The vast majority of email users, checking their emails several times a day, means email marketing is the most effective method of communication for marketing purposes. These users are getting more emails than ever before, encouraging purchases or actions of some kind. This is simply because email marketing has become one of the most popular methods for reaching consumers who make purchases online.
However, reaching these consumers consistently is just half the battle. Anything you send out has to grab their attention and hold it long enough to at least open your message, then further entice them to take action on whatever your specific action is. There is a lot of competition out there and we are having to come up with smarter ways to keep people interested.
Keep the following suggestions in mind when you are setting up your email autoresponder series or emailing your list.
Permission to Email?
First and foremost, do you have permission to email?
If you don’t have permission to email…
-you could get reported as spam, which hurts any email campaign
-people are not likely to engage with you or make any kind of purchases
-if they don’t recognize the sender’s name, they could also report it
-you simply won’t get decent open and click-through rates
It goes without saying that you need permission to email.
The main 2 things you need, are an opt-in form and an email marketing service (autoresponder).
A good opt-in form should tell subscribers what they are going to get from you and your email campaign needs to match. Make it clear to them that by entering their email address in, they are subscribing to your list and will receive campaigns from you.
A good autoresponder is an essential tool that will allow you to capture the leads from the opt-in form on your website. You can then create your campaign and set up a series of follow-up messages. These messages will be sent to the subscribers automatically at times specified by you.
Your emails have a much higher chance of being opened because they are expected.
Get it Delivered – Avoid the Spam Filters
There is not really a complete list of words that trigger spam, and sometimes what you think are spam trigger words, get your email right into the inbox. However, limiting the use of risky words like prize, free, buy, promo, bonus, $ signs etc, especially in your headline, reduce the chance of your emails landing in the spam folder.
If you find your email marketing efforts hitting spam folders too often, change up some of the words you think could be spam triggers. This list of Email SPAM Trigger Words from the Hubspot blog might help.
An overlooked but simple way is to simply ask new subscribers to add your “From” address to their address books. It is a foolproof way to make sure all future emails bypass the spam filters. This is so easy, yet practiced so rarely.
Make sure your ‘unsubscribe’ link is prominent. If readers don’t want your emails, you don’t really want them either. If they can’t find your unsubscribe button, they may very well mark as spam… this you do not want. 1% of people marking you as spam can start your other emails going to spam folders.
If you have more than one personal email address at different providers, test your emails with each. You will see whether it hits your spam folder and be able to adapt anything you think may be the problem. If you don’t have different emails, sign up to a couple… it is the best way to check for deliverability.
Never, ever, buy email lists.. as cheap as they sound, they are a ticking time bomb waiting to ruin your reputation as an email marketer, as they are likely filled with dead email addresses and spam traps.
Grab Your Readers Attention With Your Subject
When people subscribe to a list, many a time they are lured to sign up for a freebie of some sort.
Some were not really interested in receiving emails from companies and just treat them as a waste of cyberspace and could possibly delete or trash them without opening the email and scanning them.
The good news is, you can change all this. While adding an email message to your sequence is relatively easy, getting people to open them is not.
One of the many ways you can persuade subscribers is by providing a well thought out and well-written subject line. The subject could easily be regarded as one of the most important aspects of getting your messages seen.
“50% of your time writing your email marketing campaign should be spent on the subject line”
Your subject must be short and concise. It should provide a summary of the content of the email so that the recipient will have basic knowledge of the content. This is vital in grabbing the attention of your readers. You want your subject to instantly grab the attention of your subscriber and get them to be intrigued to open your emails.
A good subject line must always be piquing the curiosity of the recipient. It must literally force the recipient to open the email. A certain emotion must be ignited and get them to open the email. It is essential to use specific words to get the reaction you need.
Most people only spend a few seconds looking over each subject of the emails they receive. You need to grab your reader’s attention right away.
There are many types of subject lines you can use… you may write that your email contains content that teaches them tips and methods on certain topics.
An example of this is using keywords and keyword phrases such as How to, Tips, Guides to, Methods to,
and others like that.
You can also put your subject in a question form. These may include questions like, ‘Are you sick and tired of the 9 – 5 daily grind?’ Or ‘Is your boss forever on your case?’ Stay on the topic that pertains to your offer so that you’ll know that your subscribers have interest as that’s why they signed up.
This type of subject is very effective because they reach out to your recipient’s emotions. When they have read the question on your subject, their mind starts answering the question already.
You can also try a subject that commands your reader. Statements such as ‘Act now’ or ‘Get this once in a lifetime opportunity’, or ‘Double, triple and even quadruple what you are earning in one year’. This type of subject deals with the benefits your business provides.
Another type to try is a “breaking news” type as your subject to intrigue your subscriber, depending on your niche of course. This creates curiosity with the reader and will lead them to open the email and read on.
Make Your Emails Scannable
It’s no secret that people nowadays have less patience than any other generation in history.
They like to see only what they need to see, and they don’t want to hang around for long boring copy. The average email has at most less than a minute to make its point. That’s not a lot of time.
People have short attention spans and most will not read a ‘wall of text’ without getting the hell out of there fast.
Make your lines short, break it up to one-liners if you can, and also try lists.
Lists are perfect scannable content. I can relate well to this as I am a scanner, and if I see a great long wall of text, I just can’t be bothered and head straight for the delete button.
Gain Trust With Your Subscribers
Getting the trust of the people on your list shouldn’t be hard especially if you do have a legitimate business. Email marketing should be about getting your list to trust you and should be based upon your expertise. People rely on other people who know what they are talking about, so gain plenty of knowledge and information about your business.
Show your subscribers that you know what you are talking about. Provide them with helpful hints and guidelines that pertain to what you are selling. Talk about how to use a specific software, if you’re promoting software. Talk about the ins and outs of the product, service or company you are with.
