It’s actually pretty easy to make your own Mailchimp social media icons for your email campaigns.
Here is exactly what I do:
You first need to make your colored icons. I use Flaticon.com. You’ll sign up for a free account and then search “Instagram,” for example, and pick the icon you want to use.
From there you can click EDIT ICON and you will choose the exact color you would like your icon to be. Enter your brand’s HEX colors at this step.
Download a PNG file of your colored icon. I usually do 32px size.
Then you will go into Mailchimp and head to your Content Studio > My Files. Upload the images of your new custom-color social icons.
You will then click on the actual file in Mailchimp and then click “View Details” and then click COPY URL. This is the URL you will need for your coding.
Now the easy part!
Now head to your email campaign and you will drag in a “Code Block” wherever you want your icons.
PASTE IN THIS CODE and we will soon put in that link you just copied.
You can edit the code above and put in YOUR social media handles for each button (you see here – emilyryantweets and emilyryanlikes) – REPLACE with your handles.
And then PASTE in that URL you copied of your first social icons where you see the link “mcusercontent” – Make sure you paste between the quotes.
You’ll need to go back to your Content > My Files in Mailchimp and upload your other icons and grab those other links and repeat this for each.
That’s it! You should have pretty, custom-colored icons now!
Any questions? Let me know! You can email me at hello (at) westfield-creative (dot) com.
From between 6 to 10 words to 7 words being the ‘sweet spot’, here are 12 answers to the question, “What is the ideal length of an email subject line?”
Between 6 to 10 Words
No More Than 9 Words
As Long as It’s Not Cut Off
There is No Ideal Length
Use Emoji to Reduce Characters in Subject Line
It Needs to All Be Visible On Mobile Phones
25-30 Characters
Short and Sweet
Conduct Split Testing to Determine Your Answer
Ask a Question and keep it Under 50 Characters
Between 40-60 Characters
7 Words is The Sweet Spot
Between 6 to 10 Words
The ideal length of an email subject line is between 6 to 10 words, or about 50 characters. This length ensures that the subject line is short enough to be displayed fully on most devices, while still providing enough information for the recipient to understand the purpose of the email.
Longer subject lines may be truncated, causing important information to be omitted, while shorter subject lines may lack sufficient detail to entice the recipient to open the email. The best subject lines are clear, concise, and to the point, and they should accurately reflect the content of the email.
The main goal with an email subject line is to make sure everything you want said is captured on the page, regardless of which view, browser, or device your targeted reader is using. If we’re looking at mobile email browsers in particular, 60 characters is the absolute maximum that will typically be visible before the rest of the content fades and users will need to make an extra click to read the rest. Going longer than that is a waste of effort, as it will not be read–the email will work or not based on the first visible segment.
The most important thing is that the subject line doesn’t get cut off in the reader’s view of the unread email that shows up in their inbox. Luckily, you can send yourself a test email to see whether or not this happens. If your subject line is too long and the reader can only see some of it before they open the email, they may not even bother opening it.
Do things that others aren’t doing, whether that’s creating really short subject lines or really long ones–there’s value in a subject line that looks different from the many others in a person’s inbox. Don’t focus too much on the character count, but rather do whatever you feel will allow you to connect with your recipients.
There are no concrete rules in terms of subject line lengths that are the most ideal. If your subject lines are longer, include the most relevant parts at the beginning. Test varying lengths with your audience to get a better feel for what best resonates with them. In the meantime, focus more on offering value rather than the length of your email subject lines.
The ideal length of an email subject line is typically 40-50 characters, and should accurately convey the content of the message. An uncommon example would be utilizing an emoticon to provide a simple yet effective representation of the contents. Using such emoji or symbol allows for a considerable reduction in character counts while still impacting readers on an emotional level.
The ideal length of an email subject line is generally considered to be between 41-50 characters. This allows the subject line to be concise and to the point while still providing enough information to entice the recipient to open the email.
However, it’s important to note that the ideal length can vary depending on the audience and the content of the email. For example, a subject line for a promotional email might benefit from being shorter and more attention-grabbing, while a subject line for a newsletter might be more effective if it’s longer and more descriptive.
Ultimately, the most important factor is to ensure that the subject line accurately reflects the content of the email and encourages the recipient to take action. Lastly, there are some excellent tools out there allowing you to check how effective your subject line will be; my favorite is most definitely: SubjectLine.com, which scores your effectiveness out of 100 and works really well.
25-30 characters is ideal, because it caters to the growing number of people who open emails on mobile devices. Thus, if a sizable portion of your target audience is using mobile devices, then it is in all parties’ best interest if you use shorter subject lines. Otherwise, you run the risk of users seeing an abbreviated version of your subject line, which could automatically decrease their interest.
The sole purpose of an email subject line is to be straightforward and outline exactly what the email will entail. This doesn’t mean a description of exactly what the content includes, but more of a clue, question, or hint as to what the reader should expect. The language used should be attention-grabbing and be no more than 9 words long.
The answer to the question about email subject line length can vary wildly. Some studies have mentioned a 7-word subject line, while others cite a 1-5 word subject line.
It’s important to remember that each person and audience segment is different, so split testing is vital to determine your brand’s specific answer. For example, I tend to open emails with shorter subject lines. It might be because the email looks more personal, which is a big thing in our highly digitized world. It’s important to keep in mind who your audience is, what they want, and how they interact with your brand.
To determine the ideal length for your audience, try split testing different subject line lengths and tracking the engagement. This will give you valuable insights into what works best for your audience, allowing you to optimize your email campaigns for maximum impact.
A good rule of thumb is to keep subject lines under 50 characters and make sure you are including relevant information that catches readers’ attention or asking a question!
A business offering an online course could use a simple subject like “Grow Your Career with Our Online Course,” which is shorter than 50 characters but still conveys what the recipient can expect from opening the email.
On the other hand, longer subject lines can also work if done correctly. For instance, saying “Grow Your Career Now – Learn Industry-Leading Digital Marketing Skills in Our Online Course” gives a better idea of what they will find when they open the email.
My last sneaky tactic to make sure I get the email opened on cold outreach is to include a personal question in the title, such as “Hey Sarah, is this true?” That is a surefire way to make sure to get the email opened.
Take a look at your email inbox on your laptop or PC and make a note of the subject lines that quickly grab your attention. Now, do the same on your mobile. If the same emails catch your eye and have you convinced that they have indeed gotten the length of their subject line right, go ahead and count out the number of characters.
Let me cut it short for you – in all probability, the number of characters in these subject lines is between 40 and 60. This is the ideal length for two reasons. One, a subject line of this length is easily visible across devices, and secondly, this rule guides you into delivering the topic of your email in a quick and impactful manner.
Most email service providers recommend a short subject line. To optimize your email subject line for mobile devices, a recommended subject line length would be no more than 9 words or 60 characters.
A study done by Marketo suggested that the sweet spot for subject lines is 41 characters or 7 words. Make sure the subject line is unique and catchy, and work in a personal name if possible.
From before lunch to around 9am – 11am, here are 8 answers to the question, “What’s the best time to send an email on Friday?”
It Depends on Your Audience
Send Your Email Before Lunch
8 pm Guarantees More People Can Access Your Message
After Lunch is Ideal for Non-urgent Communications
Send Your Emails at Midday On Friday
Late in the Day to Avoid Getting Forgotten
Friday Afternoon is Ideal, but Don’t Delay Past 5 pm
The Best Time is Around 9 am to 11 am On Fridays
It Depends on YOUR Audience
There is no send time that works the same for every business. You have to test what works best for YOUR particular Audience. The subscribers of a coffee shop are going to be different than that of a law firm. Utilize A/B testing to test different Friday send times to see what gets the highest open rate. After 2-3 months of testing different times, you should be able to find a time that works best for your subscribers.
Due to the fact that Friday is the end of the week, the best time to send an email is in the morning before lunch. Fridays are a day on which many people leave work early or don’t check emails after lunch. Therefore, you probably stand a better chance of your email getting opened if it is sent in the morning. Additionally, if you’re going to send emails on Friday, it is a great idea to have a very catchy and compelling subject line to ensure it gets viewed.
8 pm Guarantees More People Can Access Your Message
8 p.m. on a Friday night may seem like an unorthodox time to send an email; however, it can be a great choice for many reasons. 8 p.m. on a Friday night is when most people are completing their work tasks for the week and preparing for relaxation.
When an email lands in their inbox at 8 p.m., it gives them the weekend to read and digest the content rather than having to deal with the message immediately after arrival. 8 p.m. also provides plenty of time for potential clients and colleagues who are in different parts of the world to check and respond to emails before Monday morning.
Sending an email at 8 p.m. on a Friday guarantees that more people have access to your message but still allows you time away from work to relax over the weekend.
After Lunch is Ideal for Non-urgent Communications
After lunch, people have more time to read and respond to emails that aren’t time-sensitive, so I recommend sending them then (1 p.m. – 2 p.m.). It is a perfect time to send out communications like newsletters, updates, and other forms of messages that do not require immediate action from the recipient.
