Tag Archives: email marketing messages

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5 Tips to Create Relevant and Engaging Email Marketing Messages in this Week’s Email Marketing Topic

email click through rate source:http://www.egluu.com/blog/Once your email subscribers open your promotional emails, your email messages need to quickly tell them why they should click through to your website and fulfill your request.

Easier said then done!

First, congratulations on getting your email opened. Now, let’s focus on how you can craft engaging content for your email marketing messages.

According to an Email Benchmark Survey conducted by Marketing Sherpa, 68% of firms say delivering relevant content for their email messages is a top priority. However, only 28% of organizations report sending relevant email communications.

If you prepare email marketing messages with the tips discussed today, you will be able to create relevant and engaging email messages that will increase your click through rates and conversion rates.

Tips to Create Relevant and Engaging Email Marketing Messages

magnetic content to help email click through rates source:http://blog.mailigen.com/increase-email-delivery-of-relevant-content/

  1. Be Human
  2. Personalization
  3. Educational
  4. Entertaining
  5. Timely

1. Being Human

  • Write the content as if you are writing an email to a friend.
  • Make the content light and get rid of that corporate tone.
  • Make it conversational.
  • When applicable, empathize with your email subscribers.

2. Personalize your Email Message

  • Use your email subscriber’s name in the subject line or message.
  • Use dynamic content to insert blocks of content that is tailored to your email subscribers personas.
  • In The Definitive Guide to Engaging Email Marketing from Marketo, the guide provides an example where a company received a 175% lift in conversion rates when the company used dynamic content.

3. Educational

  • Teach your email subscribers about your brand’s benefits.
  • Include a testimonial from your customers.
  • Provide statistics about customers who used your brand.
  • For repeat purchases, provide tips in using your brand.
  • No Hard Sells – Hard selling will alienate your email subscribers.

4. Entertaining

  • Your email messages should leave your email subscribers with a smile or feeling good.
  • Even if your email subscriber does not respond to your email marketing message, leave them with something valuable.

5. Timely

  • Tie real-world events or industry news to what is going on in your email message. For B2B email messages, I’ve had success in tying industry news to the content of my email messages.
  • Any upcoming calendar events to mention in your email? For example, since many families travel during the summer, a luggage store may want to send an email marketing promotion with travel tips plus a discount on a purchase.
  • A Word of Caution – Be sensitive if real-world events negatively impact your email subscribers or if your email subscribers don’t participate in certain holidays.

Example of an Engaging Email Message

Recently, I received a promotional email from a colleague about purchasing her household organizational services. The email message discussed preparing tax documents for Tax Day, April 15th, and organizing tax and any other paperwork lying around the house.

The email mentioned the dreaded event and reminds you of something that you have to do. Her suggestion of taking the time to review and organize all your paperwork makes sense, so she plants the idea of organizing in your head. Then, she mentions the offer to hire her services in helping you organize the papers around your house.

How does the example compare to the 5 tips to create engaging email marketing messages?

relevant and engaging email marketing messages checklist Source: http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2013_07_01_archive.html#.UxhA6D-YZdg

  1. The email was human by empathizing with her email subscribers about April 15th.
  2. The email was personalized when it included my first name.
  3. The email educated me by mentioning the suggestion to organize my tax documents and my other paperwork.
  4. The email entertained me by making me happy with the thought of having a nicer home if I organized all my papers.
  5. Lastly, the email was timely by mentioning the preparation for April 15th.

Conclusion

After you write your next email marketing message, do a check like I just did. Identify the points in your email message that comply with all 5 tips to help you create engaging email marketing messages.

Now, you have what it takes to deliver compelling email messages. Just apply these tips when writing your email content.

When you create engaging content, not only will your content be relevant and timely, you will increase your click through rates and conversion rates.

Keep this blog post to to guide you through the writing process for your next email marketing promotion.

For tips on creating engaging subject lines, check out my email subject lines blog post.

Source

Email Marketing Promotion News and Resources

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How To Improve your Email Marketing Deliverability from the Digital Marketer’s Weekly Email Marketing Topic

Get your email marketing messages delivered to your email subscribers inbox Source:http://www.inwise.com/features/send/high-deliverability.aspxSince only 82% of emails from our email marketing efforts reach the inboxes of our email subscribers, Digital Marketing Manager and Email Marketing Managers need to explore how to improve delivery of email marketing messages to email subscribers’ inboxes to obtain revenue goals. (Source: Return Path’s Email Intelligence Report Q3 2012)

Return Path’s report also indicates that 70% of the emails in SPAM folders are actually legitimate emails.

