Email Marketing: Eight Tips To Get You Started

There is hardly another marketing discipline that marketers talk about as little as email marketing. Classic newsletters or individual automations can not only increase sales significantly. Compared to other forms of advertising, email marketing is also extremely inexpensive and – above all – scalable. To get you off to a good start, here are eight tips for really good marketing emails.

Build a compelling subject line

Out of all the content elements in email marketing, the subject line is the one you spend the most time on. It decides whether the recipient reads the e-mail at all and whether there is a chance that your message will get through. On average, every fourth email is opened . The rest ends up in the trash unread.

That the length of the subject line has a significant impact on open rates is demonstrably nonsense. Although studies have found minor differences in open rates – seven words seem to be ideal according to these studies – it is ultimately not the length that determines success, but the choice of words. You should only test whether the subject line is displayed meaningfully for the mobile display.

Don’t forget the preheader and sender

In addition to the subject line, users see two other elements before opening the email: the preheader and the sender. In email marketing, you can and should also use this space to make added value and trust clear and thus increase the opening rates.

The first lines of the text body are in the preheader. Many e-mail programs still show this in the email preview. Use this space to communicate the benefits of email. For example, you can further specify the added value from the subject line or touch on other topics of your marketing email.

You should also determine the sender individually. People prefer to read news from people. Instead of using the company name, it is better to use employees who appear with their first names. That looks a lot more familiar!

Convince with your storytelling

Once the user has tapped the subject line, the email marketing is not over yet. Now the content has to be convincing! Pure sales content is rarely successful here. As everywhere in marketing, the added value of your email counts. 90 percent of the text should be relevant and interesting for the reader, you can use the remaining 10 percent for your products and your message.

Good copywriting boils down to a formula coined by copywriter Kevin Rogers: ISDR. The abbreviation stands for identity, struggle, discovery and result. These elements must therefore be found in your text:

• Identity: Make sure the reader can identify with the text and the main character of the email body. In plain language, this means that the sender of the e-mail ideally has the same characteristics as the reader. However, it is often enough if you give your email marketing a personality, for example with a personal sender.
• Struggle: Present the problem you want to solve with the email. Example: You have a platform for people to connect to learn musical instruments. First, use a personal story to make it clear that it takes a lot of time and effort to master an instrument on your own.
• Discovery: Here you indirectly include your offer for the first time. Tell the reader how you solved the problem. But first of all, stay general and put the solution and not the product in the foreground. Example: Tell me that you yourself have found that you can learn instruments much better and faster with a mentor.
• Result: Now you describe how you can solve the problem with your product. For example: You offer a platform through which everyone can find their mentors without having to register at an expensive music school.

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Write a clear CTA

Every single email in email marketing needs a goal. You make this goal clear in the call to action, the CTA (Call-to-Action). After all, the recipients shouldn’t just skim through your newsletter and close it again, they should also become active. When designing the CTA, make sure that it is short and clear. You can achieve this with an active language. You can also reinforce the effect with high-contrast colors, urgency (“only a few hours left”) and beneficial communication in the context of the CTA.

Where the CTA is placed is up to you. It is advisable to place it in the upper third. So it is in the field of view of the recipient. In any case, you should only use one CTA at a time. This is also referred to as the selection paradox: if a visitor is afraid of making the wrong decision because he has several options, he prefers not to make a decision.

Test all items

Do emojis work in the subject line? Should the CTA be below or above the image? In email marketing, nothing works today without testing. Even if you’re sure a subject line will work, you still have to prove it. Experience has shown that our gut feeling is very deceptive. Only intensive A/B testing can help determine the best possible version of your elements.

Most email marketing tools have built-in testing capabilities. The tests usually work like this: You send two (or more) versions of an email to 10 percent of your mailing list. The more successful version based on opening rates and/or clicks then goes out to the rest of the mailing list. Splitting allows you to achieve the best campaign results in the short term. In the long run, this will give you an understanding of good subject lines and CTAs.

Segment your mailing list

Everyone knows that it’s pointless to be on stage at a rock festival with a Beethoven symphony orchestra – just as pointless to always send a newsletter or automated e-mails to the complete mailing list. That’s why you should segment your mailing list.

The basis of your email marketing is data. You can use these to create segments and use your mailing list much more efficiently. In addition to personal data such as date of birth or gender, e-mail marketing tools often provide usage data. See who opened your past emails. You can also use usage data from your shop or your website. Which products has the subscriber already bought in the shop? How often does a user buy? Which articles did he look at?

These segments can then be used individually in email marketing. Not only do you increase opening rates and strengthen customer loyalty, but you also prevent users from unsubscribing in annoyance. The best way to do this is via automated emails, which you use in e-commerce , for example, to win back customers or reward them for their loyalty.

Be present at different touchpoints

If you want to set up your mailing list, you have to make it known – that’s clear. The easiest and most effective way is to be present where the potential subscriber is. So make sure that your newsletter can be found on all relevant touchpoints: in the footer on the website, as a menu item, in the blog, on the product page and maybe as a pop-up on the start page.

But that alone is not enough. Of course you have to create additional incentives, for example if a customer has a need. An example: One of your products is sold out. At this point you can offer your customer a service that will inform them as soon as the product is available again. Simply combine the form with a double opt-in to add the customer to your mailing list.

Other incentives can be advanced information about product launches, competitions, exclusive discounts or useful information on how to use the product. Always make sure that the incentives fit both your customers and the content of your marketing emails.

Reactivate or remove inactive subscribers

This is a point where most companies lack courage, but it is extremely important: Inactive subscribers are bad for you and your mailing list for several reasons. They not only ensure higher costs in the email tool. There is also a risk that email providers will put your address on a spam blacklist. If you keep sending emails to an inactive address several times, the e-mail provider might think that you are writing to this address at random. Then the spam filter will filter you out.

What can you do about it? Try to get inactive subscribers back through reactivations. Such a reactivation route can include surveys, special content or emotional triggers (“You could miss this”). Get more tips on reactivation campaigns here .

If the user does not respond then, you should exclude them from your mailing list. Hopefully this will bring your open and click rates back to a normal level.

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