The optimal time to send emails on Friday at noon is when the recipients are most likely to be in a productive frame of mind and not yet thinking about the weekend. The likelihood that your email will be read and answered promptly is higher at this time of the week because people are typically wrapping up their workweek and still preoccupied with work-related responsibilities.
The best time to send an email on Friday is usually late in the day. This ensures that your message is fresh in the recipient’s mind and they will be more likely to read it. Additionally, late in the day gives people time to respond before the weekend. If you send it too early on Friday, your message may get buried in other emails or forgotten about altogether until Monday.
Furthermore, sending an email late on Friday ensures that if there is a reply needed before the weekend, the recipient will have time to respond. It’s important to note that different industries and individuals may prefer different times for an email on Friday. It’s a good idea to test out different times of day and track which emails get the most responses in order to determine what works best for your particular audience.
Friday Afternoon is Ideal, but Don’t Delay Past 5pm
It is generally best to send an email on a Friday before 5 p.m. This gives the recipient time to read the email, think about it, and reply without feeling rushed or overwhelmed with work on Monday morning. Sending emails early in the day may mean that other tasks are prioritized first and your message gets overlooked among other important emails. Emails sent later in the afternoon may get tucked away for review over the weekend when people don’t have as much free time to dedicate to their inboxes.
By sending an email earlier in the day, you can ensure that your message at least has a chance of being seen right away so that it can be addressed sooner rather than later. Additionally, sending emails closer to the end of business hours shows that you respect other people’s time and don’t expect them to go above and beyond after hours.
At our business, we do a ton of cold email outreach, and the data shows that the best time to send emails on a Friday is between 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. While it’s hard to determine the reason for this, I personally think that it’s because most people start off their Friday with simple tasks (reviewing their emails), before diving into deep work and finally wrapping up their week.
From bad resolutions to firewalls, here are seven answers to the question, “What are the most likely reasons why an image might not show up in an email?”
Poor Image Resolution
Older Versions of Outlook May Not Support Images
The Email Client Blocks the Image
Special Characters in the Image File Name
Using an Unsupported Image File
Gmail Does Not Support .SVG Files
Aggressive Firewall Settings
Poor Image Resolution
Image resolution is crucial for their display quality, especially if you use them in digital media such as websites, emails, and print materials. If you have scaled your picture and it is still larger than needed, the image might not show up in the email for exceeding the size limit of the file format you have used.
For instance, GIF files only allow 8-Bit images, with a limitation of around 2,000 pixels in width and 1,000 pixels in height. Therefore, if you have chosen a larger image, it will not display in the email. However, PNG files have no size restriction, and JPGs can have up to 50 MB, so if you have used a PNG or JPG file, the image will definitely show up in the email.
Many emails use background images, yet because there are several Microsoft Outlook versions that do not support this format, they may not show up in an e-mail.
Microsoft has continuously updated its Outlook programs; however, there are some older versions that are still preferred by some businesses that have not been formatted for images. Therefore, it is recommended that you choose a background that mirrors the colors of the image that you wish to display. This will act as a fallback mechanism in case your image is not supported by the recipient’s Outlook program.
Some email clients block images by default to protect users from potential security risks, such as malicious code that might be embedded in a snap. If the shot is blocked, it will not be displayed.
Blocking images in emails can help to prevent the spread of malware and other types of malicious software, as well as protect users’ privacy by preventing the tracking of their online activity. However, it can also be inconvenient for users who want to view images in emails, as they may have to manually unblock the images in order to see them.
Overall, the decision to block images in emails is a balance between security and convenience, and different email clients may have different policies
If you are receiving error messages when uploading your image, it is likely that the file name contains special characters or has a name longer than the recommended characters limit. So, if you’re having issues with your photos and images not being uploaded to an email, try using a shorter, unique file name.
For example, do not use numbers in the file name. If you are adding special characters or other symbols in the name that do not allow for an easy upload, avoid using them in the file name. Try changing the name to something shorter and simpler, or look for an image with a shorter file name.
Some mailboxes may not support specific image file formats, such as TIFF or BMP. If the image file is not in a supported format, it will not display correctly in an email.
To ensure that an image shows properly in an email, it’s essential to use a supported image file format, such as JPG or PNG. Email clients widely support these formats, and they’re optimized for web use, making them suitable for email.
If you have been using other formats until now, it is worth changing this practice. You can use a free image editing tool such as GIMP or Adobe Photoshop to convert an image file to a supported format. Simply open the image file in the device, select “Save As” from the File menu, and choose a supported format from the list of options.
By using a supported image file format and optimizing the file size, businesses can ensure that images display correctly in emails and improve the overall effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns or simple email communication.
Unfortunately, it is not currently possible to embed a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) image in a Gmail message. While Gmail does support attaching and displaying SVG image files as attachments, it does not provide a way to directly embed SVG images in the body of a message. When marketers design their emails, they should always use .png or .jpg images of their logo, as .svg images will not be shown.
Firewall settings can affect whether images will show up in emails. More aggressive firewall settings, like those you might find organizations and businesses using, may be set up to actively block images from appearing in emails. If your emails are being sent out to someone who uses these settings or whose system administrator prefers powerful protections, there isn’t much you can do personally.
The firewall settings will need to be changed by the administrator, or you’ll need to have your emails whitelisted as a safe source. If you’re making legitimate contact with another person or entity and this is a problem for you, reach out to the administrator personally in order to resolve this issue. Max Ade, CEO, Pickleheads
From using data to personalize subject lines to writing helpful and value-rich content, here are the 11 answers to the question, “What is your average open rate for email marketing, and what led to your open rate being so high, or low?”
18% – Personalize Your Emails
28% – Segment Your Users by Buyer Stage
40% – Understand the Where and the Why
50% – Use Consistent Storytelling With Relevant Information
30% – Write Content That Resonates
40% – Focus on an Engaged Audience
23% – Find the Right Tools
40% – Test With A/B Campaigns
22% – Regularly Purge Your Lists
21% – Send Emails at Optimal Times
48% – Craft Helpful and Value-Rich Content
18% – Personalize Your Emails
We have a high open rate, at 18%, because of the subject line. It is short, clear, and concise, with a limited-time offer included.
Our emails are also very personalized, as we use customer data to further specify the content. For example, if a customer has purchased an item before and returned it, we will acknowledge that in the email. This makes customers feel acknowledged and valued, which in turn increases the likelihood that they will open the email.
We also send emails based on the customer’s activity. By sending emails at the right time and with the right information, we have increased our open rate from 11% to 18%.
Our email open rate over the last year is just over 28 percent. Compared to the industry average for marketing and advertising agencies, which is 22 percent, that is a high open rate.
The reason we’ve seen these results is because of several factors. We A/B test all email sends with different subject lines, then choose the most effective options. We also updated our automated marketing emails so they are segmented by buyer interest and stage in the buyer journey. And, we use personalization to make emails more targeted as well. We avoid sending emails to disengaged contacts.
As a business with a large audience, we send tens of thousands of emails every year, so it’s vital that everyone gets what they expect and are interested in seeing. These tactics ensure we don’t come across as spammy, as well as boosting our open rates.
I’ve seen less than a 15% open rate for small lists, and over 40% for very large lists with hundreds of thousands of contacts from all possible sources.
The secret sauce is understanding the “where” (where did the leads come from?) and the “why” (why did they sign up?) of these contacts, segmenting them based on initial data and subsequent behaviors, and then going through the process of sparking desire and harvesting that desire with resonant story-telling.
Lots to unpack here:
1. Segment. Pop-up contacts will show lower CTR as compared to existing customers. Not knowing the baseline for metrics may lead you to deem campaigns successful or unsuccessful based on misleading averages. 2. Make sure you aren’t held back by Gmail. Send emails from your own domain, as opposed to the “shared reputation” of your ESP. 3. Understand & respect VoC data. Use it to create compelling offers supported by narratives your database recognizes as its own.
50% – Use Consistent Storytelling With Relevant Information
My average open rate for email marketing is between 45-50%. I consistently email my list each week with stories and relevant information designed to help them navigate their mid-career journey.
My emails highlight their pain points, questions, and solutions that they are thinking about and talking with other colleagues, family, and friends. I’ve had my email list for over five years, and I consistently email them each week at the same time on a specific day.
Being consistent has allowed me to earn my email community’s trust by having permission to be in their inbox each week.
My average open rate for email marketing is 30%. These numbers have been achieved through personalized subject lines and content that resonates with the target audience. I also keep the emails concise, to the point, and relevant to ensure it captures attention quickly. In addition, we have optimized our send times to ensure maximum engagement from our subscribers.
It is important to remember that optimizing an open rate doesn’t always mean sending out more messages. Sometimes less frequent but higher-quality messaging will allow you to achieve better results with fewer messages sent overall—well-crafted drip campaigns often perform very well for businesses.