Given these statistics, let’s talk about how you can deploy email marketing deliverability best practices to boost your email marketing performance and prevent your email messages getting blocked or sent to SPAM folders.

Before diving into the details about best practices for email marketing deliverability below, I want to give you some background information to help you formulate a better email marketing deliverability strategy for your brand.

Definition of Email Marketing Deliverability

The percentage of your email messages delivered to your email subscribers’ inbox.

Email Marketing Deliverability Fundamentals

email marketing deliverability fundamentals source - http://blog.campaigner.com/2013/10/the-3-keys-to-great-email.html

  • Algorithmic Filters – If an incoming email contains similarities to an email already marked as junk, the incoming email will be marked as junk. These similarities include email sender, links, or content. Also, if an incoming email contains an URL that is blacklisted by an ISP’s (Internet Service Provider), the email will be marked as junk.
  • Spamtraps – An email address was set up but never receives email.  These email addresses are created by Spamtrappers and set up to catch spammers. Deploying secure opt-in technique prevents you from collecting spamtrap emails.
  • Blacklists – Reports IP and URL addresses that send unsolicited commercial email. ISPs use these reports to block emails sent from these IP and URL addresses.
  • Bounce Handling – Understand ISPs and your ESPs bounce codes to help you manage your email marketing efforts effectively.  Bounce codes are values assigned to email addresses that are not delivered, and different types of bounces are handled differently. Work with your ESP to better understand your bounces.
  • Authentication Protocols – Use protocols to help email receivers separate legitimate and non-legitimate messages. According to Marketo’s The Definitive Guide to Engaging Email Marketing, the most common email authentication protocols are DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), SPF (Sender Protection Framework), and SenderID.
  • Email Receiver and ISP Relations – Choose an ESP to help you manage your relationship with ISPs on your behalf and let them handle email messages that get marked as non-legitimate.

Now, let’s talk about best practices you can deploy to prevent getting labeled as a spammer.

10 Best Practices for Email Marketing Deliverability

Tips to precent SPAM complaints Source - https://econsultancy.com/blog/62852-five-tips-for-reducing-email-spam-complaints

  1. Include Unsubscribe Links in Email Messages – To comply with Anti-Spam regulation, you need to include an Unsubscribe link in all email marketing messages.
  2. Fulfill Your Promises – When you collect email addresses, you make a promise to provide them with timely, targeted, and relevant content that will meet their needs or solve their problems.
  3. Consistent From Email Addresses – By using the same from email address when you send email marketing messages, your email subscribers will recognize your emails and mark them as SPAM.
  4. Consistent Subject Line Wording and Tone – When the wording and tone of your email subject lines are consistent, your email subscribers will recognize your email messages and not mistake it for SPAM.
  5. Honor Your Email Subscribers Requests – Let your email subscribers manage their email subscriptions. If they only want to receive product informational emails, don’t send them promotional emails.
  6. Use Ethical Methods to Build Your Email Subscriber Lists – Verify all new email addresses through a double opt-in email address collection methodology, or you can send Welcome Emails to evaluate the validity of your email addresses.
  7. Regularly Remove Inactive Email Addresses – Review my 4 Ways to Reactivate Inactive Email Subscribers to Increase Deliverability blog post to learn about removing inactive email addresses.
  8. Choose a Reputable Email Service Provider (ESP) – Pick an ESP that have tools to handle email bounce codes, feedback loops, connection optimization, manage complaints, authenticate the quality of your IP addresses, and help you manage your relationship with ISPs.
  9. Manage Your Complaint Rate – If your ESP warns you about a lot of complaints take them seriously. According to Marketo’s Blog 7 Best Practices for Email Deliverability, set up an email address — abuse@your-domain.com — that your ESP can use to contact you with any complaints. Register that email address with www.abuse.net, an anti-spam advocacy group, to show that you take email abuse seriously.
  10. Be Proactive about Monitoring your Reputation – Work with your ESP to create relationships with ISPs to maintain a positive reputation and change whatever it takes to improve your reputation to get your email messages delivered to your email subscribers inboxes.  Both Return Path and SenderBase offer reputation monitoring services.

Call to Action to Improve your Email Marketing Deliverability

  • Develop your Email Marketing Deliverability Best Practices to increase your delivery rates and boost your email marketing results
  • Work with your ESP to deploy your Email Marketing Deliverability Best Practices
  • Visit Next Weeks Email Marketing Discussion: Always being Relevant with Your Email Subscribers
  • Visit the next Digital Marketer’s blog about Social Media including the latest news and updates from social media networks

Sources

Additional Email Marketing News and Resources