Marketing Research Chart: Inbound or outbound - degree of difficulty not affecting use of effective tactics

Marketers find Email Marketing to be both effective and easy to execute, according to a survey by MarketingSherpa. There is a misconception that email is out and that other marketing efforts are replacing email. And while mobile marketing and social media are gaining, email is still king.

But, while email marketing is inexpensive and easy to do, it doesn’t mean everyone does it correctly. There is a lot of science behind effective email marketing. Here are three things to consider when creating your next marketing email:

  1. Update the preview text. The preview text is the first line that most readers will see before they open your email. This should not be the “If you are having trouble viewing this email…” line, it should be relevant to the content in the email. Make this the hook that will get your reader to open the email and read more.
  2. Have a clear call to action. When drafting the email, you need to know what action you want the reader to take. Make sure that action is clearly defined and in the top third of your email. Make the content short, as people don’t like to spend a lot of time reading email, so be quick and to the point.
  3. Don’t promote your email service’s brand over your own. When someone clicks a link in your email, make sure they are going to your website, not to your email service’s website. When you share your newsletter on social media sites, link to the content on your website or blog, not to the email service. Your email program should be driving traffic to your website, not to your email service provider. Having the service providers logo at the bottom of an email isn’t a deal-breaker, but keep your promotion of their brand limited to that.

With a little extra time planning and executing, your email marketing efforts can be even more successful.