Print Marketing Solutions Blog | Heeter

12 Tips for Great Email Marketing | Heeter

Written by Heeter | July 24, 2013

It is not easy for an email mes­sage to make it through all of those email fil­ters and dis­tracted recip­i­ents and be read by a decent per­cent­age of your tar­get audience.

Here are 12 proven tips that will get more of your emails deliv­ered, seen and acted upon.

1.   Every email should have a clear call-to-action.

It is best to use 1 strong call-to-action.

It is at times OK to use 2 calls-to-action. But don’t have more than 2 calls-to-action; your user will lose focus and not select any.

2.   Never design your whole cam­paign as one large image.

If the image is blocked, the user will see noth­ing (see exam­ple to the right). Scold your designer if they do this.

3.   Speci­ficity is good. Peo­ple respond well to numbers.

You are prob­a­bly read­ing this piece because you were intrigued by the title with the num­ber 12 in it.

4.  Mobile. 15–40% of emails are now being read on mobile.

Be sure to design for mobile. You might need to start pro­duc­ing two ver­sions of email: one for PC and one for mobile. We’ll cover this in a future blog article.

5.  Keep copy short and tight.

Since users tend to scan rather than read dig­i­tal mate­ri­als like emails, they will not con­sume a whole lot of text. Make it sim­ple for them to scan through your con­tent by using short, con­ver­sa­tional words and sans serif fonts.

6.  Use graph­i­cal intent to lead your reader. In other words, start the piece off with a large head­line, then lead her with copy and images though your mes­sage in the body. And then close her with a call-to-action in the form of a col­ored but­ton with an edge.

7. Use images, but don’t be blocked. Pic­tures are a great way to con­vey mes­sages and sto­ries.  Just know that a major­ity of emails will block these images as a default.

Your most impor­tant points in the cam­paign need to be in text (not pic­tures) to ensure the mes­sage is seen (and not blocked)

8.  Always use ALT tags with your images so when they are blocked your users can under­stand your mes­sage (see exam­ple of ALT tags below).

An ALT tag is alter­na­tive text which ren­ders when the accom­pa­ny­ing image is blocked.

9.  Tar­get, tar­get, tar­get. You’ll get much bet­ter results if you send mes­sages to the peo­ple who ben­e­fit from or have inter­est in your message.

10. The most impor­tant part of the sub­ject line is the first 12 char­ac­ters. Make sure your key point is made there.

11. DRIP cam­paigns (pre-scheduled series of cam­paigns that are kicked off based on an activ­ity – like sign­ing up for a trial) are highly effec­tive. Try them. Read more about DRIPs.

12. Aim to send your emails from a per­son.

Peo­ple trust and/or are intrigued by other peo­ple. Be sure send your emails from John.Doe@email.com ver­sus Marketing@email.com. Read­ers will open an email from a per­son at dou­ble the rate than they will an email from a depart­ment or company.

Employ this set of tips on your next cam­paigns. You will find your results will build when you uti­lize  these practices.