entirely different – it’s focused on action. Print is branding, email is action. Email marketing lets customers click, buy, shop, sign up, register, share, like and donate instantly; print ads simply can’t do that, especially on Shabbat (now you see why print is quickly dwindling in value). If you spend money designing a print ad, then you can spend money designing a quality email. (PS – you can even find free email templates online, FYI.)
Where’s your Call To Action?
Want to see a great example of a “call to action” button? Click here!… See, that “click here” was a call to action. I invited/encouraged/prodded you into doing something after reading my line. Customers need to be aware how, why & where to take action on the message they’re reading. They need to be told to SHOP ONLINE or REGISTER HERE or ENTER NOW or READ MORE.
There’s no sense of urgency.
In conjunction with your call to action, you need to show a reason why they should buy from you right this moment. Are you having a three-hour flash sale? Are tickets almost sold out? Is there a limited time on your offer? Spell it out for customers – Only 20 Tickets Left! Order Now! Customers need to know that they can’t revisit your email at a later date; they may lose out on the sale! Create a sense of urgency in their mind and they will start taking action.
You’re sending emails when no one’s looking.
You worked hard on coming up with a great original email (not a print ad) and an awesome call to action. Now, at 10 PM, you’re about to hit SEND. Wait, who’s checking their email at 10 PM? Some do, many don’t so why are you sending it now? Research when your customers check their emails, when they take action on your emails, and the days they prefer to receive emails about you. Here’s a clear example: don’t send an email out one hour before Shabbat but DO send an email out one hour after Shabbat, when everyone’s checking their phones & email.
Subject lines matter. A lot.
Should we say “Free! Free! Free!” in the subject line or maybe “Special!!:? Yes, your customers may be interested in that but they’ll never know about it… because your email went straight to spam.There are certain words, terms, numerics & symbols that may trigger spam filters in Gmail, Yahoo and AOL so you need to research what subject lines will help your email reach your intended destination – customer’s inboxes. Incorporate a sense of urgency as well without sounding too “spammy”. For example, massage the line such as “When You Buy One Pair of Tickets, You Get a Second Pair 100% Free!!!” into “Your Free Tickets”. See how different that line is? You got customers attention, they open the email to see if they won free tickets & they see how they can get free tickets. Don’t sell it all in the subject line; it’s meant to tease about the content of your email.
Doing the same old, same old.
Did you know that 41% of all emails are opened on mobile devices? Yet you’re still designing email campaigns for desktops. Mix it up! Still sending the same old content, same old deal, same old event? Mix it up! Send an email with different content, a unique event, a special sale. If customers know what you’re selling already, they have less incentive to open or click through your email. You should even consider selling less and informing more – open rates and click through rates for newsletters, monthly bulletins, industry news and free email content have been shown to be much higher.
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