I often talk about various components of email marketing campaigns but don’t always put it in context.
Here are the 10 email marketing skills you’ll need to ace to take full advantage of email marketing and get the best results possible.
I’ve seen the difference between a bad campaign and a good campaign be as high as 12X difference. Make sure you incorporate all of these elements into your email work.
1. Email Strategy. It all starts with good strategy. You have to know what you want email to do for your company. This is the first place things break down. Mostly you don’t know what email is fully capable of and as a result you tend to under utilize this powerful channel.
Make sure email marketing is supportive of your overall business goals. You want a campaign to do lead generation? Good. You want a campaign to increase customer loyalty? Fine. Just don’t try to make one email do both.
2. Proper Infrastructure. I often talk to people who are still sending their emails out though MS Outlook or Hotmail. There are a hundred reasons not to do it that way but these days there are many Emails Service Providers that have high deliverability, good features, and statistics that tell you what happened after the fact.
Every year they get better. They introduce Video, social media, survey, and other features to help you improve.
One tip. Once you select your provider stick with them for the long term. You’ll be tempted to switch probably more than once but don’t. The grass is not always greener.
3. Effective List Building. Can’t say enough about list building other than you need to pay attention and keep focused on it.
Use any and all means to build your list. It’s a valuable asset. Keep an eye on how many new names join your list and compare it to how many people unsubscribe from your list. Don’t let the unsubscribes out pace your list growth.
You’d be surprised how easy it is to let that happen.
4. Simple Layout. From a design perspective I see one mistake far too often. Emails that are too fancy. Three columns. Index. Images all over. Headers. Facebook Like links. Buy buttons. You try and get all of that into one message and you’ve got too much for your reader to digest.
Even worse, if your email LOOKS like there is too much to read quickly, it’ll go into the ‘read later’ file and you know what that means. Never to be read again.
Keep your design simple and easy to read and follow. You’ll get better results.
5. Powerful Copy. I THINK THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT EMAIL MARKETING SKILL. If your words can create desire, instill fear, or rouse curiosity you can get away with a lot of other flaws in your email campaigns.
Learn how to write powerful subject lines, compelling content, and clear calls to action and your email will perform like crazy.
6. Killer Newsletters. eNewsletters seem like a simple thing to do. Cop a template from your favorite email service provider, throw in some pictures and stories about your company, and send away to your favorite fans and customers.
Truth is those types of newsletters don’t get read. They’re too boring and too hard to read.
Try a strategy like this instead. Post 3 fantastic, helpful, useful, interesting blog posts on your site. Create an email template which has one column and a small header at the top. Create a teaser paragraph that leads into your blog post and link to the actual post on your site with a “Read More >>” link. Then your reader will be transported from their inbox to your website where they have ample opportunity to continue to read more about your great products and services.
7. Email Promotions. Email promotions work best when they are sent as a solo message – meaning the promo isn’t buried in the copy of a newsletter or some other message. The promotional email stands alone.
Your reader can then open, read, and click or delete so they can get onto the next thing.
By making your promotions short, clear, and compelling you’ll find you can send emails more often and not be annoying to your reader.
Your biggest obstacle to email promotions, honestly, will be your willingness to send 2X as many messages as you do now!
Keep in mind the goal of the email is not to make the sale, the goal of the email is to get the reader to leave their inbox and take action. A common action is to send the reader to a landing page. The job of the landing page is to get ‘close the deal’. A common mistake is to try to ‘close the deal’ in the email itself.
After tons of testing we’ve found the short email, longer landing page combo works best.
8. Email Metrics and Stats. Sending email produces tons of statistics. Statistics that are invaluable in teaching you about responses to your marketing initiatives.
For instance the % of people who opened your message can tell you something compared to your other open rates. Is it higher, lower, or the same.
The number of readers who unsubscribe can tell you if you’re sending messages to frequently or if you send an inappropriate message.
You can count how many people click on your Read More links to see which topic is most popular.
Next time you’re making decisions that affect your customers, blast out an email and ask them. You’ll have an answer in no time!
9. Appropriate Autoresponders. Autoresponders are the one of the most powerful email marketing tools… and one of the most underused.
Autoresponders are particularly good for building a relationship with a new subscriber to your list. If your sales cycle involves understanding prospect needs and involving a sales rep, you will benefit greatly from autoresponders.
Same if you need to establish your expertise.
Autoresponders can do damage however, if you don’t do them right. Not doing them right involved sending repeated offers to ‘buy my product’. This way you’re not being helpful, you’re just being annoying.
10. Continuous Review. Now you’ve got your email campaigns going and you’re using all the best practices before, go back to the beginning and review everything again and again. Review the numbers and see where you can do better. Allow the statistics to lead you to your next round of improvements.
Advanced email marketing skills
I’ll save these for follow up blog post but take a look at how you can raise your game to the next level.
1. Segment Your List.
2. Run Split Tests.
3. Use Follow On Messages.
4. Use Surveys.
In the meantime we’re happy to review your email practices and let you know where you stand.