This is a Great Subject Line: Latest Email Marketing Trends
It’s nothing new that the world is pretty much fully digital.
That’s obvious everywhere you look. But that doesn’t mean it’s something to take for granted. One thing that we (and pretty much every business in the world these days) have found increasingly effective for us is leveraging email to communicate with our clients, prospects, and other interested parties. So I just wanted to reflect on five of the trends that we see going on in email marketing today. If you need to communicate with your clients, prospects, etc. – these can help you reach and engage with your audience in a way that gets results.
- Quality > Frequency. Hopefully (just like I’m hoping for this one!) your emails are worth reading. If they’re not, it doesn’t matter how often you’re churning them out. A really solid, informative read once a week sticks out more than a half-baked blurb every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, even if that feels like you’re reaching your audience more. Now, don’t be afraid of frequency if you really have something to say — but having something to say comes first. How do you monitor this? That scary little “opt-out” link. You shouldn’t take all opt-outs personally. A reader may no longer be interested not because you’re not interesting, but because things have changed for them. Or, maybe their inbox is just too cluttered — we’ve all been there. But opt-outs are still essential to monitor. Get too many and there may be something to improve on your end.
- Consistency: Frequency’s second cousin. So if you’ve got quality emails worth opening, hopefully people start opening them. That’s when consistency comes into play — if you gather a following, they should come to expect your posts on a reliable, consistent basis. If you have a Wednesday blog, post on Wednesday. Even if you’re unsure of the kind of following you have — post like you have a devoted one! Chances are it’ll help you get there.
- How much content? You’ve got some strong posts that you’re sending out every Wednesday at 9 AM that your followers know to expect. But one day, you’re drafting up a new email, and you find yourself having a lot more to talk about then you previously thought. You’re paragraphs and paragraphs deep. It’s all kind of related though, right? That’s up to you. It’s important, though, to examine every post and see if it’s worthy of 1 piece of content, or 2 or 3 pieces of content…what’s going to keep your audience engaged? In a fast-paced, mobile world, you don’t want to lose people with posts too dense and verbose, but you also want to say what you have to say. Be sure you’re breaking up your content in a way that remains dynamic and economical for a reader.
- Mobile-friendly design. Alright, perfect: you’ve got a high-quality post. You’re sending it out every Wednesday. It’s Part 1 of a 3-part arc that your readers can avidly follow. It’s in a clean, engaging, eye-catching email, with a photo or graphic, important links. Somebody on your email list is checking their email on their phone, they see it, open it up…and it’s white squares, chopped up text that’s too small to read, and files that didn’t load. Of course the one thing that does load, front and center among the mess, is your logo. People don’t check their emails when they get into work anymore, they check their emails on their phone on the bus to work. So you want to be prepared by having a design compatible with both a clicking mouse and a scrolling thumb.
- The final test. No matter how much time you spend mapping out your posts, tracking your followers, developing friendly design — the truth is, nobody can tell you what works better than who you’re actually selling to. That’s why an increasing number of companies are sending out A/B emails. Email A is flashy, colorful, funny. Maybe the subject line is “Help! We Couldn’t Think of a Subject Line!” Okay…I’ll leave the jokes to you. Email B is a couple paragraphs of texts, minimalist design, strictly professional. Email A goes to half of your email list, Email B goes to the other. You keep track of what gets the best response, and you design future marketing accordingly.
We see engaging with clients and customers effectively and consistently as key in growing your business, and paying attention to your email marketing is a huge part of that. In today’s world, email lists can reach an unparalleled number of eyes, and you need to make sure those eyes are hooked. Now can somebody help me come up with a subject line for when I send out this blog?
