Email Marketing Guide

Despite the rise in social networking and instant messaging, email is still the most common use of the internet for people around the world and it’s often the first thing people do when they go online.

Read on for Bullseyehub’s Guide to Email Marketing, which reveals how to get started with your first email campaign with lots of advice to help you create a brilliant email newsletter:

1. Getting Started
2. How to Write A Great Email Subject Line
3. How to Get More People to Read your Emails
4. Common Email Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
5. How to Avoid Spam Filters

Getting Started

Email newsletters are a brilliant way to keep in regular contact with your customers and keep them updated with your latest news. But before you even start to think about setting up an email newsletter, you need to create a list of people to send it to!

Here are a few tips on how to start getting newsletter sign-ups and the word about your business:

1) Give Away Stuff For Free
Run competitions or giveaways (prizes, coupons, discounts etc) at your venue or event and offering special membership rates to encourage people to sign up to your newsletter.

2) Make It Easy
Post sign-up links or boxes on your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter or MySpace so people can find your content easily

3) Be Polite
Never add people to your email list without asking. It’s rude, it’s spam and if they’re not interested in your product to begin with then they’re not a valuable subscriber.

4) Forward To A Friend
Encourage your existing subscribers to forward your newsletter onto their friends. Let me know its good to share by including a text reminder e.g. “Click here to forward this message to a friend” and insert a ‘Tell-a-Friend’ form on your website or blog.

5) Build A Brand
Promote your newsletter via your personal email signature and all your company employees. Increase traffic directly to your website’s sign-up box by linking to interesting content on social networks

How to Write Great Email Subject Lines

Everyone knows that you should never judge a book by it’s cover, but the fact is that most people decide whether or not to open an email based purely on the subject line. You could spend hours creating the perfect email newsletter or crafting an unmissable a special offer, but if your subject line is poor, then it’s likely that most people won’t get the chance to read it.

1) Listen to your audience
Get to know your audience to find out what topics they’re most interested in and what’s the most important information to them. Knowing your audience means that it will be easier to craft inviting email subject lines that will get you noticed.

2) Create a strong ‘From’ name
A great ‘From’ name that appeals to your audience and complements your brand will dramatically increase the power of your subject line. If your intended recipients are confident about who has sent them an email, they’ll be more likely to open it.

3) Include numbers
Numbers are very effective in email subject lines because it suggests your content is easy to understand and lets your readers know exactly what to expect such as “Top 10 tips for Twitter ” or “5 new tracks to download”.

4) Encourage action
Make sure to include a call to action in your subject line so your recipients are motivated to open your email. Last minute offers or upcoming deadlines such as; “Only 30 tickets left” to encourage people to open your messages immediately.

5) Test, test, test
The sad truth is that even with very careful planning, you might not get the right formula for your subject line on the first attempt. It’s important to remember that your recipients are individuals who won’t all respond in the same way. One good way to test your subject lines is to split your subscriber list into different groups and experiment with different subject lines. Check your email open rates to find out which approach works best for your audience and tailor future subject lines to reflect those results.

How to Get More People to Read your Emails

One of the most common questions we get asked here at Bullseyehub is; “How can I get more people to open my emails?” Once you’ve spent time building up a list of engaged subscribers, there are several simple ways to improve your email marketing and increase your open rates.

1) Personalise your subject lines
The first step to get your subscribers engaging with your content, is to encourage them to open your email in the first place. You probably already know that great subject lines are the most important thing to plan when trying to get more people to open your emails, but have you considered using a personal approach when targetting specific customer groups?

Example: “Special Event in Brighton This Week” or “Emma’s 10% discount”

2) Don’t be boring
A great way to increase open rates is stop sending bland or heavy text emails. Try experimenting with a different style once in a while and mix up the content to video, music, a poll or a useful diagram in it. Just make sure you check that your beautifully designed email is properly optimised to be received on different devices and internet browsers.