To maximize your chances of achieving a high open rate each time you send out an email campaign, ensure you take advantage of A/B testing to determine which version works better with your particular audience and scenario.
Across the email marketing campaigns we run for various brands, the average open rate is around 40%. This is fairly high but we prefer to focus on the most engaged subscribers in an email list—the people who have really shown an interest in opening and clicking through previous email marketing campaigns.
We do this to improve email deliverability and increase the chances of landing in the primary inbox for every contact in our campaigns. We’ve seen good success with this more targeted approach across many different e-commerce markets.
If brands are wanting to experiment and increase average email open rates then a great starting point is to only email the people who have opened a campaign from you in the last 45 – 90 days. In most cases, this will improve open rates, and in time the overall deliverability across the entire email marketing program.
My typical email open rate is 23%, and a lot of that is owed to the process of finding the right email addresses!
I have used and analyzed over 74 different tools, and in the end, I have narrowed my choice down to one tool that I rely on the most for finding the right email addresses and generating a long list of leads. It’s called Find That Lead, wherein you just have to put a company’s domain name and it generates a list of contacts from the company.
You can also apply filters to separate out just the email, phone number, and address of CEOs, Founders, Managers, or other C-level executives. You can also use the tool for just verifying the email address of a person.
We consistently see an email open rate of about 40%, which is about double the average for most businesses. We’ve achieved this largely through conducting A/B tests where we sent two different versions of subject lines, format, and copy to each half of the recipients.
From there, we were able to measure which options performed best, and we fine-tuned our strategy. From there, our open rates really began to climb. Even with our open rate success, we still do frequent A/B/ tests because we don’t want our messaging to grow stagnant.
In terms of email marketing, my average open rate is 21.5%. Due to the fact that your audience connects with the subject lines we utilize, we have a higher open rate.
We also employ double opt-in. Double opt-in requires the user to confirm their desire to receive communications from your company (although this is not a requirement under GDPR). We don’t send emails to people who don’t care about them too much because if they did, they wouldn’t read them, which would decrease our open rates.
We request that our readers add us to their list of reliable contacts. We may improve the number of emails delivered by simply asking our readers to add the “from” email address to their contact lists
Then, we purge the emails on our list. Three consecutive unopened emails from a subscriber indicate that they may no longer be interested in receiving emails from us.
Our average open rate tends to float around 21%, which is more or less in line with national averages for other small businesses our size.
We have achieved this open rate by crafting engaging subject lines and providing content that is tailored to our customer’s interests and needs. Additionally, we make sure to only send emails at times when our customers are most likely to open them on their email platforms of choice. Having concise and relevantly tailored email content is the name of the game.
The average open rate for my email marketing is 48%. I’ve cultivated an engaged list over the last four years offering high value or what I termed “irresistible freebies” to opt-in and then continuing to share tips and tricks on ways to make more money with their websites.
Yes, email lists are there to sell your service, but in my opinion, it’s primarily to build that know-like and trust factor and to offer an immense amount of value. And eventually, the subscriber may have a problem that you, as the service provider, can solve, and you’ll be right there in the inbox recommending a solution.
From taking subscriber numbers into account to a standard 2-5% CTR, here are eight answers to the question, “What is a good email click-through rate?”
Adjust by Your Subscriber Count
Go for 7%
5% Click Through Rate, Depending on Industry
Typically Considered to Be Around 3%
Usually Between 15% and 35%
Never Below 2%
0.5% to 3%, Depending on Segmenting
Aim for a 2-5%
Adjust by Your Subscriber Count
This depends on how big your subscriber list is. For instance, if you have a decent email click-through rate but your subscriber list is below 1,000, this is not necessarily a grand achievement.
Try to get 1,000 or more subscribers first, and then you can accurately measure how successful your click-through rate is.
A standard email click-through rate is 7%, so you should aim for that or higher, although most experts agree that even a 3-5% rate is good.
You can increase your click-through rate by testing better subject lines and keeping your copy to a minimum. Don’t forget to list easy, social sharing options so more than your recipient sees your copy.
Typically, a good email click-through rate is around 5%, but this also depends on your industry.
For example, nonprofits may have a higher industry click-through rate than brands in the tech or real estate industry. Thus, it’s best to optimize your emails, so that you hit the overall industry standard click through rate.
Some things that affect click-through rates are the number of links in your email, call-to-action, and the length of the email. If your email is long and packed with a ton of links, it is harder for your audience to truly engage with it, and may be confused about what your overall message is.
We typically consider a good email click through rate to be around 3%. This means that for every 100 emails you send out, three of your recipients will click through the links in your email.
To improve your click-through rate, it is important to make sure that your emails are well-designed, properly formatted, and contain interesting content that encourages readers to click.
Additionally, segmenting your email list into more relevant groups can help you target your emails more effectively and increase the likelihood of users clicking through.
Above all, it is important to test different subject lines, designs, and content to determine what resonates best with your audience. With a bit of trial and error, you should be able to find the perfect combination that will help boost your click-through rates.
With email marketing, the open rate is a very important indicator for campaigns. The open rate is obtained by dividing the total number of messages opened by the total number of messages delivered. This is why the goal of every email marketing campaign is to have a high open-rate percentage so that users are more likely to click through to the landing page.
If you work with a large database, it is normal that the open rate is low. Although there is no average open rate, it is usually between 15% and 35%.
However, there are certain strategies you can apply to increase this number. For example, the first mailings will have a high percentage of bounced emails, because of unsubscribed addresses, and misspelled, or full mailboxes. This will influence the open rate, but the purification of the database for subsequent mailings will increase the percentage.
A good email click-through rate depends on the industry and is often used as an important performance metric. A higher click-through rate (CTR) shows that the content within the email was sufficiently engaging to entice readers to open it rather than discard it.
Although CTRs will vary between types of businesses, those with higher success rates are typically between 2-5%. Anything higher than 5% or lower than 2%, depending on the industry, would indicate a campaign that is underperforming or outperforming expectations, respectively.
Achieving a better click-through rate for emails depends on leveraging several strategies, including careful audience segmenting, personalized subject lines, and timely sending schedules.
A click-through rate (CTR) for email depends on several factors, including the content of the email, the nature of the offer, and the target audience. Generally, good email CTRs range from about 0.5% to 3%.
However, there are some exceptions. For example, if you’re targeting a very engaged group of subscribers who are likely to be interested in your offer, you may achieve a CTR as high as 10%. On the other hand, if you’re targeting less engaged subscribers or those who aren’t familiar with your brand, your CTR may be closer to 0.5%.
A good email click-through rate can vary depending on the industry and the quality of the email campaign. However, a general benchmark for a good email click-through rate is around 2-5%.
If your click-through rate is higher than this, it may show that your email campaign is well-targeted and engaging. If it’s lower, it could mean that your emails are not relevant to your audience or that they are not effectively capturing the reader’s attention.
To improve your click-through rate, you can try A/B testing different subject lines, calls to action, and email content to see what resonates best with your audience. You can also segment your email list to ensure that you are sending targeted, relevant messages to each group of subscribers.
From conducting A/B Tests with your email audiences to a chance of designs causing lower reply rates, here are the 11 answers to the question, “Should color and design be used in email campaigns?”
Build A/B Tests
Brand Colors and Design Evoke A Sense of Relatability
Prioritize a Relationship With Your Audience
Give Your Message An Eye-catching Look
Keep Graphics to a Minimum
Maintain Campaign Consistency
Use Colors to Attract and Hold Readers’ Attention
Intelligent Use of Colors Will Make the Right Info Pop
White is the Only Color All Email Campaigns Should Have
Colors Help Grab Attention
Colors and Designed Emails Have Smaller Reply Rates
Build A/B Tests
The only way that you can know what will jive best for your unique audience is by testing things. Choose an email marketing platform that allows you to build A/B tests. If your current email platform offers this, don’t be afraid to experiment with this feature, which will have a campaign monitor in place to reveal the winning strategy. Performing A/B tests has informed pretty much every part of my brand’s email marketing strategy. The insights we’ve gained are priceless.
Brand Colors and Design Evoke A Sense of Relatability
Sending a simple email for communication only is different from running an email campaign for your product, service, etc. As a result of our own study, we performed A/B testing for email subject lines and found that emails with relevant emoticons had a 50% higher open rate than emails without.
A brand’s colors and design evoke emotions and a sense of relatability. Some brands, like Nike and Adidas, use templates with very little text in their email campaigns. The heart of effective marketing is color and design. Color accounts for between 62 and 90% of the impression your product creates. It is therefore necessary to have a cohesive brand message across all marketing channels. The right choice of colors and design makes a difference because they trigger associations.
At our company, we have run a ton of email campaigns with and without the color and design element and I can confidently say that color and design performs way better than text-only emails.
Marketing is changing fast. It’s harder and harder to break through the noise. The more you can establish a real relationship with your audience the better – and it’s easier to do that with a simple email than with an overly designed “newsletter”.
Because of this, we have seen great results when moving brands from an overly designed newsletter template to a simple email from the business owners.
