10 Email Marketing Tips To Build a Stronger List in 2019

According to studies, on average, a total of 126 emails are sent and received per business user every day.

By the end of 2019, there is said to be over 2.9 billion email users in the world and 246 billion emails will be sent and received every day.

More than ever, email marketing should be a major part of your company’s advertising plan. Plus things like digital ads and PPC marketing, emails are a major source of business sales.

Think of all the potential customers you could be reaching with the click of a button!

Email marketing can make or break your communication plan. There are plenty of ways that it can harm your business, as much as help your sales skyrocket.

Here are some of the top email marketing tips you need to improve your email campaigns, reach your customers, and make sales. These marketing tips may be simple but can make a huge difference in your company’s success.

Let’s take a look at how you can boost your sales using these easy tips!

How to Start an Email

Email marketing is still your best bet at making a sale. In fact, email marketing has an ROI of 3800%. Take advantage of the power of emails!

Not sure where to begin? If you’re wondering how to build a business email, an easy way to start is by coming up with your call to action (CTA).

Pick One CTA & Stick With It

Every email should have one CTA. If you add too many, the email will get confusing without one clear focus. It will be hard to write strong messaging for an email if you are asking your customer to take too many actions.

Plus, your email’s success will be difficult to track. If your customers don’t click on anything, it’s hard to say what part of the message failed.

A CTA can be as simple as clicking on a link or reading a blog post. Once you get the customer to your website, you can use that platform to guide your customer to make a sale.

You don’t have to worry about fitting everything into one email. Create separate emails for each CTA. When you choose one CTA, you can keep your email simple and not have long paragraphs and blocks of text that make it look messy.

Keep your messages short and to the point. Your subscribers are getting a ton of emails, they will only have time to skim your email for the important information.

Your CTA should be above the fold. This means they can see it at the top of the email when they open it and before scrolling. Make your email’s header clickable with a big button or arrow on it to make it obvious that it is linked. Include a button with a clear CTA on it within the body of your email as well.

Be sure to add alt-text to your CTA button, as some email providers will block images. The alt-text will make it clear what the button is for, even if the button’s image is missing.

Send Your Email from a Person

When your subscribers get an email from a company name rather than an actual person, the email feels impersonal.

Subscribers are more likely to open an email if it comes from a person. This is because it doesn’t look like spam. By having a person’s name as the sender, your email will look more trustworthy.

Not only should you show your email is coming from a real person. But make sure the messaging within the email is conversational and easy to read. So it looks like a real person is writing to them and it’s not a generic email from a company.

Timing Makes a Difference

If a subscriber offers up their email to you through an opt-in form, don’t be afraid to email them within 24-hours.

This shows that you are listening and catches their attention right away. It also will give you a chance to see how successful their engagement will be when testing certain offers or messaging.

These types of emails can be automated to save you time and effort. Take advantage of automatic emails such as bounce-back emails. These send automatically after a sale or other type of action takes place.

There are many email tools that you can buy to manage all your campaigns and help you streamline your process.

Writing Engaging Subject Lines

When you are writing a subject line, you are limited in space and characters. Around 50 or less to be exact. If the subject line is too long, it will be cut off. You want to keep the strongest words at the beginning of your subject line.

Don’t forget to follow the CAN-SPAM Act rules, which applies to all commercial businesses sending emails. Part of the act requires your subject lines are honest about the purpose of your email.

Search for words that are known to catch people’s attention. Words like “New,” “Exclusive,” and “Easy” are a few that can improve your open rates. Be careful using buzz words like “Free” that can be marked as spam and sent to junk folders.

Don’t Forget a Preview Line Too!

Preview lines are the second line of text that appears after your subject lines on email inboxes. If your subject line catches your subscriber’s attention, they will probably read the preview line after it to see if the email is really for them.

That’s why the preview line should be intriguing and drive subscribers to open the email to read more. If there isn’t a clear place to put your preview line via your email, you can make it the first line of text above your banner image in the email itself.

Make the font size small to avoid taking away from your email’s header. The amount of text shown in the subscriber’s inbox will vary on the provider, but keep your preview line to 50 characters or less.

