Sending one or two emails is easy. But a long-term email strategy that grows your business requires a deliberate approach using best practices in email marketing. From the right tactics for acquiring new subscribers to the best ways to allow readers to unsubscribe, the world of email marketing has rules worth learning. By focusing on email best practices, you will engage your customers and grow your business by converting subscribers into sales.
1. Use Double Opt-In for Email
Sending information and offers via email is a form of permission-based marketing, a term coined by Seth Godin in his book “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers.” Godin advocates for customers to opt in to marketing and define when, where, and how they are marketed to, noting that this is the most effective (and respectful) way to convert onlookers into customers. When a website visitor, prospective customer, or previous buyer opts into your email list, they are giving you permission to communicate with them.
Double opt-in for email, compared to single opt-in, helps you collect email addresses with an additional confirmation step that ensures you really have permission to email someone. This method prevents fake sign-ups and also helps ensure that you comply with anti-spam regulations and laws such as GDPR.
2. Send a Welcome Message
Once a customer agrees to receive emails, send them a welcome message to create an early connection and set the stage for what’s to come. Welcome messages generally have an average open rate of over 86% and are worth leveraging. Most email marketing services, including automated marketing integrated into Shopify, allow you to send an automatic welcome message after a new subscriber joins your email list. Make sure your welcome message is evergreen and relevant for newcomers.
Here are some different ways to make the first email to a subscriber effective:
- Introduce yourself and your company. A welcome message is a great opportunity to build rapport with your business and create an emotional impact on the subscriber. Tell the new reader a little about yourself and why you started your company, and take them behind the scenes on the journey from idea to launch. Add personal touches like a picture of your team and a handwritten signature at the bottom of the email.
- Send a curated list of your best content. If a part of your email marketing strategy is to share helpful information and tips, new subscribers will miss out on a lot of rich past content. Use the first email to the new reader to compile a collection of your most popular articles or posts.
- Offer a discount or promotional offer. Often, businesses encourage visitors to the website to subscribe to the email list by offering a promotional discount, such as 10% off their first order. In this case, use your welcome message to fulfill that promise by providing a discount code for subscribers and even putting together a selection of products they can spend it on. Alternatively, use an element of surprise and offer new subscribers on your email list an unexpected discount to spark delight.
3. Avoid Using a No-Reply Email Address
With email, you can build a strong relationship with readers in their inbox. The type of email address you use can impact that relationship. As a best practice for email marketing, avoid using a no-reply email address. Instead, choose a functional email address that subscribers can actually reply to. Here’s the difference between the two:
- Email Address
- Valid email address. This type of email address is set up to receive incoming emails. They are often formatted as aliases, such as leslie@company.com or hello@company.com. This is a good option for regular subscriber emails.
email addresses that cannot be replied to. This type of email address is not set up to receive incoming emails. They are often formatted as noreply@company.com. This is a good option for transactional emails (like purchase confirmations, shipping updates, or password resets, etc.), but avoid using them for regular subscriber emails.
Monitor the company inbox to respond to incoming emails and reply in a timely manner. As your business grows, set up your inbox to filter out automatic office replies and forward subscriber responses to customer service specialists. Email that feels personal encourages engagement and feedback from your newsletter subscribers, which can help guide your business and positively impact your email deliverability rates.
4. Personalize Emails
Establish a connection with subscribers and provide them with maximum value by personalizing the emails you send. One of the simplest ways to add a personal touch to your emails is to address subscribers by name in email marketing platforms that insert personalized information into your messages. However, this is just one of many ways you can add personalization to your messages.
Choose an email marketing platform that features strong automation capabilities that allow you to create an email experience that feels tailored to each subscriber:
- Website browsing emails. Using an email marketing platform that integrates with your website, if a website visitor becomes a subscriber and also opts into site cookies, you can send emails based on their browsing history on your site. For example, in the case of an online store, the automated email can send them some items they clicked on but did not buy.
- Abandoned cart emails. Sometimes customers reach the checkout point but do not make a purchase. Abandoned cart emails can send a reminder to their inbox, prompting them to buy.
- Birthday offer emails. Collect birth dates on your email subscription forms to send offer codes on the subscriber’s birthday as a festive gift.
- Product purchase emails. When someone purchases a specific subscription, send them emails that help them make the most out of their latest purchase.
Personalization helps you send “timely” messages that deliver a customized experience for subscribers.
5. Write Informally and Conversationally
As a company, you want to engage with customers in a manner that feels polished and professional. However, in reality, this can lead to a formal tone that makes your emails feel cold and impersonal. Instead, opt for a tone in your emails that is informal and conversational.
Avoid complex language. People often subscribe to email lists because they want information from experts. However, expertise can be conveyed without using overly complex language that makes the writing more difficult to understand and distances readers. Instead, keep your language simple and clear.
Use
Shortcuts. One way to make writing appear more natural is to use contractions like “who’s” and “there’s” instead of “who is” and “there is.” We generally use contractions while speaking, and a good rule of thumb for conversational email tone is to write the way you speak.
