What is a great email?
Emails are very important for our business especially in marketing. We don’t only want to have an e-mail that looks good, but also an email that reaches the people whom we need and engage with our business.
But… how do we do this? Make sure you have a clear marketing strategy for your emails. Do not focus too much on the open rate. So also look into the whole funnel of your emails. Did they go to your website and click on something? Did they return to the website? Every good mail should:
- Understand your audience
- Have an attractive headline
- Consist of content with a clear goal
Understand your audience
How often should you send emails?
Most companies have the fear of spamming. So they don’t send enough emails. But they do send out crammed newsletters full with content and too many articles. This is bad for the email message itself because most people won’t scroll down. It’s best to know what your customer wants.
How many times does it count to let a kid do something you need? They need to be reminded. Several times reminding and repeating is not bad. Don’t be afraid to test and ask your customers.
When they recognize you from the email, they’ll remind you in the store which stands for brand awareness.
Moreover, an email not clicked on, has contributed much more to your branding than an email that you didn’t send at all.
“Be in the back of their mind.”
Search for the ideal send frequency:
- Too little: they don’t know you
- Too much: lower engagement & more unsubscribers
- Let them choose
- Test with Google Analytics
- Think in the long term
- Unsubscribers are not end of the world
What is the value of an open rate?
Check after sending an email, what it did to your website. How much traffic has been generated to the website? What about your Google Analytics?). Don’t focus on the open ratio only. Optimize and improve your results.
Attractive headline
Take into account which mail operator they use. Outlook has a preview and Gmail does not. Apple’s preview of mails is shorter than Outlook. Hence don’t make the mistake of a header to big so that they don’t scroll down for your message.
Almost all mail accounts have a subheader and subject line. The latter needs to be attractive and relevant for your audience. You can improve the open ratio by A/B testing of subject lines:
- Length does matter
- Do better than “newsletter May 2022”
- Test different kinds of subject lines
- Multiple or single proposition
- Short versus long (1 topic or more)
Content with a clear goal
You know why little businesses mostly get better open rates and click rates? They’re mostly good at targeting and they segment their customers according to their interests. Keep it relevant, simple and focus on your goal. What can they achieve by reading your email?
Focus on the audience that really matters. Segmented emails based upon interests generate higher open rates.
Segment, simplify and send.
- Check link map: where do people go to? How about the frequency?
- Limit to 5 articles
- Make sure the content isn’t competing for attention
- Remember attention is fleeting
Do you need a helping hand with your email marketing strategy? At 4P square we have a lot of experts who like to help you out!
Contact us for marketing supportAbout the author
Chelsea is a Creative Marketer who likes to analyse figures and customer behaviour. Experienced in Product Marketing, Category Management and Marcom. Thereby, she started her career as Product Manager in Haier Benelux where she had a lot of responsibilities and learned to think and work as an entrepreneur. For Chelsea, it is important to be challenged and make a business grow. She is an enthusiast consultant that will always have a big smile on her face.
Want to know more about Chelsea? Feel free to start a conversation with her on LinkedIn.
