Just like starting a new workout regimen, maintaining an effective email marketing strategy requires some good habits. Getting into the right routine will not only help you keep your campaigns fresh, but will also help them stay on track.
Not sure where to start? Fear not – I’ve rounded up the eight most critical habits of effective email marketers.
1. They Test Their Campaigns
The secret to success in email marketing has little to do with luck – it’s all about testing. Get into the habit of A/B testing your campaigns to determine which elements have the biggest impact on your open rates. A few simple things you could test include:
- Subject lines
- Send times
- Call-to-action buttons
- Content
2. They Keep An Eye On Their Results
Not only do the most effective email marketers test different elements of their campaigns, but they also carefully monitor the results. The interest and needs of your subscribers will change and evolve over time, which means that the most effective type of message will also change. Keep an eye on a variety of metrics: open rates, click rates and opens by specific devices. You’ll be able to figure out what type of content best hits the mark with your subscribers.
3. They Automate As Much As They Can
Why do all the hard work yourself? Automating your email marketing can save you time and even boost your open rates. Research shows that automated email messages have about a 70.5% higher open rate than non-automated messages. There are plenty of email messages you can automate–welcome emails, thank-you messages, birthday greetings and more.
4. They Always Personalize Their Emails
Doesn’t it feel good when someone remembers your name or recalls some little detail about you? Getting an email that speaks to your interests and needs isn’t much different – that’s why the best email marketers make a habit of personalizing their emails as much as possible. Segmenting your list based on consumer behavior or demographic information is a good way to start. You can then use dynamic content to create super-targeted, highly personalized emails.
5. They Pay Attention To Their Email Copy
Subject lines are vital for inspiring people to open your email messages in the first place, but don’t forget to put effort into the actual body of the email. Let’s face it – people don’t want to wade through long-winded walls of text, especially when they’re probably overloaded with emails already. Keep your emails short and sweet, and stay relevant throughout the message. If you have a lot of information to share, break it up with bullets, numbered lists and subheadings.
6. They Follow Best Practices For Email Design
The look and feel of your email plays a big role in determining whether a subscriber keeps reading or simply deletes the message. Smart email marketers employ good design strategies in their emails, crafting reader-friendly messages with eye-catching colors and engaging images as well as making sure that emails look good on desktop screens as well as on mobile devices.
7. They’re Not Afraid To Experiment
Don’t let the fear of making mistakes keep you from reaching your true email marketing potential. Sometimes you need to step outside your comfort zone and take a chance. In most cases, the potential benefits of trying something new outweigh the risk of missing the mark with a handful of subscribers.
8. They Quality Check Before Sending
There is nothing worse than sending an email and then realizing that you missed a typo or that a link is incorrect. Great content marketers will send test emails first to ensure that everything is correct and that images are displaying as they should on all browsers, devices and email clients.
If your current email marketing software doesn’t give you control over one or more of these 8 habits, consider switching to one that better fits your needs.
Success Comes From Consistency
If you want to ensure that your email campaigns achieve the results you want, you need to emulate the habits of successful email marketers. It takes time to establish new routines, but if you can adopt these habits you’ll have a better chance of finding success in your email marketing.