Not sure if your subject line and preview line are working? Use A/B testing when you can. A/B testing is when you make two versions of the same email. You can use an email tool to send the two versions and test which one works best. This is based on open rates or click-thru rates.

If one “wins,” the email will continue to send using the template that was most successful. This allows you to test out different subject lines and see which ones work best.

If you are testing your click-thru rates, this will let you know which email’s copy was more engaging.

Build a Valuable Subscriber List

It’s tempting to buy lists of names for you to email. Seems like an easy alternative to taking the time to gather a subscriber list.

But it’s not worth it.

You don’t want to waste your money or time emailing people who are either going to unsubscribe or write a negative review about your business online. Unless a person opts into your mailing list voluntarily, don’t send them emails.

Plus, in some cases, it’s illegal!

In 2018, Europe enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which protects the use of European citizens’ personal information. If your business is emailing to customers outside of the U.S., and even if you aren’t, it is good practice to make sure you only email people who opt into your list themselves.

Make sure you allow subscribers to check a box on your opt-in form that says they would like to receive emails.

What’s an Opt-In Form?

You’ve probably seen or even filled out, an opt-in form on a website before. These are simple forms where you can fill in your name and email address to receive more information from a business.

You can create your own list using opt-in forms that can be placed throughout your website. You can even have them pop up while visitors are viewing your pages. These can be set to appear at a certain time to people browsing your website or blog.

Track your opt-in forms based on location and frequency. See what works best and gets the most subscribers. There are tools that you can buy to help you manage your subscriber list, create emails, and deploy them strategically.

Target Your Lists Based on Personal Interests

If your email subscribers feel like you don’t know them because your email doesn’t pertain to them, they’re going to unsubscribe.

Learn more about your subscribers and their interests. This will allow you to create email campaigns that directly relate to their needs. If you are showcasing a special offer, you may only want to test it on a specific group. This could be based on their location, hobbies, or past sales.

Don’t be afraid to add to your email campaign and keep your subscribers engaged. As long as the email has value and a clear purpose, it’s worth sending them fresh content that will be helpful to them.

It is also a way for you to learn more about your subscribers by seeing which emails are the most successful. Then you can continue to offer them more of what they like!

Format Your Emails to Make them Visually Appealing

If you’ve won your customers over with an amazing subject line and preview line, then don’t scare them away with a busy looking email that is difficult to read.

Make buttons for your links that make it easy to find and click on. Make your email header and footer a clickable button as well that shows your CTA clearly.

Don’t use background images. To start with, Outlook does not recognize background images, so they can mess with your formatting. Instead, use images in other ways throughout your email. And if you must, you can use a background color instead.

When you do use images, make sure they are hyperlinked to your landing page and/or CTA. Track which images are clicked most often. Adding cursor clipart to images or buttons will encourage subscribers to click on them.

Lastly, hone in your design and messaging so that your business’ brand is consistent and effective. Consider hiring a copywriter to help you find your company’s “voice.” The right copy can make or break an email campaign.

Plug Your Social Media with Buttons

Include all the ways your customers can connect with you on social media by making social media buttons part of every email.

Maybe your subscribers aren’t ready to buy something through your email. But they may still want to get to know you better. Social media is a great way for them to connect and gain confidence in purchasing your service or product.

Just make sure that your social media is active and showcases your business in a positive way. You don’t want your subscribers clicking onto your Facebook page only to find an old post and a lack of activity.

Test, Test, & Test Again

Don’t forget to test your emails by sending them to different test accounts that are through a variety of email providers. You don’t want all of your hard work to go to waste because your email went to a spam folder or because your design got ruined.

Make sure your email is mobile-friendly too. Most subscribers will be opening your email on their phones, so you want to look at the mobile version of your email on different mobile devices as well. Since they can look different depending on the phone.

If you are using variable text based on conditional logic within the email, test different versions of the email and how it will look. Make sure there won’t be any awkward spaces depending on what paragraphs are hidden.

Share Your Email Marketing Tips

This is just a start to the many email marketing tips that can help improve your email campaigns. Even small changes in your marketing emails can make a huge difference. It’s worth tracking your campaigns and tweaking them to make them better and better over time.

Have an email marketing tip of your own? Comment below with tricks that you’ve found helpful in the email marketing world.

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