How to Get Better Results with Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Writing a successful email campaign, one with emails that get opened and clicked (ie results), ones that convert prospects into buyers and which communicate effectively and clearly, is an art.
It can take a lot of time and effort to write emails that get engagement. Just because you can write an email doesn't mean you can write a good email.
Every email I send for my business causes a percentage of people to unsubscribe. I often send out emails around major holidays to wish my subscribers well and to share what I'm up to, and, without fail, someone unsubscribes and says they no longer want emails from me.
I used to get upset. I used to get my feelings hurt. But, I learned that they didn't want to hear what I had to say anyway.
But getting great results with your email campaigns can be tough. There's an art to writing emails that get read and entice readers to take action. My clients want to get better results with their email campaigns and I'm sure you do too. So, I thought I'd share some tactics my clients use to grow their business with successful email campaigns.
9 Tips for Better Results with Your Email Marketing Campaigns
If you want to increase open rates and engagement with your email marketing campaigns, here are some things I suggest you do.
1: Read this blog post
A lot of strategy goes into a great email campaign. So, getting into the inbox should be one of your main focuses.
In my post here, I talk about seven strategies you can use to get past the spam filter to reach the inbox. I suggest you start there, or, at the very least, read that post after this one.
2: Always send your emails FROM a person
I'm sure I'm not the only one who HATES getting emails from “do not reply” addresses. Send your email campaigns from a real person and from an email address we can reply to.
Emails from people are not only more personal, but they're more likely to get more engagement.
Want to Build Your Business with Email?
In my book Exit Strategy: The Exact Tactics to Transition from Where You Have to Be to Where You Want to Be, I go in-depth about how to be successful with your email efforts, including autoresponder sequences, what to say, and how to say it. If you'd like to grab a copy of Exit Strategy, you can buy it on Amazon HERE.
3: Have one topic per email
I'm bad about this one (but I think my subscribers are smart enough to handle it), but your emails should have one focus, and therefore one call to action.
When we give our readers more than one thing we want them to do, they often don't do anything. Options lead to confusion, and confusion leads to inaction.
4: Write your emails like you were writing to a friend
One thing I hear often from new subscribers is that they like my tone, or that they find me approachable. That's because I write each email campaign like I'm writing it to a friend.
And, in a lot of ways I am. My subscribers might not be my friends yet, but they could be some day. I write like I talk, and I talk like I'm talking to a friend.
Related: 6 Reasons You Shouldn't Automatically Add People to Your Email List
5: No more than 2 sentences per paragraph (avoid walls of text)
As I wrote the paragraphs above, none of them wrapped down to a second line. However, the app I use to write my posts (I write in Evernote) is wider than my blog's main column.
If your sentences are long enough to take up multiple lines, and you have multiple sentences to a paragraph, you could end up with a wall of text. And, what's worse is that those walls get worse on mobile devices.
Walls of text are hard to read because the eye gets confused. There's no clear beginning and end, and, it's not good writing.
Think Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter. Ugh.
Here is that same section but without paragraphs:
As I wrote them, none of the paragraphs above wrapped down to a second line. However, the app I use to write my posts (I write in Evernote) is wider than my blog's main column. If your sentences are long enough to take up multiple lines, and you have multiple sentences to a paragraph, you could end up with a wall of text. And, what's worse is that those walls get worse on mobile devices. Walls of text are hard to read because the eye gets confused. There's no clear beginning and end, and, it's not good writing. Think Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter. Ugh.
How did you like it?
6: Proofread every email campaign at least twice before sending it
I use ActiveCampaign to send my email marketing campaigns. And, before I send an email to the masses, I send it to myself first.
Check the formatting of your emails on both your computer and on your smaller mobile devices. Those walls of text will pop out, and formatting issues will (hopefully) jump off of the screen.
Related: How to Get Your Emails Into the Inbox
7: Use Grammarly
If your reputation hinges on the quality of your emails…
If your company's revenue is tied in any way to the emails you write…
If your future depends on how well you communicate through written messages…
… you need to use Grammarly.
Grammarly has a basic plugin for Chrome browsers that's free, plus, there's a paid version that catches even more mistakes and checks for more things (I use Grammarly Premium). Add it, download it, install it, and make sure you use it to check all of your email campaigns before you send them.
8: Mix it up with bullet points and sections
I don't often use bullet points in my email campaigns, though I have in the past, but they're pretty effective when sharing lists. I do often use sections to break up topics.
Though we hate to admit it, not every part of every email is relevant to every person we send it to. Customization and personalization are good, but it's far from a perfect system.
Use bullet points and section headers to break up the emails, prevent those terrible walls o' text, and tell your recipients what they're about to read.
9: Make your emails scannable
(no one reads anymore)
As a writer, I hate to admit that nobody reads anymore. We like to scan things and watch videos on YouTube.
If you can convey your message in short, easily-digestible chunks, you'll be better off and you will look like a much more effective communicator.
To test these 9 tips to see if they're worth implementing in your email campaigns, look back over this blog post.
Was it pretty easy to scan and understand? Were there any walls of text? Did it sound like I wrote it for a friend?
Over to you: What's your best tip for a successful email campaign?
