6 Musts For Every Email Marketing Campaign

With everyone’s attention focused on the latest social media trends, many have all but forgotten about the original social network: email. Email marketing is an essential part of any integrated marketing campaign. It’s inexpensive and effective, allowing any size business to reach a large number of consumers at a rate of pennies.

While many things make an email marketing campaign effective, there are certain essentials that every campaign must have to be successful.

1. Responsive Template Design: It’s critical to build a template that your subscribers can view from anywhere. Your design should adjust for easy reading based on the type of device or email platform a subscriber is using. For example, email text should get bigger on a smart phone so subscribers don’t have to zoom in.
2. HTML Text: Not all email clients show images automatically. Optimize your emails for images-off viewing using ALT text and HTML text. ALT text is used to tell your subscribers what’s depicted in an image they may not be able to see. HTML text, or live text, is copy entered as HTML code to ensure subscribers see it no matter what. Don’t put the bulk of your copy in an image.
3. Opt-In / Opt-Out Process: Make opting-in or out of your emails easy for subscribers. On your opt-in form, only include 2-4 fields for subscribers to fill in. If you want to collect more details, you can always include a link in your template to easily allow subscribers to update and add additional information to their profile. Opting-out should be just as easy. Include an unsubscribe button in every email. Making it difficult to unsubscribe won’t help you keep active subscribers. It will only hurt your sender reputation.
4. List Scrubbing: All email marketing campaigns must have good list hygiene to keep a positive reputation. Remove inactive email addresses, unsubscribes and hard bounces from your send lists regularly. Keep an eye on your soft bounces to see if they need purging as well.
5. Automated Emails: Marketing automation could set your campaign apart from your competitors. Automated emails are set up based on specific triggers or information. Welcome emails can be sent when a new subscriber signs up. This is your first impression to new subscribers, so make it a good one. It also encourages new subscribers to engage with you right off the bat. Automated emails based on informational triggers such as birthdays or anniversaries can also be set up to make your subscribers feel a special, personal connection with your brand.
6. Reporting & Analytics: Behind every good email marketing campaign is solid reporting and strong analytics. Continuously monitor your campaigns to see what’s working and what’s not. Define the goals of your email marketing campaign and track the metrics so you can see if you are meeting those goals.

These tips are just to get you started. Email marketing can be as simple or as complex as you’d like to make it. Stay tuned as we continue to share more email marketing tips and tricks.