Ultimately, whether you use color and design in your email campaigns will depend on your audience’s expectations. So experiment, and see what works for your business.
Regarding email campaigns, color and design make a big difference. Not only do they help draw attention to your email, but they can also be used to convey the main message. Color can help add interest and emotion to an email that might otherwise seem dull or boring. Design elements like fonts and graphics can help further emphasize the message and give it an eye-catching look.
However, there are also some negatives to consider. If the colors and design elements are too bright or loud, it can distract readers and take away from the message. On the other hand, if the design is too basic or plain, it may not be enough to grab people’s attention. It is important to strike a good balance between eye-catching and appropriate when it comes to email campaign design.
Color and design can effectively make email campaigns more engaging and impactful. Used properly, they can create an email that is visually appealing and conveys the email’s main message in a clear and concise way.
Logos ought to be used in an email. Think of it as email stationery. Putting that banner or that logo at the top of an email and at the bottom where you state your name and company information is the very least you can do. In fact, if that’s all you do, that’s perfectly fine.
Try not to go overboard with color and graphics. Try not to use interactive emojis or memes or an overabundance of videos and photos to grab the email recipient’s attention. Too much of that can actually look unprofessional – or worse, desperate.
Less is more. Do just enough that it isn’t too bland, but err on the side of restraint. That’s a good rule of thumb when it comes to email marketing. You want to give off the impression that you’re a reputable, authoritative brand. You won’t achieve that if your emails are too reliant on visual gimmicks.
Color and design should certainly be used in email campaigns in order to be more aesthetically pleasing and attractive to your customers. However, use color and design according to your brand style and aesthetic to ensure consistency across your marketing efforts. Your email campaigns, social media, website, blog, etc., should all use similar colors and designs to maintain this consistency.
The impact of colors has been a topic of academic research for decades. Color and design can be powerful when used in email campaigns, as they can help evoke certain emotions in recipients and encourage them to take action.
A study found that color can attract and hold readers’ attention. With the right color, an email campaign can drive more engagement, generate more leads and help the brand stand out from competitors. However, it’s important to remember that color should be used judiciously not to distract readers from the message. Too much color can be overwhelming and less effective.
Intelligent Use of Colors Will Make the Right Info Pop
Using colors is a great idea to help make your emails pop, but selecting muted and complimentary colors is essential in creating balance and harmony within the visual aesthetic of your email. Using too many bright, contrasting colors can make it difficult to read and can diminish the effectiveness of your campaign. Additionally, if you are not careful with the color scheme you choose, it can come off as amateurish and unprofessional. All in all, color is a great way to add visual appeal to your emails when done in good taste.
White is The Only Color All Email Campaigns Should Have
The colors you use in your email campaign will depend on the demographics and interests of your audience. An email campaign marketed to a 40-year-old woman will be different than that of an 18-year-old male.
The one color that all emails will need is white. Why? Because it is easy to read. Putting black fonts on a white background or white fonts on any color background is what you need for people to read your content without straining their eyes.
If your goal is to create an email campaign that stands out and gets noticed, then incorporating color and design is a must. People are bombarded with emails every day, so it’s essential to make yours stand out in their inboxes.
Adding a pop of color or an eye-catching design will help grab attention and ensure your message is seen. However, using color and design sparingly is important, as too much can be overwhelming and actually turn people off. When used sparingly and thoughtfully, color and design can be powerful tools for creating an email campaign that gets results.
Colored and Designed Emails Have Smaller Reply Rates
In my experience both colored and designed nurturing emails have a much smaller reply rate. Nowadays people are getting a bit tired of their mailboxes full of automated emails and appreciate personal communication. The reason for not using email templates with colors and designs is to make an automated nurturing email mimic an email from a real person.
Andrei Iunisov, Digital marketing expert, Iunisov.com
How can an email marketer help move an email from Promotions to Primary?
To help you move your company’s emails into the spotlight, we asked CEOs, founders, and other business leaders familiar with email marketing this question for their best recommendations. From audience segmenting to using A/B testing, there are several ideas that can improve your email content so much, it will excite your customers to receive each one.
Here are 15 tips for creating emails that jump from Promotions to Primary:
Segment Your Audience
Ask Subscribers to Add Your Email to their Contact List
Craft Clever Subject Lines
Concentrate On Your Footers
Include a Clear and Concise Call-to-action (CTA)
Ask Subscribers to Reply to Your Welcome Email
Change MX Records to Google’s Servers
Avoid Promotional Words & Learn Timing
Be Careful About Using Mails Sent Via RSS
Sound Human & Helpful
Avoid Heavy HTML and Send Emails Manually
Optimize for Mobile
Deliver More Than a Voucher or Sale
Use Minimal Images and Links
Rely on the Data From A/B Testing
Segment Your Audience
We widely understand that marketers can’t outsmart Google but must work with their algorithms. Therefore, segmenting lists to identify engaged audiences can help move your email from Promotions to Primary.
Having your email land in the Promotions tab is often the result of trying to cast too wide a net, but brands can leverage data to optimize their content to help their emails stand out.
Through segmenting your engaged audience, you can more effectively optimize and personalize your emails. In addition, this process also allows you to create the appropriate content that has clear ideas and actionable information that can help reclassify your email.
By leveraging your data to segment your audiences and send them more interesting content, you can reduce the chances of getting buried in the Promotions tab.
Ask Subscribers to Add Your Email to their Contact List
If you want to ensure your newsletter winds up in your subscribers’ primary inboxes rather than their promotions inboxes, one way to do so is by asking them to add your company to their email contacts list.
Doing this will make your messages seem more familiar to them and, therefore, less likely to be treated as spam.
In addition, it’s essential to ensure that each email you send includes accurate contact information and a straightforward way for recipients to unsubscribe.
Finally, send consistently high-quality content your subscribers will look forward to receiving to keep them engaged with your brand.
Many times, it’s an email’s subject line that determines its fate in our inbox. Will we move it to the trash, mark it as spam or even unsubscribe?
Subject lines have the power to move people to take such actions, so be sure to entice readers in with a subject line that makes them want to not only know more but receive future communications from your brand.
It is easy to get focused on the body of your email when you are trying to avoid it being sent to the promotions tab, but it is just as important that you concentrate on your footers and declutter them if you want to get into the Primary tab.
You have done everything to avoid having your email sent to the Promotions tab, from refraining from sending out blasts to specifying personalization. However, Google algorithms can still pick up a footer that contains a disclaimer and many business references.
Therefore, by decluttering your email footers, removing words that may trigger Google algorithms, and getting rid of your disclaimers, terms, and conditions, you can better your chances that your email will end up in the Primary tab.
By paying as much attention to your email footer as you do the main body, you can avoid the Promotions label and better reach your customer.
One thing an email marketer can do to help move an email from Promotions to Primary is to include a clear and concise call-to-action (CTA).
This could be something as simple as a button that says “Open Now” or “Read Later.” Including a CTA will help to motivate the recipient to take action and move the email from Promotions to Primary.
These kinds of responses will often move the email thread to the primary tab and train Gmail that your emails deserve to be in the Primary tab.
Responses can be entirely up to you. Ask for an emoji response, ask them to tell you about themselves, answer a question, or what they’re trying to achieve with your product.
Over the past 5 years, I’ve been massively focused on sending outreach emails, and I’ve found it increasingly difficult to reach users’ inboxes from my email servers, especially my company domain email.
I have learnt the hard way that it’s all about maintaining an excellent reputation with large email providers, not just Gmail.
As much as people focus on emoticons, subject lines, and other tactics, simply put, immerse yourself into the technical aspect of emails such as MX records.
The game-changer for us as a company is switching our domain name servers from Namecheap to Google’s Workspace service servers.
This switch to Gmail’s servers has played a huge role in improving the deliverability of emails. The open rate is another discussion entirely.
Nowadays, email inboxes are flooded with promotions. As an SEO agency, our experience showed how we write our emails will determine whether it ends up on the promotional tab.
The following phrases make your letter end up in the “unfortunate” tab, so you should avoid including these in your email: “now,” “buy,” “click here,” “register,” “free,” “offers,” “as seen on,” “money,” “avoid,” “Friend,” and “Hello.”
It decreases the possibility of your email being marked as a promotion. But it doesn’t stop there. Be creative and avoid just selling your products to clients; instead, describe the benefits of your products and work on exciting consumers’ interest.
Email timing is also vital; the better email timing you have, the more likely it is to have a higher open rate, resulting in a higher response rate.
I’ve practiced this for a long time, and I assure you this will help improve your response and conversion rates.
RSS (really simple syndication) is XML-formatted text used for distributing web blogs, news, and content. Using it in the mailing is also a good option to get your stuff to the readers instantly.
But still, a problem arises that these particles tend to generate practically identical emails. This automatically increases the risk of indicating as promotional. So again, don’t forget to personalize your email to avoid anything suspicious.
