In today’s fast-paced digital world, email marketing continues to be a vital tool for businesses to connect with their audience.
Despite the rise of social media and other communication channels, email remains an effective means of engaging customers, driving conversions, and nurturing relationships.
However, with inboxes overflowing with promotional messages, it’s crucial for marketers to adopt best practices that ensure their emails stand out from the crowd.
Today, let’s delve into the world of email marketing and explore some intriguing and entertaining best practices to help you become the ultimate master!
1. The magic is in the subject line
Imagine the subject line as the gateway to your email kingdom.
A compelling subject line acts as a hook, enticing recipients to open your email.
When in doubt, try to incorporate humor, curiosity, or personalization to grab attention. For example, “Do you have the time to read this email? (Spoiler alert: It’s worth it!)” creates intrigue and sparks curiosity.
Another great tip for subject lines is to make them one word…think something like, “Wow!” (sounds silly, right? But believe it or not, one-word subject lines traditionally lead to higher open rates).
Looking for further “inspo” or support when it comes to subject lines? We wrote this blog post back in 2021, but upon review, the tips still ring true!
2. Tell stories that resonate
Humans are natural storytellers and story consumers.
Use the power of storytelling to create a memorable and engaging email experience. Share real-life customer success stories or narrate your brand’s journey.
Make it relatable, emotional, and authentic. By connecting on a deeper level, you’ll captivate readers and leave a lasting impact.
Another great way to tell stories is to reach out to your customers and ask if you can share their experience with your product/service. You can even have them write up the story in their own words, which is a great example of UGC (user-generated content).
Buffer wrote this great article all about UGC and how it’s the way of the future for many brands and organizations. Check it out!
3. Consider incorporating interactive content
Engage readers by incorporating interactive elements into your emails.
Some great examples of interactive elements are:
- Surveys
- Quizzes
- Polls
These interactive elements encourage recipients to actively participate, fostering a sense of involvement and fun (and who doesn’t love a little fun in their inbox!?).
Interactive content not only boosts engagement but also provides valuable insights into customer preferences and behavior.
So when in doubt, spice up your content and encourage your email marketing recipients to participate — it’ll be fun (and informational) for all.
4. Make sure you’re considering the visuals
Humans are visual beings, and emails with visually appealing elements tend to grab attention.
Make sure you incorporate eye-catching images, GIFs, or even short videos to break up text and make your content more visually appealing.
Take a look at this blog post, “3 Design Best Practices for Email Marketing” to learn more about how you can “beautify” your marketing emails.
But remember — when it comes to visuals, less is more! Ensure your visuals are optimized for different devices and are not overwhelming or distracting. You don’t want to visually overload your audience.
5. Optimize for mobile devices
With the increasing number of people accessing emails on mobile devices, it’s crucial to optimize your emails for mobile viewing.
Ensure your emails are mobile-friendly, with concise content, easily clickable links, and a responsive design.
By catering to the mobile audience, you open doors to increased engagement and conversions. That’s what we want, right?
After all, more and more people are using their mobile devices to read their email and if your communications are not compatible with their device, guess what?
They won’t be interested.
Emails that aren’t mobile-friendly are guaranteed to raise your bounce rate due to poor user experience. Don’t let that happen to you and your business.
6. You best A/B test!
Don’t rely on guesswork when it comes to email marketing.
If you’re truly looking to enhance your long-term email marketing strategy, it’s imperative to A/B test everything. And I do mean everything!
Buttons, fonts, headlines, CTAs, images, messaging — you name it, test it.
If you have any questions regarding how best to A/B test (we love a good rhyme) check out our blog post all about How to Enliven Your Email Marketing Campaigns with A/B Testing.
Implement A/B testing to experiment with various elements such as subject lines, content, CTAs, or visuals. Once implemented, analyze the results to uncover valuable insights and optimize your email campaigns for better engagement and conversion rates.
Email marketing continues to be a powerful and cost-effective tool in a marketer’s arsenal. By incorporating these intriguing and entertaining best practices, you can elevate your email campaigns, captivate your audience, and forge deeper connections with your subscribers.
You know what’s an excellent helper when it comes to email marketing? Marketing automation! So, if you’re looking to revamp or enhance your email marketing efforts, feel free to schedule a Discovery Call with our team to learn how Net-Results Marketing Automation can (and will) help you email market like the boss you are.
To your email marketing success!
Lexie Robbins
Marketing @ Net-Results
