Emails are a great way to communicate with your audience and keep your brand at the forefront of their minds.
Every email list is unique, and paying close attention to what works for your readers is important. Think of how an email marketing specialist might approach your list management or email content and lead from there.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to create emails like an email marketing specialist to catch readers’ eyes and push them further down the email marketing sales funnel!
What Are the 4 PS of Email Marketing?
1. Product
An email marketing specialist knows that a successful email campaign begins with identifying your target audience, understanding the product’s unique features, and highlighting what sets it apart from competitors.
2. Price
Email marketing specialists ensure pricing strategically aligns the monetary value with the perceived product value of existing customers for whatever you’re marketing across various campaigns.
3. Place
An email marketing specialist knows that place is about strategic decisions on product availability and displays.
Place products where the target audience shops, optimizing physical, online, and ad placement.
4. Promotion
Successful email marketing specialists intertwine promotional key messaging and placement to drive sales and create a cohesive strategy that resonates with consumers and drives conversion rates.
How Do You Create Good Email Marketing?
The average time a person spends reading an email is 13.4 seconds.
That doesn’t give much time to catch the reader’s attention.
Email campaigns that include clear and concise high-quality content perform better than those that are difficult to follow or don’t align with your email marketing strategy.
These best practices play a crucial role in taking your email marketing automation strategy to the next level and driving campaign results:
1. Make a Strong First Impression
When crafting your email campaigns, think like an email marketing specialist and ask yourself questions like:
- What will the reader see?
- How do I want them to react?
Here are some easy ways you can make a strong first impression with your email marketing:
a. Go with a Plain Background Color
Often, people have images turned off by default, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include them in the email marketing you’re sending to your audience.
Ensure that your emails have a plain background color.
This will allow the alt-text of the images embedded in your email marketing to be easily read and is descriptive of the image it’s describing.
b. Include a Web-Based Link
At the very top of your email, it’s best to include a link to a web-based version due to the variety of email clients that users may be reading on.
Your readers are unlikely to search through your email to locate a link to a web or alternative version, so it’s your responsibility to make it easy for them to find in your email marketing.
This can be as simple as having a link that states: “Having trouble viewing this email? Click here.”
2. Use Your Brand
Email marketing shouldn’t differ vastly from your usual promotional messaging and communications.
Instead, think of them as an extension of the email marketing tactics design tools your email marketing specialist already utilizes.
Marketing professionals know that in order to keep your emails in line with your branding, all logos, colors, and fonts should be carried over into your other email templates, marketing templates, and designs.
Lastly, utilizing email templates or email automation software to highlight your content and make it stand out is another great way to show off your brand’s individuality and catch your audience’s attention.
Being recognizable and identifiable by your customers will pay off in the long run.
Think of it this way: You’ve invested money and time into company branding, digital marketing, and wider marketing strategy; don’t ignore the power that these have in your email marketing!
3. Personalize Your Email Messages
An email with a personalized subject like, “Summer Savings for Amelia Airheart” stands out more in your audience’s inbox when the recipient searches “Summer Savings” in their account.
The personalization doesn’t end with putting the recipient’s name in the email.
In a great example of creative thinking to drive more sales, Walmart personalizes its business email marketing to its reader’s specific browsing and buying habits.
This provides value to their email marketing lists and makes them more likely to click through your email because they see the best deals and sales on items they love or were searching for online.
Another effective email marketing strategy is to utilize analytics to track your audience’s responses to previous email campaigns.
The best way to do this is to send different versions of emails to recipients who have read the last couple of emails your business sent vs. those who never opened them.
REMEMBER: Readers often glaze over emails with too much marketing speak and hard-sell messaging, so keep your campaigns customer-focused.
4. Implement Calls to Action (CTAs)
CTAs are the same as they would be on any web page. Your CTAs should be obvious and plentiful.
Highlight offer codes and use big buttons and banners to spotlight information just like a digital marketer would on a landing page.
Don’t have a landing page set up for the CTAs you’re using? Then they don’t belong in your email.
If users click on a link, they expect to be taken to where it tells them it will go, so if your marketing team isn’t prepared with the correct landing pages, it can cause your brand to lose customer trust.
5. Send Useful Content
Content is king.
The whole point of marketing email automation and of sending emails is to get your brand’s name and message out to the masses.
Make your content marketing worthwhile! Be strategic and take your time with it.
Good content can set off a chain reaction:
- Your content marketing efforts will be forwarded.
- Potential customers will sign up.
- You’ll expand your reach and grow your email database with minimal effort.
So, ensure your promotional emails will give your readers some form of value when they read them.
6. Determine What Your Goals Are
Having goals in mind for your digital marketing will make creating content for your email a breeze.
