3 Tips to Tidy Up Your Next Email Campaign

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday has officially kicked off the holiday shopping season. Email inboxes are bursting with special promotions, discounts, and coupons, just waiting to be redeemed.

That’s right – email marketing. While social media and mobile marketing get all the attention, email marketing is still one of the most effective and least expensive tactics you can use to drive sales during the year, especially around the holidays.

And this isn’t limited to large retailers. Small business retailers and those in B2B sales are getting in on the action as well, offering discounts, coupons, and special pricing on services.

But in our efforts to join the holiday rush, let’s not forget to tidy up, making a list and checking it twice, to be sure that the emails we send are as we intended.  So…

1.  Write a good email, starting with a strong headline. Regardless of how good your email is, using a poor subject line will impact your open rate.  Good subject lines grab attention, and are clear and concise. They get your emails read.

Some studies suggest that subject lines fewer than 10 characters have an open rate of about 58% and those personalized with the recipient’s first name are 22.2% more likely to be opened.  In fact, 64% of people say they open an email because of the subject line.

A good rule of thumb:  Create subject lines, and email content, that focus on the value to the recipient, not on what you do.

2. Preview your email before sending. “Your text caption goes here.”       Darn it! 

Email platforms, in their honest attempt to help us create a good email, have pre-populated text fields, like this one, that signal us to add our own text in that location. But when the pressure is on, it’s easy to overlook these and we send the email out with it still there.

But, there’s a solution. Make a habit of previewing your emails prior to sending them. Most email platforms, like MailChimp, make this easy and fun to do.  During this preview, look for fields that you’ve forgotten to update, re-size images if need be, check your spelling, formatting, and the overall feel of the email.

This also gives you a chance to see how your email will render on mobile phones, which is fast becoming the way most people read their emails, including yours.

3. Send yourself a test email.  There is nothing worse than sending out hundreds of emails only to find out after the fact that you have a broken link or have attached the wrong link.

While you can preview the email in the preview pane, you’ll still need to send yourself a test email to check the links. Click through each and every link, even the social media sharing buttons, to be sure that everything works and links to where you intended them to go.

Email marketing is a great way to nurture and deepen the relationship with your current customers and stay in front of those who have yet to sign on. Ultimately, you want your customers to have a continuous relationship with your business, not just around the holidays, but year round.  Think long-term.

And taking the time to make sure every “I” is dotted and every “T” is crossed is a great way to show your commitment to doing just that.