The Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing

I have been advised to use email to drive sales for my start-up business. What are some do’s and don’ts of email marketing that I must keep in mind?

Email marketing has become an essential tool and is the top-performing digital marketing channel. With the number of emails flooding inboxes every day, it is important to make sure that your emails are as effective as possible.

Here are some important do’s and don’ts to make your email marketing campaign effective:

The Do’s

·         Segment your email list because you wouldn’t want to send every single email to everyone in your list. Segment the list based on the interest of the audience.

·         Try including the recipient’s name in the subject line because it increases the “open rate” by an average of 23 percent.

·         Create an irresistible, clever and catchy subject line to grab the attention of your audience.

·         Include attention-getting pre-header text. Use it to highlight exclusive offers, prizes, or additional information about the campaign.

·         Optimize your email for use on mobiles. Make sure to create buttons and links big enough to click. 

The Don’ts

·         Do not send any email without testing it. Send out a test email to make sure it looks good across desktops and mobiles.

·         Do not stuff your email message with lots of links. Including too many links makes it difficult to navigate on a desktop and un-clickable on a mobile device.

·         Do not send out emails too frequently. People will get tired of your emails if they pop up everywhere in their inboxes without any apparent purpose.

·         Do not change your “from” name. Keep it consistent. It will help alleviate confusion among your readers and their email providers.

·         Do not design your email with a big image because it may not display in your recipient’s email and the user may automatically delete it without a second look.