Example: Include music videos, exclusive pictures and other rich media like polls, games or competitions

3) Be less available
Consider reducing the number of email messages you send. Think about the type of people your subscribers are and try to imagine how much email they get from other sources everyday. Every email message you send should be meaningful and it’s often true that the fewer number of emails you send your recipients, the more often they’ll open them.

Example: Consider changing up a weekly email to a bi-weekly or monthly email message. It’s very rare that you would need to send more than one email a week

4) Target your audience
How much do you know about your email subscribers? Why not consider sending a short survey or poll to learn more about your audience. You can then divide your audience up based on their responses, to help target your contact lists better. Also, don’t be afraid to give your list s spring clean now and again, if an email recipient hasn’t opened their last 10 emails, it’s unlikely that they ever will.

Example: “Rock music fans rejoice – Win free tickets to Download festival” or “Love folk music? Come down to our venue this Thursday”

5) Try again
Once your email campaign has ended, make sure to pay attention to the people who didn’t open your email at all. It’s possible to resend this email to all individuals who did not open the first email as a way of grabbing people’s attention a second time around, or offering an updated deal.

Example: Turn “Only 30 tickets left for Supergrass at KOKO” into “Only 10 tickets left for Supergrass at KOKO” a week or so later

Common Email Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

It’s very easy to make a few mistakes when you’re sending out lots of emails during the day,but how can you make sure your most important messages or newsletters are perfectly designed and error free.

1) Use a spellchecker and proofread your text thoroughlly
It might seem like the most obvious thing to do before sending an email, but checking for errors thoroughly and using a spell checker are also the most important. Even small typos can be extremely off-putting to your recipients so it’s essential that your campaigns are word perfect every time.

2) Use an email preview tool
Using an email preview tool is a great way to make sure all your recipients are receiving your messages correctly. Email preview tools like Litmus allow you to preview your campaigns across 34 email clients and devices, so you can be sure that your emails are perfectly designed every time. Most email preview tools will let you see your email on the most popular mobile devices too.

3) Send a test email
Any reputable email marketing service like Bullseyehub will allow you to send test emails to yourself, co-workers or contacts outside the office so you can check over every campaign before sending it out. This is an excellent opportunity to check on the text and layout of your campaign.

4) Check your subject line
When first designing an email or creating a standard template, many people simply use a holding subject line like ‘Test’ or ‘Template’, but make sure you change the name of your test design before sending it. As we’ve discussed in a previous blog post, most people decide whether or not to open an email based purely on the subject line, so it’s vital that you use the right one.

5) Check your call-to-actions
Checking links and call-to-actions is very important because if these don’t work or if they’re missing, then there probably isn’t any reason for your email at all. Links should either guide people to more information, be a link to purchase or a sign-up form.

How to Avoid Spam Filters

Emails and e-newsletters are a great way to engage with your audience online but unless you’re careful about how you’re sending these communications your emails might not reach your intended subjects.

If you’re new to email marketing, then you should know that 20-30% is a rough open rate average that you should aim to reach for all your campaigns. If you’re experiencing an abnormally high bounce rate or your open rates are well below 20% then there’s a chance that your emails are being flagged as spam.

1) Get permission
To ensure your emails are not flagged as spam you should only email recipents who have given you permission to contact them. This is the most efficient use of your resources because offers and communications are only sent to people that are actually interested in your company.

2) Listen to your recipients
If one of your recipients unsubscribes from your service, you should not keep sending them emails, as you will be sending clearly unwanted communication.

3) Avoid too many images
Don’t create an HTML email that’s nothing but one big image, with little or no text.

4) Use a regular font size
Using irregular font size or colour should normally be avoided. Small fonts will be flagged up by spam filters as a sign that the sender is attempting to embed content or other other harmful elements in a message.

5) Beware duplicates
Make sure you’re using an email service that deletes duplicate email addresses to avoid sending multiple copies of an email to the same address. Reputable email service providers like Bullseyehub will remove these duplicates automatically.

Image Credit: LeeLeFever

There are plenty more guides to Email Marketing on our blog, so feel free to browse around or get in touch with a member of the team to find out more about how Bullseyehub can help your business