Generating effective email marketing campaigns in this ‘Digital Age’ is demanding than ever! When you have every other brand listed on the web, it takes a creative approach to reach out to the audiences and positioning your brand in a way that actually leverages value. Anyone with a knack of digital marketing would position Email Marketing as one of the most responsive online marketing strategies. To back them up a little more, here’s a stat by Campaign Monitor’s Annual Report which states that every $1 spent on email marketing manages to help you bank $44. Now that’s the kind of ROI we’re looking for, ain’t we?
This is the after-picture you can expect when an email sent by you actually lands at a right place (meaning inbox) and results into a conversion. But, the real game lies in passing through all the Spam Policing and landing right where it belongs. For the ease, we’ve juggled up a few email marketing best practices and have jotted down tips in this first half of the article (second will come soon, as there are many tips) that will help you dodge the email spamming spree.
Subject Line is Still The Hero
The most perceptible feature of your email is always gonna be your subject line; be it to the users or to the spam filters. The art of designing subject lines is altering rapidly. Gone are the days when brands were able to fool the readers with fake scarcity or time limit emails. This tech-savvy generation needs content that is crisp and smart. And not to forget, less is always more when it comes to subject lines. Being creative while you draft a subject line is the core solution to it.
Pro tip – Adding date in your subject line helps you get past spam filters and give you an air of relevance.
The Famous Double Opt-in Method
A strong subscriber list is all it takes to render the fruits of an effective email marketing campaign! Application of a double opt-in method, whenever a new member hits the subscribe button, gives you a reliable list of users who actually want to cherish your content and make use of it. Along with a welcome aboard email, make sure you send in a consent poll for whether they actually want to get your updates, or not.
Pro tip – DO NOT count on the authenticity of a paid emailer’s list; chances are, the bought email list may end you up highlighting to the spam filters.
The Sunset Policy
It is advisable to timely filter your email subscriber list. This filtration of the active and inactive email subscribers lets you understand the behavioral pattern of your followers. Delve into a Sunset Policy in which the inactive users are removed from the regular subscribers’ list. This will create more impactful reach-out theory where ‘you land only at the places you’re valued’.
A Two Way Whitelisting
Asking your legitimate subscribers to whitelist you from the spam folder; if ever your emails appear to land there, is a request you can always make to your followers. This, in real terms, is called email whitelisting or creating a safe sender list. But what is a two way whitelisting? It is basically churning out the non-responsive and spammy subscribers containing email addresses as contact@, info@ etc. The subscriber whitelisting is something that you’ve to do from your end.
Subscriber Segmentation
Another crucial procedure to follow when planning an effective email marketing strategy is to segment your subscribers. People appreciate when you get a taste of what they’re actually looking for and feed them with similar content rather than just offering them random stuff. Email segmentation helps you build a loyal follower base. According to their interests, age, locality, or responsiveness, you should bifurcate your audience and then run campaigns that are segment specific.
Pro tip – Email segmentation can help increase open rates, resulting in fewer emails ending up in the spam box.
The Hyper-personalized Emails and AI
Email personalization advancements, in this world of massive email clutter, helps marketers in sending fewer, better targeted, and more relevant emails that break through the cacophony. The advent of technology in the email marketing industry has made way for new techniques of engaging customers, keeping up with their expectations and making them feel connected with the brand. Brands today, have turned a new page in email personalization, and are coming up with employing Artificial Intelligence and Business Intelligence to better understand the user preferences. With the help of Machine learning and predictive analysis, they’re now focusing on better, personal, and segment-specific result oriented email drafting. Hyper-personalized emails are the way to go in this digital era!
Pro tip – Personalized emails have high-frequency open rates than the emails which are addressed to masses. And that is not it; email marketing alone generates 174% more conversions than any other social media platforms.
Following are the key areas that email marketers should focus on while collecting the data for personalizing their email outreach.
- Age
- Gender
- Demographics
- Geographic locations
- Interest
- Industry
- Purchase history
- Purchase interest
- Purchase cycle
- Browsing history
- Buying frequency
- Last order data
- Average order size
- Interest levels
Closing The Curtains
Effective email marketing campaign goes a long way! Digital marketers all around the globe agree on the fact that the introduction of spam filters and CAN-SPAM & GDPR guidelines are nothing but helping the brands connecting with their consumers in better terms. Offering what is exactly needed by understanding the interests help organizations grow. This was all about six features to spam-proofing your emails; there are more to it which will be disclosed in the second part of ‘Are Your Emails Landing in Spam? Spam-proof Your Email With These Pro Tips’. Until then, Happy Emailing!