You don’t have to be a big corporation to make use of an opt-in list. If your customers see you as someone who knows what you are doing and saying, they will trust you quickly.
Be true to your customers – if you want to hype up your products and services, provide guarantees. The more satisfied customers you get, the bigger probability there is that they will recommend you. Generally, people will trust someone they know, when that someone recommends you then you’re gold. They will go to your site and check it for themselves and be given a chance to experience what the others have experienced from you, so make sure to be consistent in the service you provide.
Out With The Passive, Boring Voice
A boring email is just that, a boring email. You won’t get anyone to stay focused on reading your stuff, with a passive and boring voice.
I can’t count how many emails like this, that I’ve received. Within your email marketing, if you plan on telling someone to do something at the end of your emails, you need to keep your voice active, pumping energy into your writing. One type of example…
“Some ways to get people to read your email marketing include not using a passive, boring voice” Bleh – that was a passive boring voice.
“Do not use a passive, boring voice in your email marketing”
That.. was slightly better.
or…
“You will want to spend time trying to write your emails using an active voice.”
meh!
“Try to write your emails using an active voice.”
better!
Using an active voice over a passive voice also means sentences are often (but not always) shorter, and this means less word count in your emails which is what we’re after. On top of that, it is that much easier to understand.
You can get totally boring in your email marketing efforts without even realizing it… get straight to the point in your writing. You want your subscribers to be active, so use active, powerful verbs whenever you can. Check out this list of ‘Power Verbs’, and make use of them in your headlines and writing efforts.
The Call To Action (CTA)
Every single email you write to your prospects should have a solid call to action. Even if it to simply read more at your site, or you’re sending them to a helpful post or a free resource. Of course, you want the CTA’s that get them to buy what it is you are promoting, but just not in every email.
Make your CTA short and instructional, tell them what to do. Add a sense of urgency by adding the word ‘now’ or ‘today’ or similar depending on what exactly you want them to do.
Where you place your call to action matters. In email marketing, it helps to have it somewhere at the top of your email, above the fold (the point before readers must scroll down) or simply at the end. Or both. It should stand out among your scannable content and be on a line of its own, but don’t have too many links… one or two is plenty.
Also.. test everything. Most good email service providers offer A/B split testing. It’s a feature you should use regularly in your email marketing. After subject lines, the next best thing to test is your emails’ calls to action.
Make Sure People Can Reply To You
Do you use the domain email which is free with your hosting account?
If you’ve set up an email account at your hosting, (yourname@yourdomain.com) you can then use this ‘from address’ in your autoresponder. While you’re able to check any email responses in your webmail account, via cpanel in your hosting account, it’s inconvenient to do so. Also replying doesn’t always work.
To send and receive email easily from your domain email, you need to make sure to integrate it with your regular email client (e.g gmail account) through email forwarding.
Email forwarding allows incoming mail to your domain email, to be redirected to another email (name@gmail.com). You’ll need to configure it so that you can both receive AND reply back through your domain email address.
If you don’t know how to do this check out this brief guide on email client setup, or a there’s a detailed explanation to email forwarding from this guest post over at problogger.
Test everything when you’re done. Sign up to your own list, receive an email from you, (your autoresponder), reply to it, see if you get it, then reply back to it, etc.
Include Social Media Share Buttons
You’ve taken the time to compose a great set of tips in an email or a nice gold nugget piece of information for your subscribers. Why not hope that your subs like it so much that they want to share it.
Or…
some will simply share things to their social media profiles in fear of losing it in their never-ending stream of emails, so they can refer to it later.
Use sharing as one of your ‘Call to Actions’ to share a blog post similar to one that you’re emailing about.
Having Social Media share buttons in your autoresponder emails is easy and have the ability to drive more traffic back to your site.
In the words of AWeber, here’s how to do it…
1.Drag and drop
2.Pick the buttons you want
3.If you like, customize the link
and it really is that simple using AWeber
Use your Social Media share buttons sparingly (where it suits having one) or use them as part of your signature. It really depends on the type of email you are sending. Just note that they will count as a link, and going back to the spam side of things, apparently, more links in your emails could heighten the spam score. Having AWeber makes it a breeze to pick and choose which emails to include them in.
Some Things to Avoid
Sending out emails without proofreading, then testing and editing.
Looking like you don’t care is something a lot of people pick up. Always send yourself a test of your emails, every email. This is where your proofreading will pick up any misspells and any wrong looking layout.
Focusing only on the sale.
I hate this. I get so many emails where people simply promote their thing. And usually, every other tom, dick and harry are promoting the same thing. Promote by all means, but give as well… entertain with bits of info that are interesting, or send them a free resource, like I said, give value too.
Not being consistent.
Consistency doesn’t mean you have to send emails every day, but if you promise a weekly email, deliver! Daily, twice weekly etc.. same goes. Having some consistency in your email marketing builds more trust with your subscribers, and less chance of them forgetting you.
Ignoring mobile.
More than 50% of email users check emails on their smartphone daily, sometimes several times per day. If your email is not optimized for mobile devices, regardless of how relevant your message is, people will have trouble being able to read it.
Over-hyped subject lines.
Subject lines can make or break your open rate, but it’s important not to over-exaggerate your subject lines and to make sure it aligns with the actual content inside. No-one likes to feel deceived and if they do, will more than likely head for the delete or unsubscribe link.
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Email marketing is the best opportunity to keep your business in the mind of consumers as well as encourage them to make new purchases.
Remember – If your subscribers can get benefits from your emails, they will be very eager to receive them. Just don’t flood your list with too many emails so as not to annoy your subscribers.
Do you want to use email to market your business to consumers? Try AWeber Today!
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