Gmail Algorithms are quite efficient in identifying those bulk emails which you send via a service provider. Be mindful to send such emails in fewer bulks rather than just going on with the entire list. Adding a touch of personalization confuses the algorithm witnessing those human-like email structures!
There isn’t any single thing that might end your emails in the primary box, trial and error do. The number of images and links, and their nature essentially determines your email’s pathway. For instance, if you add sales CTA’s and a lot of product images, you won’t ever end up in a primary box.
Since these are the most commonly used by email marketers, Gmail knows it all. Also, figure out a unique way so that the recipient marks you in their whitelist.
For instance, have them sign up for regular blog posts and newsletters with valuable content. I’d even suggest using your own personal email (xyz@companyname.com) instead of those generic business emails (info@companyname.com).
Well-crafted HTML emails never make it to the main tab because Gmail considers these emails to be automated, i.e., sent by the robot.
Gmail’s algorithms try to determine whether a human or a bot sent an email. They always mark heavy HTML emails as automatic. This error occurs when you use an email marketing tool to draft emails instead of typing them manually into an email client.
The best way to avoid this is to send plain text emails, or at least “lightweight HTML emails”. Lightweight HTML is technically HTML (Mime type), but the content is mostly text without images, CSS, and minimal links. It’s important to keep links to a minimum, ideally only one or two.
Making emails more mobile-friendly is a simple way to get them out of promotions and into primary.
Most people check their emails through their cell phones and, more often than not, the settings are more advanced by default. By making emails sleeker for mobile and more universally compatible across account types, the advanced filters will give them the highest priority.
Treat your customers like people; send an email that’s more than a voucher. Offer insights, updates, a story, something that’s more content than promotion. It could be knowledge or a tip, or just something happening in your field or industry. Surprise them for their loyalty, rather than emailing for the nth time with a subject line that there is a voucher on offer or a sale.
Do not overcrowd your marketing emails with images and links. This will make your email seem too sales-y to go into the Primary tab.
Of course, you will need some images and some links, but when reviewing your marketing emails, try to eliminate as many of them as you can while still making your emails engaging enough to your subscribers.
Marketers always try their best to personalize emails.
To make sure that no mail is spammed as a promotional one, many alternatives are available for a marketer. But, one of the best of all is using A/B testing, also known as split testing.
These tests are a process where you see which two versions of variables are more impactful on the target market. The variables are shown to different segments of subscribers. Then analyze which version is the most impactful.
To help you identify the email platforms that are most commonly used these days, we asked CEOs and business leaders this question for their best choices. From Zoho Mail to Gmail to Convertkit, there are several email platforms that you would find most professionals using these days to run their day-to-day business.
Here are 14 email platforms these leaders prefer to use for their business:
Mailchimp
Zoho Mail
Kartra
Sendinblue
Aweber
Gmail
Klaviyo
MailerLite
Hubspot
ProtonMail
Drip
Microsoft Outlook
ActiveCampaign
Convertkit
Mailchimp
Personally, my preferred email platform is Mailchimp. It’s simple to use, but incredibly effective. It does what it needs to without fuss or unnecessary complications. It has different pricing options depending on your needs, and the free plan is surprisingly generous. For many people, this is enough.
Upgrading provides access to more sophisticated tools, including A/B testing, if required. The user interface is clear and comprehensible, and it’s a straightforward process to track whether consumers are engaging with your content. Mailchimp makes it easy to identify which aspects of your email marketing strategy are successful, and where improvements are needed. It integrates effectively with other software platforms, and campaigns can be customized with ease.
The concise, consistent reporting helps me to optimize my outgoings. This is a perfect platform for small to medium businesses, freelancers, and those just getting acquainted with email platforms.
Zoho Mail is a fantastic email service for freelancers and home-based businesses. I run a little business, and this email service is all I need. Zoho is a great tool for both professional and personal email. The Zoho migration tool makes the switch from Google Apps or Office 365 to Zoho Mail quick and painless. It’s simple to sync with the rest of the Zoho suite.
I use Kartra for email marketing because it is a powerful and easy-to-use platform. With Kartra, I can automate my email marketing workflow by creating automated campaigns that are triggered when someone takes a certain action on my website. For example, if someone signs up for my newsletter, I can set up an automated campaign to send them an email with helpful content. This saves me a lot of time and ensures that my emails are sent out on a regular schedule, even when I am not able to spend time managing my email marketing campaigns.
Another feature that I find especially helpful is the built-in email split testing tool. This allows me to test different subject lines, content blocks and call to actions, so that I can optimize my email marketing campaigns to get better results. Overall, I love Kartra because it makes it easy for me to grow my business and reach more people with the power of email marketing.
I use Sendinblue because it’s the best email platform out there, and I’ve found that it’s intuitive and easy to use. I also love how customizable it is—it allows me to create a ton of different campaigns with different segments and audiences in each one which is super helpful when I’m trying to reach a specific audience with a certain message. It also comes with a lot of analytics and A/B testing tools for improving the performance of your campaigns. I get to see an overview of all my emails in one place, and then I can drill down into specific ones if I need to see more details or track things like clicks and opens.
AWeber is the most suitable email platform for small businesses, which has been assisting our business for the last four years to manage our email marketing tasks. It offers various ready-to-use email templates, email tracking, auto-responding, and many other useful features. Other features of AWeber are also effective for email marketing, such as list management, automatic RSS-to-email, and subscriber segmentation. The subscription cost of this software-based platform is also affordable, pricing starts from just $19 per month.
Gmail has become a staple for my everyday personal and business use for almost two decades. Since 2004 and have never had any issues with this platform. I have enjoyed the advancement of the added features such as Google Meets and Calendar. These features have helped me stay organized and made attending and creating meetings for work or personal occasions easier. Another bonus, I receive less spam because I stay on top of my account and consistently keep it up-to-date and refreshed.
For all of our Ecommerce projects we exclusively use Klaviyo for email marketing. It is one of the most advanced email platforms that’s built specifically for Ecommerce and Shopify, so it offers the deepest integrations and allows us to create highly segmented campaigns. All of this means we can email customers with messaging and promotions which are personalized to each user.
Another great thing about Klaviyo is that it allows our brands to run both email and SMS marketing from one platform, with a single monthly fee. This is helpful for running cross-channel promotions where we need to deliver a similar message via both and SMS simultaneously.
I find that MailerLite’s drag-and-drop UI makes it really simple to construct the exact layout I want for my email campaigns. The goal of the company is simplicity, thus the interface is uncluttered and easy to use. If you’re looking for the most user-friendly platform, go no further than MailerLite. Email help is available for queries and troubleshooting if users run into any issues.
MailerLite has all the fundamentals of email marketing built in without overwhelming the user with unnecessary bells and whistles. It’s ideal for companies that want an email marketing strategy they can learn in a matter of days, not months.
Hubspot is the ideal all-in-one marketing suite since it includes amazing tools and reporting for all of your marketing efforts across channels (website, social, email marketing, and more). With Hubspot’s customer relationship management system, you can keep track of all of your contacts and use tools like online lead forms, live chat, and advertising to build a clientele. Email marketing is just one of Hubspot’s customer relationship management (CRM) offerings. This is the best all-around marketing platform because it can manage your email, social media, and blog content.
With Hubspot, you can monitor the performance of your online advertising campaigns, social media campaigns, email campaigns, and website analytics in one convenient location. The platform also comes with an in-depth training platform that not only goes over the basics of using the system but also highlights best practices for running effective marketing campaigns.
ProtonMail is my email platform of choice because it’s secure, private, and user-friendly. I love that it allows me to send and receive messages without ever having to compromise security. I love that I can control what information is shared with whom, and that my data is always protected. It also offers some great features that make it easy to organize and store my emails in one place.
With its comprehensive workflows and advanced list segmentation, Drip is, in my opinion, the greatest email marketing software for e-commerce enterprises. Together, these features allow you to send customers timely follow-ups based on how they interact with your emails and send customers tailored emails based on their shopping habits on your site.
Drip is the greatest eCommerce email marketing software since it was made with the user’s experience in mind. If you run into trouble while establishing the service or while using it, you can contact the service’s user support for assistance. Your ability to divide up your lists into several categories will help you provide the best possible service to your customers through your website and email notifications, which is something we really appreciate.
Our organization makes use of Outlook for our email needs. This is because of the amount of flexibility within the various plans that allow us to granularly scale it with our operations as time passes.
Additionally, possessing direct integrations with Microsoft’s suite of programs made it an easy choice. With programs such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Teams, and more already forming the backbone of our operations, it made sense to utilize the email platform with the most direct out of box integrations with them. The nature of Microsoft 365 also allows these files to be shared seamlessly across team members, improving the flow of operations.
The email marketing platform we use is ActiveCampaign, which has a large number of characteristics that makes it attractive for any company. ActiveCampaign combines the power of email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM/sales automation. You’ll be able to create powerful automated sales and marketing processes that scale to create more loyal customers. You can also send exactly what your contacts want. Create newsletters, email campaigns and promotions that connect with your customers. Personalize your communication to offer exactly what they are looking for.
