If you’re going to spend your hard earned money you need to know you’re going to gain more than you’re spending, otherwise why would you spend it?

As far as safe bets go email marketing is one of the safest for your marketing pound; reports generally indicate you can expect to get a 28 times return on your investment (if you’re doing it well!).

Ever wondered why high street retailers are falling over themselves to get your email every time you want to buy a new pair of jeans? This is exactly why!

Here are ten elements to think about to make sure that you’re getting back way more than you spend on email…

Sender Name

When you get an email you see two things; who it’s from and what it’s about (the email subject). Much attention is often given to the subject line, and rightly so, but also think about who you’re sending it from. Give it a personal name rather than your company; it gives it a less corporate feel and will increase the amount of people opening it.

Getting the subject right

You do still need to get the subject line right though!
Emails with subject lines containing 30 or fewer characters have the best open rates.
Have good quality data and the name of people you’re sending to?
Emails with personalised subject lines are more than 20% more likely to get opened.

Mark sure it works on mobile

45% of email opens were made on a mobile in 2015. Just like websites, if you’ve not got a responsive design then you’re missing out on a lot of potential trade. If you’ve got an old email template then now is the time to refresh, before it’s all too late!

Great content

Online marketing isn’t rocket science. If you’re sending email you’re also getting information about the content your subscriber list want to read (the ones they click on the most). Give the masses what they want and you’ll be far more profitable for it.

When are you sending?

Email marketing logic tells you that certain times of the day and days of the week will give you a better open rate but your database is a living and breathing organism. Find out what works for your own list; it will be different to mine and the next guy you meet. Trial and error. Trial and error.

Just avoid Saturdays!

Big buttons!

Kills me as a lover of refined design, but make it obvious where to click. Big and bold buttons work great; you’ll get those click throughs coming at a rate of knots.

Don’t believe me? Ask Barak Obama; when he was running for some small job in the US of A he trebled fundraising efforts with some bigger buttons! He’s now the leader of the free world by the way!

Linking images and titles

You want them to click, so make it easy. So often people don’t link article titles or images. Why not? You’re missing out. People like easy. I like easy. Make it easy and they’ll love your emails!

Call to action at the end

What is it you want them to do? Presumably not just read your email! You want them to buy something, to use you to do something. The person that doesn’t ask doesn’t get, so are you asking at the end of your email?

Why are they receiving the email?

An essential line for most marketing emails. Why have they got the email? If you’re including this make sure you get it right! The amount of emails I get that say I’ve received the email because I’ve signed up on their website leaves my head spinning.

I’ve not signed up!

Unsubscribe Link

Data protection means they need to be able to say goodbye. Always keep it at the end of the email though; you don’t want to encourage them!

If you need help with email marketing or template design give us a call on 01566 232323 and we’d be happy to talk it through with you.