Email Marketing vs Social Media Marketing/Mobile Marketing
We know. Many reckon there is not even necessary to compare. Many would say Social Media Marketing & Mobile Marketing are all the hype now. Some would say Email Marketing is gone.
Think twice. Email Marketing is now more powerful than ever because of social media!
WHY?
This is because Email Marketing moves the conversation between you and your customers up to a more personal level – the Inbox. Moreover, with so many chat apps out there, most of us are joining too many chat groups which do not concern us at all.
So what do most of us do at the end of the day? We start to ignore certain chat apps and no longer reading them.
THE DIFFERENCE
But Email is different. Your email inbox is something more private. Most of us check our email inbox from time to time no matter what. For example, the Exabytes Group, the largest website hosting provider in Malaysia is still using Email Marketing!
So now the question is how can we make sure that the emails you send are opened, read, and acted on?
#1 Good Email Subject Lines
Email subject lines are what your recipients see before they open your emails. You must understand that your email will be competing with hundreds of other emails/e-newsletters as many of us subscribe to quite a number of newsletters from different companies at the same time. To grab the attention of your readers, the quality of your Email Subject Line is what makes all the difference.
For examples, if you offer 50% off for ABC package, which of the following subjects would you choose?
Subject 1: Grab 50% OFF For Our ABC Package!
Subject 2: How to Pay RM500 LESS for ABC Package!
Obviously, subject 2 creates more curiosity and is able to grab readers’ attention. On the other hand, subject 1 is less attention grabbing. At the same time, you also want to avoid email subject lines that sound too spammy such as the following:
“FREE! Grab 50% OFF & FREE Gift NOW!”
To write effective email subject lines that get opened, simply read more articles on how to write good email subject lines.
#2 Punctuation
A sentence without any punctuation is not good because nobody understands the tone and emotion of your message. Using the right punctuation marks in your subject line can show some excitement/emotion to the readers!
#3 Use Capital Letters
Use capital letters appropriately! While FULL UPPERCASE subject lines can draw attention, it can also indicate anger, and some of your recipients might not like it. A more tolerable use of capital letters is to use Title Case, for example, “What is Email Marketing?”
On the other hand, using Sentence case (“What is email marketing?”) in your subject lines can give your readers a feeling of being more casual and informal, which can be useful sometimes.
#4 Use short subject lines
Every day, the number of mobile users is increasing rapidly, and more and more people are checking their emails on smart phones. Try to keep your subject lines more direct and less wordy. Your goal is to get readers to open your emails! 60 characters or less usually does the magic.
#5 Quality Relevant Content
Always remember to match your goal with your content. The content of your email should depend on the immediate goal of the email. For example, if the primary goal is to give information, forget about sales pitches and stick to your main topic. In this case, short sentences and paragraphs are preferred.
NOTE: Make sure your email message is directly related to the subject line. Not only is this good for your credibility, it will prevent your email from going to the “Junk” or “Spam” folder!
#6. Always End with a Call-to-Action Phrase
Every email you send should have a specific goal or desired outcome. What exactly do you want your readers to do? Do you want them to buy something, opt-in to register for a webinar, or simply read a blog post?
If you don’t tell your readers, or stress to them in the end of the message, some of them might not figure it out themselves. Thus it’s always wise to make it clear to your readers before you end your email!
COLOURS
Orange and red are popular call-to-action phrase/button colours. You could also use standard text with a blue underlined hyperlink or fancier graphical based images.
This wraps up “6 BEST Practices for Email Marketing”. Do you have what it takes to be a good email marketer? We are sure you do!
Lastly, we hope you enjoyed and learned something new from this blog post. Thank you for reading.
Stay tuned for more!
