:: Marketing Tips
Just sending out e-mails in bulk often isn't enough to get conversions from e-mail prospect to customer. What you include in your e-mail and how it is presented are key to getting a good return on your investment. Our designers at iQ-Mail have experience in producing quality e-mail marketing, but below are some tips you might find useful.
Also, take a look out some of the sample e-mail templates we have used in the past.
Carefully consider your text
The text you include in your e-mail, its tone, structure and sheer amount can make-or-break any campaign. Make sure you keep anything you write straight-forward, to the point and easily accessible to all potential readers in your audience. Just because you know the meaning of a complex phrase or think something is obvious, doesn't mean your readers will.
A common problem can be trying to say too much, or including too large blocks of text. Try breaking blocks down to smaller chunks, highlighting bullets or key phrases or most usefully keeping detail short or in summary and encouraging click-throughs for the full details.
Where ever possible avoid obvious spam-like phrases in the content and in the subject. Terms like "Click here to view...", "Earn £££... ", "Opportunity not to be missed... ", "Free xxx... " will not only turn-off potential readers and possibly lead to deletion before viewing, but could also lead to your e-mail dropping automatically into the 'junk' or 'spam' folder on more modern e-mail clients or when spam filters are enabled.
Eye-catching - at the top at least
Try to make your e-mail as eye-catching as possible. Internet and E-mail users often judge very quickly whether to ignore certain content, so you need to make sure yours stands out quickly. Avoiding text-heavy mail is one step, but also using strong imagery, striking layouts and easy-to-follow structures can all help; in effect, consider your HTML email a mini-website and judge whether you would bother to read it if you surfed to it.
It is also important to remember that a lot of users have preview-panes on their e-mail clients, or may be running a low screen resolutions, so you should always ensure a good, eye-catching piece of content is located at the top of your design.
Keep links obvious and simple
Probably one of the main reasons for you sending out your e-mail is to encourage click-throughs to websites, booking forms, etc. If this is the case, make sure your links are obvious to the end-user. Don't hide them away, or make them too blended into the design. Like on the internet, most users expect to see an underlined link or 'button-looking' image to click on, and it will speed up and potentially boost click-throughs if you keep to a simple design like this. If you are using images for links, always ensure that there is either an alt tag to display if the image doesn't, or a separate text link elsewhere in the e-mail.
Personalise the message
Nothing captures people's attentions better than using their name, as it instantly separates your e-mail from a spam e-mail. iQ-Mail has built in features to allow easy personalisation of every e-mail using any field you have included in your data.
Which day of the week?
Think about when the best time is to send your mail out. Are people really going to look at it if it turns up just before close of business on a Friday or first thing on a Monday morning? As many sites will tell you, tests seem to show Tuesday or Wednesdays are the best days for e-mail retention and reading - we tend to agree.
Always the same time and day, with consistent feel.
If you are sending out newsletters, bulletins or other regular campaigns, ensure that they are actually 'regular'. If you always send your mail at the same time on the same day of the week or month, readers will become used to seeing it at that time and in some cases even expect to see it then. This helps boost your readership and build a trust with your audience.
Keeping your e-mails consistent in layout and style also is extremely important for building brand awareness and for making your mail instantly recognisable.
Sign-up and unsubscribe easily with confirmation.
Don't get caught out by the law, end up with annoyed subscribers who 'want out' or miss out on new prospects who 'want in'. Keep your subscription and unsubscription procedures as straight-forward as possible; a few details and a confirm for sign-up and a single click and confirm for opt-out.
iQ-Mail has built in features for creating sign-up forms with confirmations and for handling unsubscribe links.
To avoid errors, always try and send a confirmation to new subscribers. You can use this as an excellent opportunity to help introduce them to your e-mail brand. Never add contacts to your list who are not aware you may send them e-mails, this could be breaking the law and our policy on spam. Click here for more details on our Anti-Spam policy.