For example, if your email focuses on a flash sale, a simple email will be best, but if it’s a monthly newsletter, create goals to organize the news items in order of importance to you and your recipients.
Think about how you want the reader to react:
- Do you want them to visit your website to browse your products?
- Do you want them to share the email with a friend?
- Do you want them to take advantage of a limited-time offer?
Once you determine your objective, use that to write and format your own email signature.
Want to boost email engagement during their time on the email? Link back to web content.
If you mention a subject, provide a link to a more in-depth article (bonus points if it’s yours!) for those wanting to learn more.
7. Examine Your Email Analytics
One of the most important email marketing skills you can have when creating your email marketing is examining your analytics to track the success of your marketing emails.
Just as you wouldn’t want to launch a website without the insight provided by Google Analytics, you shouldn’t be sending an email without tracking its analytics.
Getting insights into what people do with the emails you’re sending them is the best way to tell if they’re working:
- Do they open it?
- Do they mark it as junk mail?
- Do they forward it to their friends?
- Do they click on links?
At a minimum, you should be tracking:
- Open rate and bounce rate.
- The amount of click-throughs.
- Spam complaints.
- List growth rate.
- Forwarding rate and email sharing.
You should track several other email marketing metrics, but these are the most common.
After tracking the success of your email, get your stats together and dig through the results.
What if People Aren’t Opening Your Emails?
If you find that people aren’t opening your emails, then you need to:
- Examine your subject lines and make sure they’re inviting.
- A/B test them on future email marketing campaigns.
What are people clicking on?
If your goal with email marketing is to increase conversion rates and, ultimately, sales, and you find readers skipping over email content and going directly to your social media profiles, it might be time to adjust how your content is presented.
High bounce rate? This may indicate how you collect email addresses needs to be adjusted to ensure you get valid emails.
What if People Are Marking Your Emails as Junk?
Occasionally, emails will accidentally be marked as junk, but if you notice this happening often, you may need to rethink your subject lines.
Keep your email marketing strong by sending emails to only the users who have opted-in to your email list.
This will ensure less chance that people intentionally mark your emails as junk.
TIP: Find out which email clients your readers use to ensure your emails display correctly.
Investing time into this area of email marketing strategy will provide you with insight into which email clients you should be testing and previewing before hitting send.
Looking for more ways to make sure your emails convert? Check out this insightful video from Dia Creative:
How Dia Creative Can Help
At Dia Creative, we understand that an effective email campaign isn’t just about sending messages; it’s about telling a story.
Our team of seasoned professionals excels in crafting compelling narratives tailored to your specific skills to captivate your audience.
From attention-grabbing subject lines to irresistible calls to action, every element of future campaigns is meticulously designed to drive engagement and conversion for your business.
1. Strategic Design Excellence
Our team of skilled graphic designers works closely with you to create email campaigns that are strategically aligned with your brand identity, ensuring a cohesive and memorable brand experience for your email lists with every email.
2. Copy That Converts
Our copywriting experts craft messages that communicate your brand’s essence and drive action.
From compelling product descriptions to persuasive calls to action, our copy is meticulously tailored to resonate with your audience and prompt them to take the desired next steps in the customer journey.
3. Personalization Precision
We specialize in the art of personalization, ensuring that each email feels like a tailored conversation with your audience.
Our data-driven approach allows us to segment your audience strategically.
4. Data-Driven Optimization
The success of an email campaign lies in its ability to evolve and adapt.
We employ a data-driven approach to continually analyze your campaigns’ campaign performance, ensuring that every subsequent email is more effective than the last.
5. Seamless Integration
We have automation tools to ensure seamless integration with your existing systems, allowing for a cohesive and efficient workflow.
Whether it’s integrating email databases with your CRM or automating responses, we streamline the entire process for maximum impact with minimal effort.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are the Qualities of a Good Email?
A good email is characterized by clarity, conciseness, and relevance. The subject line should be clear, and the email should be well-formatted for easy readability.
How Can I Improve My Email Design?
For the most effective email marketing, employ a compelling subject line, eye-catching headings, consistent and readable font, and contrasting colors for text and background. Maintain consistent branding elements, make your call-to-action (CTA) buttons stand out, and personalize emails whenever possible.
In Conclusion
Creating an effective email marketing campaign that captivates readers is an ongoing process that must be continually updated to meet your business’s and customers’ needs.
The best way to get started is to begin testing different strategies in your email marketing efforts. This will allow you to find what works and identify what doesn’t for your specific audience.
Dia Creative’s expert team is ready to transform your email marketing campaigns from formulation content creation to graphic design and execution.
Reach out to us today to get started!
