Email Marketing Must Haves (Part 2)

In this second part of our email marketing series, we introduce more must-have components for your next email campaign!

Personalisation

We like to think that we are unique individuals in a school of faceless people. That’s why messages that are intuitive and understanding to our needs captures our attention so effectively. As such, marketers stress the importance of personalising messages to create a more human experience for their audiences. Here, it is all about using common sense and technology to create impactful, relevant content.

One way to make emails more personal is by segmenting your mailing list. By narrowing the scope of a campaign based on chosen variables (e.g. demographics, regions), this helps to ensure that your content is most applicable to the user. 

For example, mailing lists can be segmented based on time zones. As most users would probably check their emails in the day, marketers can systematically send emails based on different daytime hours. This helps to increase the probability of openings.

Another useful tool is dynamic content, automated HTML content that personalises information for the receiver. By obtaining basic insights about their consumers, brands can replace specific, modifiable fields with these data to create an email that uniquely addresses to them. 

Dynamic tags can enable an email to address the user by name, or even showcase exclusive, gender specific content. Once coded in, changes can be generated even on massive mailing lists, which is great as it gives that personal touch without compromising on efficiency. 

Unsubscribe Option

To the everyday user, nothing’s more annoying than being bombarded with unwanted emails. All it does is clutter the inbox and distract you from attending to more important stuff. In many ways, these messages are like the clingy insurance agents you might tackle on the street; You don’t want to hear what they have to say, but they just don’t seem to get the hint! 

There are reasons why a reader isn’t interested, but none to warrant a lack of respect by denying their right to choose. No one likes to feel as if they are being cornered and force fed with information. This is why having an option to unsubscribe is essential. As much as it is important to maintain a healthy mailing list to reach out to target audiences, having empathy for your readers will leave a more positive impression.  

A Purpose

Ultimately, letters are not written to look pretty or sound poetic – they are to inform. This also applies to email marketing. Why should your message be compelling enough to convince someone to open and spend their time reading? There should be a purpose behind every campaign, and it has to effectively convey some form of value to its readers.

Think about the emails you receive on a daily basis, and a pattern emerges. Many, if not most, are crafted to make you take action. Facebook sends notification emails urging users to revisit the site. Flipboard provides a daily roundup about the latest news, encouraging people to read on their web page. It is all about bringing something novel to the table, be it in the form of updates, new developments or unique angles.

With that in mind, build content around these principles. Having a clear objective of how emails can be used to benefit both the brand and the reader is essential in creating meaningful messages that are worth the effort. And when it comes to writing  –  keep words simple and direct. Users don’t want to read between the lines just to get into the meat of things. If they have to, they will move on.

Coming up with an impressive email campaign is not as simple as putting pen to paper. But remember to include these essential traits, and you are on your way to being BFFs with your best and most effective marketing tool!