I’ve used dozens of email platforms over the years and ConvertKit is my favorite. They offer powerful tools with an easy-to-use interface. I can create visual automations that connect stunning opt-in forms with different sequences. I can quickly evaluate the quality and engagement of my subscribers. I also appreciate that they’ve evolved with the industry, offering new tools to help promote sales and monetization.
Give your best tip for small businesses to make an email list. What is one thing they should consider when building the list?
To help you build an email list successfully as a small business, we asked marketing professionals and business owners this question for their best insights. From installing a pop-up form or slider on your website to offering a free product or service to collect emails, there are several tips that would help you get potential customers to sign up to receive email communication about your products and services.
Here are 13 list-building tips these leaders follow to build their email lists:
Install a Pop-Up Form or Slider on Your Website
Create Lead Ads on Facebook
Don’t Buy an Email List But Use Opt-in Pages
Use Giveaway Strategies to Build Email Leads Quickly
Create a Value Proposition on Social Media
Personalize Content and Offers
Offer Exclusive Content
Collaborate With Other Businesses
Focus on Offering Quality Over Quantity
Use Social Media Sharing Option in Your Emails
Seek to Build Relationships
Start as Early as You Can
Offer a Free Product or Service to Collect Emails
Install a Pop-Up Form or Slider on Your Website
The pop-up form works very prominently for your website. And it can easily get the attention of visitors, and make them agree to click on any link or sign up. But remember that, sometimes pop-ups may look annoying and gather a negative reputation. To avoid this, you can use some proven ways to make it effective instead of annoying. Like:
– Show them after they stay on your site for 1-2 minutes. – Set the popup to show every visitor once or twice a week. Showing them a pop-up on every page really annoys them.
If you don’t like the idea of a popup, think about a slider. It works somewhat like a pop-up, but only appears when a visitor slides down the page a bit. Plus, it can be set in the corner of the page which means that the visitors will have attention, but if they don’t like to press skip, they can still continue scrolling down and get a full view of the page.
Since most small businesses undervalue the effectiveness of Facebook ads, I believe creating lead ads on Facebook to be the single most crucial consideration when developing an email list. Facebook’s 2 billion monthly users and targeting options make it a powerful resource for discovering new clients and expanding email databases. Because Facebook lead ads let you create a form that potential customers can fill out without leaving the social media platform, they are especially useful for growing your email list. The freebies advertised in your ad could be anything from an ebook to a checklist, a product sample to an in-depth guide. Lead ads on Facebook are effective if you’ve targeted the right audience and your lead magnets are particularly compelling to them.
I don’t recommend buying an existing email list from a third party because the demographics and interests of those people might not fit your target consumer base criteria. Additionally, the chances are high that many of those emails are no longer active. If businesses want to build an email list, I suggest they do so with opt-in pages and exchange value-filled content for the prospect’s contact details. Paid advertisements are the way to go to drive traffic to their opt-in page. Email marketing is beneficial because it helps maximize a business’s potential revenue. However, email marketing works best to nurture existing patrons and develop relationships to increase customer lifetime value.
Use Giveaway Strategies to Build Email Leads Quickly
A solid strategy for growing targeted email leads fast is to use a giveaway strategy through social media. Giveaways build buzz around a brand by offering discounts or prizes to users who sign up for emails and tag their friends. Giveaways can quickly and effectively persuade many leads to sign up for email subscriptions depending on the prizes. Signing up is low-risk for users and relatively low-cost for businesses that gain additional traffic and conversions from their newfound customers.
To retain new users most efficiently, companies must be sure to follow up these giveaway campaigns with other campaigns designed to engage user action with a brand. If brands fail to follow up, they may see a drop in their newly acquired leads after announcing the winners of the giveaway.
Use social media to your advantage. Grow a following there and have a link to your email list for special offers. You need to have a value proposition when getting people to sign up for emails, and that could include a chance to be alerted to new product drops, sales, or even a discount code on their next purchase.
Everyone loves being treated as unique individuals, and when a business accommodates this all-important factor in their email promotions, the response is bound to be favorable. After all, who doesn’t enjoy the right kind of attention? In personalizing email content and even delivering offers that are unique to a customer, a small business is able to provide services that few larger companies can. This helps them stand apart from their competition and gives customers a valid reason to do business with them.
If your business has a ton of content, you can leverage email sign-ups so that only members can gain access to it. This is an effective way to build up your email list as you’re offering exclusive content in exchange for just an email address. The content you offer them can range from articles and ebooks to even educational courses and videos. If you are an eCommerce site, you may even be able to give your members access to exclusive deals and first-dibs on new releases.
It’s up to you if you want membership to be paid, but if it’s free, make sure this is clear to your audience as most people will be turned away from the initial sign-up request. Offering exclusive content through email sign-ups will help you build a list of valuable members as these are ones who are frequent viewers of your business and website.
One of the best ways to grow your email list is to collaborate with other businesses, especially those in complementary industries. If you’re in e-commerce, partner with a local brick-and-mortar business to offer a discount to customers who sign up for your email list. Or, if you’re a B2B company, collaborate with another business to co-host an event or webinar – you can promote the event through your email list and collect sign-ups at the same time. Collaboration is not only a great way to grow your email list, but also build relationships with other businesses in your industry.
There are several reasons why focusing on quality over quantity is the best tip for building email lists. First, when businesses focus on quality, they are more likely to attract subscribers who are actually interested in what they have to offer. This means that businesses are more likely to generate leads and sales from their email list.
Secondly, when businesses focus on quality, they are more likely to build a list of subscribers who are less likely to unsubscribe. This means that businesses will be able to keep their email list active for a longer period of time, which will ultimately lead to more leads and sales. Finally, when businesses focus on quality, they are more likely to create a better overall experience for their subscribers. This means that subscribers are more likely to remain on the list and continue to engage with the business.
Using the social media sharing option in your emails increases click-through rate (CTR) as compared to not using it. And you can engage more people to become part of your email list. Additionally, you can get many more benefits by adding a social sharing option in your email like:
– Giving a sharing option to your recipient allows you to increase your reach. If your existing customers like something they share it with their family and co-workers which drives more potential customers to join your email list.
– It improves your SEO ranking because too many shares on social media engage good traffic and more link backs to your website, which will definitely improve your SEO.
Remember that, you can further find out which offers people love to share. So you can consider this next time to get more subscribers.
It can often be treated like throwing paint at a canvas to see what sticks, but actually, a smaller more purposefully built email list can be much more successful, especially when it comes to press contacts.
Firstly, you will contact people who are actually keen to hear from you, and you won’t be getting highlighted as spam by certain journalists or even entire journalist teams. When growing this list, I think it is best practice to reach out first, introduce yourself and your business and ask them if they would mind you reaching out with future events or announcements. This more personal touch is much more likely to see a positive response, as opposed to them just starting to receive emails from somebody they’ve never interacted with, and a company they’ve never heard from
Start as early as you can. It’s like with investing: it’s always a good time to start but you always wish you bought that Bitcoin in 2012. As soon as you start getting your first leads, sign-ups, or customers, add them to the email list (of course, you need to ask first). Even if you don’t start sending them emails right away, you’ll have them in your database and you can always come back to them.
One tactic I’ve found to be quite effective for building an email list is to give away a free product or service. To be clear, the product or service shouldn’t require much time, effort or money. For example, if you operate a local bakery, think about offering a free mini cookie if the person signs up for your email newsletter. If you operate a law firm, it could be an invite to a free 30-minute webinar with a licensed attorney. The key is the free product or service should be enticing enough to lure the consumer to sign-up for your email list, but not enough to completely satisfy their needs.
What is one benefit of outsourcing your email marketing initiatives?
To help you appreciate the benefits of outsourcing your email marketing initiatives, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their best insights. From bringing in fresh perspectives to your initiatives to getting highly personalized email marketing, there are several benefits that you could gain from outsourcing your email marketing to experienced professionals.
Here are nine benefits these leaders gain from outsourcing their email marketing initiatives:
Bring in Fresh Perspectives to Your Initiatives
Save Costs on Recruiting and Training of In-House Team
Ensure High Quality Writing
Improve Response Rates With Professional Expert
Free Employees for Other Productive Tasks
Reduce Cost Through Selective Outsourcing
Guaranteed Email Delivery
Free Your Time to Focus on Higher-Level Business
Get Highly Personalized Email Marketing
Bring in Fresh Perspectives to Your Initiatives
Getting a fresh perspective on your initiative. While internal marketers are already familiar with brand voice and directives, someone from the outside will be able to look at the company messaging from a different point of view. Outsourcing marketing initiatives can be an advantageous strategy because they can think outside the box. While they may need time to get up to speed with brand information, the outsider’s point of view can better assess the needs of the average consumer. Getting a fresh perspective is key.
