By: Ingram Micro Marketing Department
Ever considered using artificial intelligence to help segment your audience? Or what about using three different fonts at the most in your customer email? Read our top 10 email marketing best practices to keep your marketing email game on point.
1. Personalize your email
Personalization is the key to developing a loyal audience. It is now expected as part of the digital purchasing experience, according to 71% of consumers (McKinsey).
2. Avoid purchasing contact lists
Purchasing email lists violates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires opt-in consent from contacts. In addition to avoiding potential legal issues, it’s more impactful to earn your email subscribers because email campaigns depend on a healthy open rate. And those who chose to subscribe are more likely to open your company’s emails.
3. Use three different fonts or less
Stick with two primary font types for the text of your email and make sure the text is not smaller than 12 point. You might have a “title” font type and a body text font type to help differentiate content. Font types will depend on your branding but stay consistent.
4. Have the email come from a specific contact or team your audience would recognize
Think about your audience and whom they might want to hear from. It’s a good idea to have the email you send out come from a person or team they might recognize. Your customers are more likely to engage with your email and your content if your message comes from a person or team they are used to interacting with.
5. Optimize your email’s preview text
Typically, the preview text, or a brief description of your email content, is shown in your inbox before your customers open their email pulling the first few words of the email’s body content. Preview text can support your email subject line by adding more details about your message. Adding and optimizing preview text can drastically improve your email open rates.
6. Include relative links and social media handles
Make sure to include links related to the content you create in your email. Take your customers to the specific resource on your website or create a landing page that’s tailored to the email’s content. Including social media handles can also help your customers connect more directly with your brand in a different medium—from LinkedIn to Instagram—giving your customers all different ways to engage with your company.
7. Include interactive language and graphics
Audiences respond better to engaging text, so be sure to use “active” verbs like “discover,” “watch,” “click,” or “tap” in your content. For those who prefer watching or listening to reading, consider different ways to include your message in the body of your email. For example, you might provide a new product teaser video with a call-to-action button linking to the full video that lives on your product page.
8. Include one-to-two calls to action (CTA)
Consider the goal of your email and what action you want your audience to take. Many CTAs in one email may confuse
your audience, so it’s important to narrow it down to one or two with your goal in mind. Keep it simple!
9. Create a top-tier user experience
Try to reduce touchpoints and make it easy for customers to access information. For example, if you are having a sale, provide your audience with a CTA that links directly to the sale page. Don’t be afraid to invest in some artificial intelligence automation as well. These tools can help simplify and automate repetitive tasks such as curating your subscriber lists (Digital Marketing Institute).
10. Monitor the data
As with all things in marketing, monitoring your email platform’s data in addition to web analytics can provide valuable insights into what your customers enjoy the most about your company. Clickthrough, conversion and bounce rates (Hubspot) are some of the top email marketing analytics to consider among others that align with your marketing goals.
