Email Marketing is a cost-effective, fast and easy-to-use marketing tool. However, email marketing really comes into its own when used within a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) environment.
Modern CRM software enables high levels of automation within email campaigns, plus detailed segmentation, targeting, tracking, response mechanisms, schedules and full coordination with other marketing activities. There are also email-marketing tools that integrate with CRM systems to enhance your email marketing even further. Carefully planning an email campaign using one of these applications and a CRM system can dramatically increase open rates, click-throughs and ultimately sales when compared to generally targeted email bursts.
Whether you use a CRM system, a specialist email-marketing tool, or send out emails using your usual email programme, we hope you’ll find these top ten tips for email marketing useful.
1) Preview Pane
Did you know that 80% of your emails are viewed and often actioned in the preview pane? This is why it’s extremely important to consider how it will look in preview pane when creating your email. The average measurement for this area is 300 pixels, so make sure you use it wisely! Use meaningful text which informs the reader what the email is about and insert a call to action. Using a large image at the top of your emails will often mean that the recipient of your email will just see a large white box with a red cross in it, which isn’t likely to get their attention just deleted. This tip is especially important if you market business-to-consumer as Hotmail Live now automatically show the preview pane in someone’s inbox.
2) Personalisation
Emails get better response if you personalise them. And the more you personalise them the better (dear “Firstname” is ok, but there’s a lot more you can do). You can personalise emails through subject lines, offers, articles, products showcased and follow-up emails based on recipient activity. Make the reader feel as though you really know them and you’re not just sending them a standard email which has gone to your whole contact list. People only want to receive information that is relevant and of interest to them. Using your CRM system to record people’s preferences and interests can help significantly with this. Once you have this information your CRM system can also be used to segment and target the data with high precision. And sending relevant emails to the right target audience reduces unsubscribes and increases conversion rates.
3) Increase Deliverability
To increase deliverability you need to make sure that you have a Reverse DNS entry setup so that recipients can see where your email has come from (for more information about Reverse DNS entry setup see one of your technical team). A key objective to email marketing is to avoid SPAM filters and to not get Black Listed. There are various definitions of SPAM, but most people consider SPAM to be an email from an unknown sender. A way in which to overcome this is by requesting the recipient to add your email address to their contact list which will prevent your email being seen as SPAM. Also words such as, ‘free’, ‘click here’ and ‘obligation’ trigger SPAM filters so it’s worth researching SPAM filter scoring systems.
4) Subject Line
The subject line is the first piece of text that the recipient will read, and people focus mainly on the first two words of the subject line. So keep it short, relevant and straight to the point. And remember, personalisation is also very powerful in the subject line and will increase opening rates.
5) From Field
Ensure that the From Field is someone your target is familiar with. For example, if your customers are assigned to an Account Manager, use their name as they will be more likely to open the email as it’s coming from someone they know. Always maintain the same From Field to keep your emails consistent. NEVER try to disguise or conceal your identity as a sender.
6) Layout
Various eye tracking studies, which measure the activity and the areas of emails that people’s eyes are drawn to, have been undertaken to help develop effective layouts. For example, recipients read headings and not always the article. Therefore, make the heading the click through. This also works as the reader’s hand and mouse tends to follow where the eyes are most drawn to. Eye tracking also shows that readers are more likely to scan down the left-hand side of the email first so this would be an ideal place to put important links or headings. Large fonts and the use of bold text also work well to catch the reader’s attention.
7) Check, test, re-test and check again!
It is very important that you test your email before you send it out or it could be a recipe for disaster! Content needs to be checked, layout needs to look right and all links and images need to work. Check using different email clients as they may display your email differently. Things move and change rapidly in email marketing, therefore you need to find out what works best. For example, you could send a test email to see what subject line gets the most open rates or what links get clicked the most. A rating could be included on your emails so that you can see what recipients think about your content. Again, CRM systems and email marketing tools can really help with this.
8) Use HTML and Text
If you can, use an email marketing tool to deliver your messages as a two part MIME message. This means that if the HTML is blocked, the text format will be delivered in its place. This increases deliverability and means that your email is more likely to get through SPAM filters.
9) Who you are and Opt-Out
In every email that you send out you MUST give the reader full details on your company and the option to opt-out of future emails. Display it clearly in your email. Make it quick and easy for the reader to find and opt out. When you receive an opt-out request, action it quickly. Some CRM software and email marketing tools can do this for you so you don’t have to worry about it. For example, when an opt-out request is sent, the CRM programme will automatically change a company or person’s record to ‘Mail Restriction’ so that future emails can’t be automatically or inadvertently sent out.
10) Contact Data
Good data is the key to email marketing. Build your contact data at every opportunity you can. Gather data yourself, provide opt-in options for useful information such as special offers or newsletters. Or purchase opt-in lists from respected data brokers. Enter it into your CRM system and use the functionality to dedupe, manage bounce backs and help you keep it clean.
Whatever tools you use for email marketing, we hope these top ten tips are useful. And remember, the combination of a CRM system with email marketing tool makes the email-marketers job a lot easier, and their campaigns a lot more effective!