Save Costs on Recruiting and Training of In-House Team
Building a team of in-house email marketers will require precious time and resources — resources that could be put to better use in other areas of your organization. Your HR teams will need to work twice as hard to fill new roles, train the new hires and track their progress. Outsourcing these email marketing campaigns to seasoned experts is way more affordable than handling this mammoth task yourself and the best part — you’ll have the desired results without any guesswork or experimentation.
We all have our fields of expertise and if writing is not one of yours, then outsourcing your email marketing initiatives is a wise choice. You can have great products and services, but if you do not know how to catch the attention of your reader with your writing, or how to properly guide the recipient into your sales funnel, then it will matter little about the quality of your offerings.
Having a skilled writer craft your subject lines, engage the reader from the first sentence of your content body, and know how to get your most important message across in the fewest amount of words, will be critical in your success. In outsourcing your email marketing initiatives to skilled professionals, you will ensure that the content of your promotional efforts is of the highest quality, and could be the difference between further engagement or having a sales opportunity slip away.
The effectiveness of an email marketing campaign is directly related to campaign-specific conversion metrics used to monitor a campaign’s performance. Metrics such as click to open rate ratios, unique click rates, and hard and soft bounce rates, among many other forms of engagement, are monitored to optimize the success of a campaign.
Outsourcing your email marketing initiatives to specialists leads to increased efficiency, and detailed, strategic, and well-written campaigns. This tasks professionals with an abundance of expertise and experience in monitoring key metrics, A/B testing, and developing specialized email copy, which is bound to increase response rates.
Employees can be more productive with their workday instead of focusing on the build of email marketing campaigns. This can be extremely time-consuming and employees can be using their time in a more effective way. Outsourcing allows workers to focus on content strategy while an outside agency goes right to the experts who may be more efficient in delivering the assets and the build. It’s a win-win on both sides.
Outsourcing can be beneficial financially because you do not have to outsource all your marketing. If you just need assistance with one part of it, you can find people to do so. For instance, if you already have a great email template but need someone to help with the copywriting aspect, you can outsource for that so that you do not have to pay someone for all other parts of your marketing emails. Take advantage of the freedom to choose exactly what you need to outsource so that you can still keep some of your email marketing resources in-house and save money.
In an email marketing campaign, the deliverability of emails plays a major role in the success of the campaign. There are a lot of factors such as being blocked by ISPs, emails landing in spam folders, A/B testing for headlines so that they don’t get flagged by spam filters, etc. If you are trying to do this with an in-house team or by yourself this can be a challenge.
Outsourcing to email marketers or firms who constantly do campaigns and are always up to date with the latest trends and updates will help ensure that your emails reach the audience’s inbox. This can be a major factor in the success of your campaign. It can also ensure that the graphics and images don’t get striped in the delivery and your email marketing campaign can convert the prospects to customers.
One benefit of outsourcing your email marketing initiatives is that you can focus on the higher-level aspects of your business. You no longer have to worry about the nitty-gritty details of managing your email list, sending out emails, and tracking results. Instead, you can focus on making sure that you are providing an excellent product or service to your customers and clients. This will help them become more loyal fans who will continue to recommend your company to their friends and family members.
Personalized messages are one benefit of outsourcing your email marketing campaigns. Due to a lack of time and money, many businesses see the value of personalized emails but do not implement them within their own operations. When you outsource, providing knowledgeable prospects and other employees with 1:1 tailored experiences is hassle-free. Make your email campaign stand out from the competition by adding customization down to the smallest details.
Implement an email campaign that would produce a measurable return on investment by utilizing the prospect’s existing information. Someone needs to spend time and expertise on doing this. An efficient email campaign is the result of hours of steadfast work, from setting up automated behavioral triggers in the mail to carefully selecting extremely enticing photos. The best course of action for email personalization is outsourcing. Your consumers will feel appreciated and receive exactly what they need thanks to those targeted emails.
To help you best identify the causes for email marketing campaign failures, we asked marketing experts and business leaders this question for their best insights. From focusing on open rates instead of click rates to using outdated subscriber lists, there are several reasons for email campaign failures that you may learn from to best address any problems with your email marketing strategies.
Here are 11 reasons why an email marketing campaign may fail:
Focusing on Open Rates Instead of Click Rates
Ineffective Subject Lines
Not Putting Enough Thought into Your Copy
Not Doing A/B Testing to Identify the Best Strategies
Incorrect Email-Targeting Strategy
Sending Emails Without Permissions
Emails Being of No Clear Value to Subscribers
Emails Rely too Heavily on Imagery
Your Emails Are Not Welcoming Enough
Inability to Personalize Emails in a Cookieless World
Using an Outdated Subscriber List
Focusing on Open Rates Instead of Click Rates
Sending an email that does not promote an actionable response does little good to provide something other than awareness, and this is why marketers should instead focus on optimizing emails for clicks. Open rates are growing more and more unreliable, especially in the wake of iOS 15 where all emails default to an open, often giving a business a false read on the effectiveness of their email campaigns.
The goal should not be to increase open rates, but rather to encourage actual engagement. Therefore, your attention should be on sending the right content to the right audiences at the right time, making certain there is a prominent call to action, as well as visually engaging and interactive elements, and punchy headlines that creates a sense of urgency. By not incorporating click-boosting elements into your emails, you may get subscribers to open them, but the likely result will be a quick deletion or missed sales conversion.
The biggest reason email marketing strategies fail is because the offer is never read. This means that you must write short, enticing subject lines that urge the recipient to actually click to view the email’s contents. Think of your subject line as a sneak peek to what’s inside, so be sure to include any sales, discounts or important company information – as space allows.
Copywriting isn’t the same as writing long-form content. The latter aims to inform while the former aims to sell. And if your advertising copy is boring, sub-par, and simply not eye-catching enough, even the best content will go missed by your customers. To really nail this element of your email marketing campaign, study some of the most effective campaigns to get better at creating impactful copy that will reel in your customers.
Not Doing A/B Testing to Identify the Best Strategies
You need to do some A/B testing to better understand what email marketing strategies are more useful. Every business is different and has different email audiences, and this is why A/B testing is such an important method for identifying the best email marketing strategies for your particular business. Otherwise, you will feel lost in terms of how to increase your email engagement.
It is incorrectly targeted. People are savvy about their email use and are already flooded with content and even spam mail, and they will ignore or delete emails that aren’t immediately relevant to their interests. It is essential to target your emails and the specifics of the campaign to people who have relevant interest in your brand. By being more specific, you can cut through the noise and get noticed by consumers who are willing to engage with your brand. Targeting the most relevant leads is key.
You have probably already been the subject of an unauthorized email marketing campaign. Similarly, you can certainly understand why a consumer cleans out their inbox and starts clicking the “unsubscribe” buttons on emails. When customers feel like they’ve been tricked into receiving tons of emails from marketers, they typically feel like their privacy has been invaded. Most of the time, they will delete your emails, unsubscribe from your list, and in the worst-case scenario report you as spam. Avoid having your messages blocked and automatically redirected to the spam bin by obtaining permission from your target audience instead.
Your emails must convince a busy consumer or professional to provide you permission to send them periodical messages. A small “sign up for our newsletter” button is not enough in today’s digital age. You need to provide clear value to subscribers via compelling content, insightful information, special deals, or other tactics to command their attention and inspire action. If you can’t accomplish this, then your email marketing campaign will inevitably fail.
We all know how fickle email service providers can be when it comes to serving images correctly, especially in a newsletter format where there may be multiple. If you’re already struggling with deliverability issues or you’re seeing a decline in open rates, the last thing you should do is add more images. Even campaigns from the outset can fail because they rely too heavily on images, and the end result is a spammy-looking email template that doesn’t resonate with audiences. Stick to plain text where possible, and use images sparingly.
Don’t forget the welcome email! Would you decide to skip the “Hi, how are you doing? I’ve missed you,” part of the phone call with an old friend because you were already friends with them? No! The same goes for marketing email campaigns.
Just because your email campaign is going out to your subscribers does not mean you can skip the welcome email – the welcome email is actually the most important part and has the highest open rate. The welcome email is your way to connect with your subscribers, deepen your relationship, let them know how special they are to you, and tell them what exciting things your campaign has in store for them. And because subscribers like knowing how special they are to you, welcome emails have the highest open – so take advantage of this guaranteed visibility. If you’re lazy and decide to skip the welcome email, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to connect with your audience and your campaign may fail.
Inability to Personalize Emails in a Cookieless World
Optimizing the user experience, delivering personalized messages, and maximizing consent rates — all while respecting users’ privacy is crucial to any email marketing campaign’s success. In a future without third-party cookies, successful email marketers will be those that prioritize gathering first-party data; user data from their own websites, app, social channels, etc. Then they’ll need to use it responsibly by emphasizing consent-based approaches.
One reason an email marketing campaign might fail is outdated data. You can have the most attractive deal ever, but still fall short because of inactive subscribers. Always maintain the most up to date information on your email subscriber list and remove unengaged users regularly. Another good tip for this is to run email verification on subscribers that have not been emailed in thirty-plus days.
