You’re likely very familiar with the concept of email marketing as a marketing tactic for your audience, but are you using it to its fullest extend? How can you make the best use of it for engagement? 

From a marketing point of view, it’s a direct communication tool to your audience that has the potential to increase engagement with your brand and boost website visits. 

According to a 2018 study from Adestra and Ascend2, 66% of marketers cited improved engagement as a top priority. This is exactly where email marketing can play an important role in your engagement metrics, impacting your business where it matters the most: your audience. By leveraging this tool, you can deliver content and value to your audience directly in their inbox, firming your credibility as a subject matter expert. 

To be successful at driving positive results from email marketing, and to stand out from the crowd, follow these five well-tested best practices. 

#1: Strong Subject Lines 

When you decide to write a marketing email, what is the first thing readers will see to help guide them in their decision to open your email? Regardless of your goal, whether it’s to promote a new affiliate program or drive traffic to your website, a strong subject line plays a critical role.

After all, 35% of marketing emails are opened based on the subject line alone.

Think of something that is relevant to you target audience, that can instantly grab their attention while informing them what the email content is about.  The best performing subject lines will have a manner of urgency about them, without coming across as “salesy.” A good tactic to use it to split your send list and test different sentences. You may be surprised by the results!

Another top tip is to personalise it by adding in someone’s name or business name.  

#2: Your Data List and Email Address

The people that you are sending your email campaign to are the backbone of its success; if you don’t pay attention to your lists, you may be setting yourself up to fail.

Make sure that everyone on that list wants to be included in your email marketing campaigns. Check the data laws in your country to ensure you are not wrongfully adding people to a database and make sure you remove people who unsubscribe. Platforms like MailChimp will automatically do this for you.

If you’re in Canada, here are the data laws you need to keep in mind.

It is advisable to regularly go through your database and edit names, numbers and addresses correctly to minimise bounce rates. You can also use this time to segment your audience lists in a way that reflects your goals. Good segmentation categories to use are age, interests, location, family/no family and if they have pets.

It is also important to consider the email address that the campaign is coming from. If possible, use one that you have regular access to and reflects your brand. You may need to set a new one up with your email server to do this. 

For example, if your personal email is ali@exampleemail.com, send your email campaigns from ali_jones@exampleemail.com. This way, your personal inbox won’t be flooded every time you send a new campaign, you are able to monitor any replies and your readers (and inbox servers) will trust your emails, firming your credibility even more. 

#3: Attention-Grabbing Content

In order to increase engagement, the message you send must be relevant and easy to understand.

According to Convince And Convert email marketing statistics, more than 347 billion emails will be sent and received by 2022. This means that it will become more challenging to get your readers’ attention and even more important that your content stands out in every inbox.

You have to know and segment your audience correctly to deliver value through content. Remember, you are competing for your readers’ attention and if you lose them in the first paragraph, then they’ll be gone and onto the next email.

A good thing to keep in mind is to grab their attention in the content that will appear in the preview pane. If you hook people here, they are more likely to open your email and continue reading. It’s also good practice to keep emails short and add in links to your site to enable your audience to read the entire blog/article. You’ll find that with shorter emails and more opportunities to be interactive (e.g. a “read more” option) people are more likely to be engaged.  This is why having strong CTAs is paramount.

#4: Call to Action

A call to action (also known as CTA) button in email marketing can test your subscribers’ trust. If they click on your CTA, whether it’s to read more on your website or directing them to a product offer, then you won their attention and time.

Think of calls to actions that are continuing their engagement journey and give clues to the next step in a button format; for example, instead of saying “click here” use “get best rates.”

#5: Social Sharing Buttons

Social media and email marketing are two strategies that work well together. If you’re consistent across all channels, then you can increase visibility and brand awareness with one supporting the other.

Social media can amplify your message dramatically, and if you hit all the right notes in your content and your reader trusts you, a sign of high engagement is a social media share. You will likely see new users flowing through to your website from these sources within hours of your email blast.

Next Steps

According to 2018 data, email marketing remains the most cost-effective communication marketing tool. When you combine the best practices as the ones mentioned in this article with a well-respected and trusted source of information, you have a powerful and relatively easy way to apply tactics that increase your chances of success, while keeping your audience directly engaged with your business.

If you’re interested in incorporating email marketing into your digital strategy, we’re happy to help and welcome you to read out to us here!

If you’re already using email marketing as a tactic and wish to monetize your efforts with financial offers and products, we invite you to sign up to our network by clicking here to get access to top financial brands.