Sponsored by Power Digital Marketing:
When it comes to marketing your business online, it can be bewildering figuring out what to do. In fact, you probably have a lot more questions than answers.
- Should you focus on using Google PPC ads or Facebook ads to drive instant paid traffic to your website?
- Should you create a YouTube channel?
- Should you get more active on popular social media platforms?
- Should you get serious about your blogging?
- Should you do podcasting or webinars?
Whatever mix of marketing strategies you finally decide on, you must include email marketing. It may be a cliché to say that “the money is in the list,” but that advice still holds true. Once you find the most suitable email marketing services and decide on an effective email marketing strategy, your business will be on an upward bound trajectory.
How to Create the Perfect Email
If content is king, then email marketing, too, is part of the royal family. Here are five tips to optimize your email conversion rates:
1. Subject Line
Use a compelling subject line to get subscribers to open your emails. Today, almost every inbox has far more emails than anyone can open and read in an hour. People receive hundreds of emails each day, and those who don’t clean out their inboxes will have over a thousand by the end of every week. You have a lot of competition so you must optimize your subject line.
Here are three ways to do it:
- Make it relevant to your audience.
- Suggest that your email will solve a problem.
- Add a call to action, like “join us,” “download free gift,” etc.
While you may not be able to get all three elements in every subject line, strive to get at least one.
2. Make it Attractive
While you can do quite well with just a plain text email, you can add some class to your emails with an attractive layout.
Here are three ways to do it:
- Choose a good template to create a sense of aesthetics.
- Add one or two graphics. These should reinforce the message you are trying to communicate through your text.
- Avoid overdoing your design with too many columns, graphics, colorful fonts, etc.
3. Use Copywriting in Your Body Copy
You only have a few lines to capture your reader’s attention and persuade them to click on your link. Your best hope to increase your click through rate is to use copywriting techniques. You only have about three seconds to engage someone to read your entire email.
Here are three ways to do it:
- Make it compelling through language and tone.
- Make your offer sound irresistible. The ultimate purpose of your email is to get the reader to click on a link. Perhaps you want them to read your blog post, watch your video, subscribe to an affiliate offer, or buy something.
- Make the text easy to read. Use techniques like short sentences, simple language, short paragraphs, subheads, and bullet points. Avoid using a wall of text and writing at a college level.
4. Include a Call-to-Action
When it comes to email marketing, subtlety does not work. You can’t assume that people will naturally understand that they should click the link. You have to ASK them to do it.
Here are five ways to do it:
- 1. Keep the call-to-action sentence as short as possible.
- 2. Keep it above the fold.
- 3. You can repeat it in the middle and toward the end, too, if it is a long email.
- 4. If you want readers to take action, use words like “download,” “subscribe,” or “register.”
- 4. If it’s a time-sensitive offer, use words like “now,” “before it’s too late,” or “today.”
- 5. If you want to sound warm and welcoming use words like “join us.”
5. Comply with CAN-SPAM Laws
There are some CAN-SPAM laws you must adhere to in your email. It’s important to familiarize yourself with them and include them in all your emails. Elegant Themes warns about the dangers of neglecting these laws saying, “To make sure you don’t risk breaking the law and upsetting your customers with your email marketing, it’s vital that you’re clued into the legal stipulations. It’s $16,000 per violation per individual email sent, so you really don’t want to be getting on the wrong side of the law here!”