What are the best back-to-school email marketing campaign strategies?
To help you best target your back-to-school email marketing campaigns, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their best strategies. From making the campaign relevant for all ages to appealing to college students with contests, there are several strategies that may help your email campaigns win over customers to patronize your back-to-school offerings.
Here are eight back-to-school email campaign strategies:
Make The Campaign Relevant for All Ages
Entice With a Buy-One-Donate-One Offer
Highlight Relevant Self-Care Routines
Launch a Back-to-School Loyalty Program
Offer Exclusive Discounts and Coupons
Structure The Email Like a Class Schedule
Personalize Your Emails
Appeal to College Students With Contests
Make The Campaign Relevant for All Ages
Incorporate the back-to-school theme for everyone! Make the idea seem relevant for those no longer in school to avoid unwanted messages. For example, play with the wording by using the theme as a time for everyone to learn something new or take a refresher course. Try something like, “When the kids head back to school, choose a new hobby like yoga. Use this 20% off coupon to start learning today!”
One of the best back-to-school marketing email campaigns is buy one, donate one. For every purchase a customer makes, donate one of the same items, or the monetary equivalent, to a charity that helps students in need. Those who want to make a difference will prefer to buy your product over another business. Additionally, the charitable donation and associated marketing will hugely boost brand awareness.
Self-care during the school year is so important. How are students supporting their mental and physical well-being after class, homework, and extracurricular activities? Brands can highlight self-care routines such as product recommendations or tactics that lower stress levels. This is a relevant and timely marketing campaign that puts the consumer first.
One solid back-to-school email marketing campaign strategy is launching a loyalty program. Alongside back-to-school sales, have your email newsletter offer students, parents, or teachers the chance to enroll in your customer loyalty program. Tell them all the reasons to keep coming back and why your program is the best. Go a step further and incorporate how it can help them achieve in the classroom too.
Many companies ramp up their marketing efforts during the back-to-school season, as parents and students alike are looking for great deals on everything from clothes to school supplies. However, with so many businesses vying for attention, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd.
One way to make your company’s email marketing campaign stand out is to offer exclusive discounts and coupons to subscribers. This will not only entice recipients to open your emails, but it will also encourage them to take advantage of your special offers. You can also segment your email list by school district or type of student (e.g., elementary, middle, or high school), which will allow you to customize your message and ensure that it is relevant to each recipient. By taking the time to craft a well-targeted and engaging email campaign, you can make sure that your business gets noticed by the right people during the busy back-to-school season.
We’re firm believers in the equation that if you make emails fun, people will read them and scroll further. A great back-to-school example would be to structure your email in a way that reads like a class schedule. Start with “Period 1: Math”, then offer your tips or product recommendations such as a calculator. Next, “Period 2: English”, then offer the same such as a dictionary or writing utensils. You can even break out funny things like “lunch” or “recess” and feature a lunchbox or sport supplies. A big part of email marketing is being able to put your reader in the environment of what you’re discussing and this is a clever way to do that.
One tip is to personalize your emails. By including students’ names in the subject lines of your emails, you can make them more likely to open the messages. Additionally, including students’ names in the content of your emails can help create a more personal connection with your readers. This will result in more engaged readers, who are more likely to take action on the content you provide.
Marketing to college students is a bit different from marketing to the parents of K-12 school children. In college, many students begin to become responsible for their own finances so they have a desire to save money as much as possible.
One way to appeal to this demographic is to include a contest in the newsletter. The contest could have a prize that would be highly desirable for college students such as a laptop or an Amazon gift card. The email can include a CTA asking people to share it on social media in order to generate more buzz around the contest, and therefore, more sales. It could be an essay contest or a drawing contest to give students the chance to showcase their creativity. Of course, the overall theme of the newsletter would be back-to-school, so it can also include fun trivia facts and reviews or insights from other college students. Ideally, the contest winner should be announced at least two weeks prior to when students return to the classroom.
How To Code a Button Into an Image Text Block In Mailchimp
There are some things that the Classic Builder in Mailchimp cannot do and this is one of them. When you use the Drag N Drop Builder to pull in an “Image + Text” block, there is no option to have a clickable button within that same block.
Well, this little html code does the trick. What’s cool is that you can edit the HEX code in here to create the exact type of button you’d like.
First, when you’re in your text block, you will want to click this button <> and paste the code Into this.
You should plan to edit the coding some below to whatever you need for your button. Make sure you update the link in the coding below to your own link and you can also change the “Learn More” text too.
Simply copy and paste this coding below into your text block:
What is your top tip for creating engaging subject lines for email content?
To help you create engaging subject lines for your email content, we asked marketing experts and business leaders this question for their best tips. From appealing to consumers’ desires not to miss out to highlighting a solution with the subject line, there are several ideas that you may adopt as best practices to help perfect your email subject lines.
Here are 10 best practices to write the perfect email subject line:
Appeal To Consumers’ Desires Not To Miss Out
Ensure The Subject Line is Under 50 Characters Long
Make The Subject Line Bold and Daring
Create Action-Oriented Subject Lines
Add Numbers To Grab the Attention
Use Emojis To Help Your Email Stand Out
Avoid Anything Spammy
Entice Readers With Actionable Subject Lines
A/B-Test and Iterate on Your Subject Lines for Mastery
Highlight a Solution With The Subject Line
Appeal To Consumers’ Desires Not To Miss Out
By appealing to consumers’ desires not to miss out, you can create engaging subject lines for your email content. Use words and phrases like “Limited time,” “going fast, “while supplies last,” and “limited quantities.” Put these words and phrases in your subject lines. You’ll boost your Click-Through Rates.
Ensure The Subject Line is Under 50 Characters Long
Because most consumers read emails on mobile devices, try to utilize shorter email subject lines. In mobile view, longer lines aren’t as effective. You won’t be able to pique your readers’ interest in your product or services if you can’t keep their attention for at least a few seconds after they read the subject line of your email. Ensure the subject line is under 50 characters long. Make sure you choose terminology that is easy to understand.
Be bold and concise. Email subject lines need to grab the reader immediately while also being clear about the content you are delivering. Standing out is half the battle, but even a bold subject line needs to be relevant to your content. Boil down the essence of your email in a way that your target audience will understand and be drawn to. Don’t be afraid to stand out, and use the clearest words to inform them what they are opening.
The most engaging email subject lines are action-oriented. Email is a quick and convenient way to receive information, but it doesn’t offer users many ways to engage with your content. Therefore, you should use a subject line that urges readers to click through and read your email, rather than offering a quick one-liner that gives them a basic overview of its content. Email is a more intimate form of communication than social media. Therefore, you should use a subject line that reflects your personal connection with readers, rather than a generic statement about the topic of your email.
Saying ‘discounts on products’ and ‘discounts on 100+ products’ has a vast difference. While discount on products is just telling that you’re offering discounts, you’re not giving any data on how many products, how much discount, the offer is valid for how many days etc. On the contrary, saying discounts on 100+ products seem more attractive because the recipient knows they have 100 products to choose from.
Adding numbers is a must if you want to increase the open rate. It makes the subject line much more informative and gives data, and customers love that. But make sure you’re not overdoing it. Adding one number whether it be days, discount percentage, a number of services etc. is great. Adding two to three looks too cluttered which can also make the audience overwhelmed.
Using emojis in your email subject lines can be effective in grabbing the attention of your recipient and increasing your email open rates in an age of overfull inboxes. Emojis can also imply friendliness or playfulness which can help to improve audience engagement. Plus, one emoji is worth a thousand words. Well, maybe not quite a thousand but they can help convey a theme or emotion when subject line space is at a premium. But, be careful, as overuse of emojis can seem spammy or childish. Try to stick to a maximum of 1 emoji where possible.
Get rid of anything spammy. People have developed an amazing radar for sales copy, and they know now better than ever when you are trying to sell them something. Common phrases and words like “special offer” won’t work anymore. There are many online lists of words that are now considered spam. Before writing any part of your email, make sure you are not using any of the words listed there.
Actionable subject lines create the desire to click open. Without this the email is a failure. With so many a day coming in, make yours stand out by being attention-grabbing and fun or dramatic. “We Need 20 Volunteers THIS Saturday!” or “Make Your Weekend Memorable” is more likely to get a click than “Volunteering.” Grab your reader’s attention with an engaging subject line that has a call to action.
A/B-Test and Iterate on Your Subject Lines for Mastery
Constantly A/B test and iterate on your subject lines. Once a campaign has run for a few weeks, drop the lower-performing subject line, and test a new one. Over time, the most engaging subject lines will emerge.
When you are selling a product or service and highlight a solution that will make the life of the customer easier, you trigger the curiosity of the customer and increase the chances of them opening the email. And this solution that you’re offering to the customer is something you should highlight not just in the subject line but elaborate on throughout the body of the email too. This way, while the subject line acts as the hook that engages the customer, the content you include in the email and the CTA will justify what you offered and enable the customer to take the next step.
