4 August 2023 | Email marketing
Email is your own channel. The people in your contact list have agreed to let you communicate with them. They actually want to listen to what you have to say. In addition, the contacts are “free” – they are easy to attract and you can give them priority, discounts and exclusive offers to make them stay even longer. It's your – and only your – very own list.
The people in your contact list are yours as long as you manage it well. You must therefore do everything in your power to ensure that the recipients don't delete your mailings or click on Unsubscribe. For that, you need to be relevant in your communication and create emails that cuts through the media noise.
Use the checklist below the next time you put together an e-mail, newsletter or informative e-mail. The checklist consists of 10 points and concerns both the receiver and mobile adaptation. Let's go!
Is it a new customer or a regular? Is it someone who often opens your emails or someone who never opens them?
You need to be clear about who your recipient is. Knowing that, you can optimize the texts, tonality and graphic elements according to the target audience. You can simply create more relevant content for the person who will actually open the email.
By adapting the content to the target group and being relevant, you will be perceived as more credible. You also get a higher open rate and click rate = increased sales.
Should it sell, inform or build stronger customer relationships?
By having a clear purpose from the beginning, it becomes easier to, for example, formulate sentences, choose a CTA and come up with the design for the buttons in the email.
Of course, you must keep your brand identity in mind, where the choice of words and images in the email must agree with policies regarding tonality and graphic profile.
Is the subject line of the mailing relevant to the target group? Does it arouse interest and curiosity? Will the recipient even be able to refrain from opening the mailing?
The subject line should be both personal, relevant and based on the recipient's interests. In addition, it's good to supplement the headline with a preview text that further increases curiosity.
Tip! Use an emoji to your advantage in your subject line.
When you feel satisfied with the subject line and preview text, you can test them on a colleague or friend to get input.
Let's say you love Swedish pop. That music by artists such as Thomas Stenström and Miriam Bryant is a hit at your home. That you could also consider listening to Daniel Adams-Ray a little more. Let's also say that the music service you use knows your music taste. Surely it would be strange if they would still suggest concerts with Metallica, Rammstein and System of a Down – even though they have the data that says you never listen to them? Surely you would eventually stop opening the emails from the music service?
If the content of your newsletter or email isn't relevant and you repeatedly send emails that lack interesting content, the recipient will not want to open your next email. And not the next one after that. And neither did the 10 subsequent mailings.
Both the content and the tonality must be adapted to the recipient. Think relevance, relevance and again relevance.
Eating with your eyes is a well-known expression. Maybe the recipient won't eat your email, but creating an email that's appealing is important and a big competitive advantage.
Not sure what level to go for when it comes to graphics? Go back to what the purpose of the mailing is. Should it sell, strengthen the relationship with the customer or inform? An informational mailing doesn't need to be significantly designed, while a sales email may need a little more "spice".
One tip is to use videos as they attract the eye. You – who sell experiences such as concerts, theater performances, travel and football matches – can advantageously use videos and GIFs in your mailings. This is because you don't sell a physical product, but an expectation and image of something that is bought at one time but consumed later. A short video that explains your offer in a little more detail and evokes emotions is therefore a smart move!
Gone are the days of fluffy emails. As the number of emails in circulation today is large, you need to stay short and concise and write clear CTAs (Call To Actions) that convert. You adapt the CTAs of the email based on the actual needs of the recipients, find the key to what motivates them and create action by being accurate.
In short: keep it simple, get to the point, and tell the recipient early what you want him or her to do.
Review all links in your mailing so that they work as intended. Do they go where you want? Have you UTM-tagged the links so you can track them in your analytics tool (not a must, of course!)?
That the links are correct is a hygiene factor. You don't want the recipients to end up on the wrong page if they are so interested that they actually click on the button/link in the email, right?
As a large percentage of all recipients open their emails on their mobiles today, it's essential that you adapt the content of your emails to mobile devices.
One tip is to review how the percentage distribution looks historically. How many have opened the mailings on mobile and computer respectively? Did it look different for different receivers?
Your email can be as good as it gets (maybe even go down in history!). But, if you don't send it at the right time, it can go awry. Maybe the recipients won't even open it?
Be sure to keep track of when your mailings are most likely to be opened, by reviewing statistics from previous mailings. You can also think about the day and time in relation to the purpose of the email. If it contains information about a concert, you want to send it at one time, but if it's a temporary campaign instead, you (probably) want to send it at another time.
Have you read through everything one last time? Corrected any typos? Double-checked buttons, subject lines and preview texts and that the images are where they should be? Selected the right recipient list?
Good! Shake off the nervousness and click Send.
"The email channel has become much more efficient! We spend less time on that point, with less effort. We also send more emails and newsletters, while the opening rate is higher and more people click on the links in the mailings."
Mattias Ezra
Digital Marketer, Uppsala Konsert & Kongress
For many people, email marketing feels quite old. But, in a society where the number of digital channels only gets more and more and the recipients more and more busy, it's incredibly important to use the channel in the right way to keep your customers and subscribers. And, with an email tool directly connected to your customer data, it's simple. Really simple.
