Marketing emails may be an “old school” method of digital advertising, but they can still be quite effective. Additionally, an email campaign is often a competitive, cost-effective choice for smaller businesses that have a message to share.
Still, getting someone’s attention through email is challenging, especially considering the volume of both personal and business emails most people receive. Creating a successful marketing email campaign requires careful planning and thoughtful personalization along with compelling, attention-grabbing copy.
Even though creativity can help carry the day, it’s still important to turn to tested methods to craft a truly effective email marketing campaign. Here, five members of Business Journals Leadership Trust discuss smart strategies for creating and sending marketing emails that can cut through the noise and gain your audience’s attention.
1. Stay in touch with monthly emails.
Monthly emails are a great way to keep in touch with your customers. I always appreciate it when a company takes the time to send a short newsletter, especially if they’ve got something new to share! The email should be short, informative and to the point — a good extra touch is to include images of products you’ve been working on. – Shaya Attaei, Aria Signs
2. ‘Tease’ an announcement with a few details and let readers ask for more.
Our firm launched a new service, and we communicated it through email marketing. Rather than overwhelm our clients with too much information at once, we streamlined the email so all they had to do was review our brief description and reply with “I’m interested.” We personally contacted those who inquired about learning more to explain our new service in greater detail. We saw great results! – Teresa J.W. Bailey, Waddell & Associates
3. Send reminder emails about products the reader has shown interest in.
Emails that remind you of a particular product or service you’ve previously searched for are eye-catching to the consumer. It’s even better if it has special pricing or offers to help loop the consumer back into the engagement step and complete the sales cycle. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising
4. Send short, info-packed daily mails.
I was doing research on the most effective email newsletter formats and noticed that ones that were short, packed with usable information and sent daily worked best. So I changed our own newsletter from a weekly to a daily one and increased our open rate by over 10%, which was shocking. It has never dropped since then and continues to build. So don’t be afraid to try a daily email! – Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency
5. Have a clear CTA and encourage engagement.
Our best-performing emails are ones that have clear calls to action and encourage engagement. Whether we’re collecting clients’ feedback through satisfaction surveys or getting readers to vote for their favorite nonprofit as part of our holiday give-back program, the very best emails have well-curated lists, engaging copy and a simple, clear path to the action you want the reader to take. – Melea McRae, Crux KC
