The Dos and Don’ts of Email Marketing

In the rush to enhance their digital presence and appear social media savvy, many businesses tend to forego email marketing. However, the data from Hubspot shows that 40 percent of Business-to-Business marketers believe email newsletters  are vital for the success of their content marketing. In addition, most people check their email everyday and are likely to come across email marketing content. Lastly, Hubspot says that 73% of millennials prefer any business-related communications to come to them through email.

The numbers don’t lie—email marketing is important to include in your digital marketing checklist. However, simply sending out a bunch of emails is not the way to do it—you have to execute your email marketing campaign in an organized manner. To help you get started, the pros at VitalStorm have prepared a guide on the dos and don’ts of email marketing. Check out our post to learn how you can further improve your company’s content marketing!

Some Benefits of Email Marketing

Before we get into the details of what you should and should not to do in an email marketing campaign, take a minute to go over the benefits of email marketing!

1. It Allows You to Create Personalized Content

While blogs are great way to kick off your content marketing campaign, they aren’t necessarily personalized. Email marketing allows you create content that is more targeted by addressing the user directly. One strategy to catch a contact’s attention is by addressing them by their name in the subject line! Personalized content also means targeting specific customers— your email marketing can be directed towards customers based on a certain location, their purchases, their activity status (returning or new customers) etc.

2. Improve Sales

The Direct Marketing Association states that 66% of users have purchased something online because of email marketing content. In addition, data shows that email marketing has an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. Email marketing is certainly worth your while because customers might be more likely to make purchases!

3. Improve Website Traffic

If you have any upcoming sales or are offering new services and products, email marketing is a great way to bring new items to consumers attention. This way, you’ll be increasing traffic and website engagement.

The Dos and Don’ts of Email Marketing

• DO Use an Eye-Catching Subject Line

As we mentioned before, you want your email to be personalized towards the consumer. You can achieve this by having an eye-catching subject line, mentioning the name of the person receiving the email . Make sure the subject line is clear, concise, and engaging.

• DON’T Become Just Another Spam Email

Internet Service Providers have spam “traps” or “filters” that are meant to send certain emails straight to spam. To avoid becoming just another spam email, make sure you send emails using your brand name, so the consumer recognizes you. Avoid using obscure names like “noreplyemail.com.” In addition, there are certain keywords you should avoid as they will set off spam filters. For example, don’t use “billion” “cash” or “free” in your subject line.

• DO Organize Your Email List

With content marketing, you want to make sure that not only is your content great, but it is reaching the right people! Make sure you organize your email list by prioritizing and targeting people who are subscribers, who have recently engaged with your site, who are returning customers, who have responded to emails in the past, etc. This way, you might have a limited number of people on your list, but they will be far more responsive.

• DON’T Forget the Basics of Content Writing

When writing material for content marketing, you want to make sure your content is engaging, clear and concise. The same strategy applies to email marketing—make sure your email is written well, with proper grammar and spelling. Most importantly, make sure you have a strong call-to-action at the end.

• DO Use a Decent UX Design

Consumers don’t spend a lot of time reading promotional emails, so make sure you have a decent design to capture their attention. Make sure the content isn’t too dense or is broken up into paragraphs, avoid using excess colors or crazy fonts and use images and graphics relevant to your content.  Make sure your design isn’t too boring or bright.

• DON’T Always Buy Email Lists

It’s probably a lot easier to buy an email list but it might not always be as effective. Usually, people don’t respond much to cold emailing and there is no guarantee that those specific users will be the right targets for your business. It’s much better to build an email list consisting of users you have had some sort of previous engagement with.

• DO Test Your Emails Before sending

Before sending out emails to prospective customers, make sure you test your emails beforehand. This way you will be able to see how your email appears to the recipient and whether any changes need to be made. Keep a look out for spelling errors, design mishaps, whether it has been optimized for mobile use and whether all the links are working properly. Sending emails without a few tests and reviews can make you appear unprofessional and more importantly, worsen your chances at getting leads or improving sales.

• DON’T Ignore Reporting and Analytics

Reporting and analytics is the best way to check how your email marketing campaign is doing. There are many metrics that give a good indication of how well your campaign is doing such as clickthrough rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, etc. Don’t ignore these metrics and make sure you’re looking at them consistently.

Have any more questions about the dos and don’ts of email marketing? Get in touch with the professionals at VitalStorm. Our team has experience working with clients on paid search campaigns, search engine optimization, website design, call center coaching and much more. Call us today at 877-311-5695 or contact us through our website. We are looking forward to hearing from you and working with you!