There are countless articles, videos and blogs on the internet devoted to Best Practices when sending bulk emails. Entire books have been devoted to the subject, and it is obviously a very comprehensive topic. Here are 5 quick tips that serve as a starting point.
- Pay attention to your subject line. The subject line of your email is one of the most important elements of any send. It is your primary opportunity to entice the recipient to open the email; in order to do this, it needs to be relevant to their interests, and timely to their needs. It can also trigger spam alerts so you need to be aware of things that may relegate your email to the junk folder. Avoid “Spam Words” - words or phrases that trigger spam alerts, such as FREE, $$$ signs and offers that are either not part of the email message OR are obviously false or misleading. This topic alone can be exhaustive, if you want to learn more you can search the term “best practices subject line”.
- Vary your content and keep it interesting. The subject line gets them to open your email, but the content will keep them opening it in future sends. You need to make sure that your content is relevant to their interests and is timely as well. For example, if your email is only offering a discount on golf this weekend, and the recipient already has plans that keep them from playing this weekend, that information is not relevant to them. If, however, your email provides the secret to lowering their score the next time they play, THAT may prove to be more relevant to their interests. Content should be fun, creative, aesthetically appealing and varied, as the recipient’s interests at that time are constantly changing.
- Include multiple ways for them to engage in your emails. Easy to follow Call To Action options should be included in every email. The more the recipients engage with your emails, the higher your Sender Score will climb. If the actions are designed properly, they will also achieve an even higher purpose - conversion to actual sales. Make it easy for your recipients to engage with you throughout the email. Many successful email marketers know that you don’t need to make the sale IN the email; you just need to get them to take the next step in the process. Provide a teaser to a blog post or interesting page on your website that makes them want to learn more. Explain that your pricing is so amazing that they need to see it to believe it - and provide a link for them to do just that. Even getting them to call rather than visiting a website or landing page is a great engagement option - Chronopitch provides an easy way to use a phone number as the Call to Action for a button in your email. Mobile devices account for nearly ½ of all open rates these days. If your button has a phone number as the CTA, a recipient has only to click on the button and they are taken to the phone app in their mobile device, where the number is automatically copied, generating a click on your email - and a call to your business.
- Don’t use a single image as your email content. If you are proficient in a graphics program, or even Word or Powerpoint, there is a temptation to design your emails there and use a single graphic or screenshot of a .pdf file as your email. Don’t do it! While you can achieve a great looking email this way, there are a lot of limitations to this method. For one, the responsive nature of the email will be negatively affected. Viewers of the email on mobile devices may struggle to see the content as it may not be sized in a manner that displays the text in a readable format. You can’t include multiple Call To Actions - while you can make the entire image clickable, you can only have one action. And in the long run, editing the graphic for future sends is much more tedious and time consuming. The email editor in Chronopitch is easy to use, highly flexible in the design of your emails and truly responsive in nature, allowing you to control how your messages display on desktop and mobile environments as well.
- DO, however, include graphics/images - and videos in your email. The age-old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is every bit as true today as it was decades ago. But one thing that many marketers fail to properly utilize is the power of a THOUSAND pictures, along with sound! Video is dramatic, engaging and very easy to create and share in today’s world. Chronopitch includes a way to share videos that is easy and will increase engagement. Simply shoot your video, host it on Youtube or Vimeo, and then include a Video content module in your email. Videos are proven to dramatically increase engagement in emails.