Avoid jargon and abbreviations. Your industry likely has technical terms and abbreviations that insiders know. However, that may not be the case for everyone reading your emails. Write out abbreviations fully and use common terms so there’s no room for confusion.
Speak as a trusted advisor or friend. While drafting emails, adopt the tone you might use when giving advice to a friend. Be direct and honest, but also light-hearted.
These small changes can be the difference between emails that get archived immediately and those that subscribers read all the way to the end.
6. Keep Emails Concise
On average, a person sends and receives 121 business emails each day; the email you send to a subscriber is just one in a never-ending pile of digital mail. Increase the chance of your email being read by keeping your emails short and to the point.
Sundays sent brief and concise emails for their biggest offers of the year during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
According to Campaign Monitor, the ideal length of email text is between 50 to 125 words. This is just a guideline, and you should experiment with the length that works for your audience. However, avoid emails that are too long and cause readers to click away halfway. Instead, get straight to the point and make the information you are trying to convey clear to the reader – whether it’s an upcoming promotional sale or the launch of a new product line.
7. Make Emails Easy to Scan
Generally, people do not read every word in an email, at least not at first. Instead, when reading online, people rely on an F-shaped reading pattern optimized for efficiency, where they initially focus on the top portion of the text before scrolling vertically. The reader’s eyes are centered on searching for important details to get a general idea of what the newsletter is saying.
Organize your emails to help readers absorb as much information as possible. Here are some tips to avoid large blocks of text and favor content that is easy to read:
- Keep paragraphs short. Use the “one idea per paragraph” rule and make your message clear, concise, and straightforward.
- Use bullet points and lists. Breaking information into bullet points and lists (like this) is more readable than sentences in a block of text.
- Use headings. In lengthy emails, use catchy and useful headings to break up your message.
- Add graphics. Include relevant graphics or images, such as product shots, to break up the text and grab the reader’s attention.
- Highlight important information. If your email contains a central message, such as encouraging readers to respond to a survey or announcing a collaboration, make that message bold.
- Use CTA buttons. Make the action you want the reader to take clear with a colorful CTA box and prominent CTA text.
- Leave some white space. Fast reading is harder without white space between lines of text. Use white space strategically to make your email flow.
These simple tips can make your emails easier to read and ultimately convey your message more effortlessly to subscribers.
8.
Make the Subject Line Perfect
Spending time crafting an engaging and informative email doesn’t matter if the subscriber doesn’t open it. Therefore, a subject line that catches the reader’s attention from a crowded inbox is of utmost importance. Avoid gimmicks like capital letters, excessive exclamation marks, and over-use of emojis, and instead try these tips:
- Think like a copywriter. Although the email subject line isn’t an ad in a magazine or a billboard, think about writing a line that captures the same attention or builds a sense of excitement around your email’s content.
- Keep it short. Most email clients have a character limit, after which your subject line gets cut off. Say more with fewer words by restricting the number of characters in your subject line.
- Tell readers what’s coming. Don’t be vague. Let subscribers know what to expect when they open your email.
- Add a touch of urgency. If you have a special pricing promotion or an impending sale on your website, let readers know right in the subject line.
- Make it timely. Upcoming dates like holidays or events can inspire action. If you offer accounting services, inform subscribers when tax day is approaching. If you sell unique jewelry, let readers know about Christmas delivery.
- Stay original. Overusing terms like “free” can make readers ignore the email and also affect deliverability.
Think of a subject line that will make the reader click on your email instead of another email in their inbox.
9. Look at the Preview Text
If the subject line is your headline, then the preview text is your subheadline. While the subscriber sees the subject line first, the preview text gives them another chance to inspire someone to open your email. Don’t use preview text that repeats the subject line with just a few different words. Instead, personalize your preview text and choose a line that encourages readers to click and read your message.
Rather than using the preview text to rephrase the subject line with slightly different words, consider these two lines as complementary. Here are some examples from real companies:
- Company: Allbirds
Subject Line: Endorphins Incoming …
Preview Text: Run-ready essentials to get your new year started. - Company: Bullet Journal
Subject Line: The Last Resolution
Preview Text: Find better tools for change - Company: CB2
Subject Line: FLASH SALE: 20% OFF
Preview Text: 2 days only. - Company: Fable
Subject Line: Show us your best #FableShelfie
Preview Text: The winner gets $500 to Fable. - Company: Warby Parker
Subject Line: Want a peek at our next collection?
Preview Text: Warby Parker Right this way
Take advantage of the preview text to tell subscribers what will come in your email and encourage them to click and read your message.
10. Own a Compelling CTA
Email is a great medium to encourage action; this is where calls to action (CTAs) come in. Add CTA buttons to your emails to help clarify what the reader should do. Your CTA text should be short (one to five words) and concise, while your CTA button should stand out from the rest of the email and be clearly understandable to the reader.
Use
The brand Fable for sustainably made dishes has a clear CTA in a promotional email message to drive subscribers towards a sale on its website.
Mejuri uses, and
Source: https://www.shopify.com/ca/blog/email-marketing-best-practices
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