5 Golden Rules of Email Marketing to Create Your First Successful Campaign.

Email marketing has an ROI of 3600% which makes it a lucrative opportunity for newer brands that want to create their brand presence with a limited budget. While some brands prefer creating campaigns from scratch, others prefer using pre-built templates like Mailchimp email templates to launch quick campaigns. But, the rules for success are the same for both. Here are 5 golden rules to keep in mind while creating your first email campaign.

Optimize Your Email Template

If you want to create a successful email campaign, your email templates should be relevant, appealing, and optimized. There are multiple elements in a template that make it what it is. To begin with, the subject line should be intriguing and succinct. Using a generic subject line will result in lower open rates. Avoid overpromising in your subject line and underdelivering with your email content. A great subject line will help you stand out in the inbox of your customers.

Similarly, you should create an attractive email design and a coherent email copy to go along with it. No customer wants to read a wall of text that does not add value to their life. However, if you do want to send newsletters to your customers then take prior permission from them before adding them to the list. Finally, use the footer of your email to plug in your other social media handles. This will not only increase your reach on other platforms but also allow you to collect more data based on the customers’ online behavior and interaction with the brand. You can also use free templates that have been optimized and rigorously tested, like the Mailchimp email templates.

Create a Brand Identity

Once a subscriber opens your email, they should be instantly able to recognize that it is from your brand. Use your brand name, logo, images, colors, or other elements that make your emails instantly identifiable. Brand identity will help build a relationship with your customers, and they will be more likely to interact with your emails in the future. A weaker brand presence in your emails also makes the ISP flag them down for being spam. Hence, brand identity will also increase the deliverability of your emails.

Headspace has created a solid brand presence using its email campaigns. The illustrations that they use in their emails make them instantly recognizable. All their illustrations have rounded edges to make them look less intimidating. In addition, most of their emails have yellow and orange colors in them.

Focus on Customers Relation

Building a trustworthy relationship with your customers is the core of email marketing. Before you design your email templates for your campaigns, think about the type of relationship you want to establish with them and create a brand voice accordingly. Being honest about what they can expect from your email marketing campaigns is the first step towards building a lasting relationship with your customers. You can also show appreciation towards your customer by using a discount coupon in your email to thank them for subscribing to your email list.

You should personalize your emails to provide more depth to your relationship. By using only the relevant content in your emails, you can convince your customers that you care about their preferences and choices. Sending non-sales emails to your customers also cultivates trust. A subscriber will be more likely to unsubscribe from your emailing list if you are constantly bombarding them with promotional emails. You can also use survey emails to take the feedback directly from your customers.

Maintain Your Databases

When a customer signs up to your subscriber’s list, they are entrusting you with their personal information. It is your duty to protect their privacy and prevent any potential leak of those private details. You should also include a visible unsubscribe link in the footer section of emails for people that are unwilling to receive emails from you in the future. This feature will keep your subscriber list relatively clean and prevent your emails from ending in the trash cans.

Regularly maintain the hygiene of your emailing list by removing inactive accounts. This will prevent bounce backs and maintain your brand reputation with the email clients and ISP. Create a separate list of accounts that occasionally interact with your emails. Later, you can send them re-engagement emails to increase the open rates. You can also use segmentation tactics to create different segments for your customers to better target them with personal and relevant emails.

Monitor, Test, and Reform

Email marketing is always evolving, and brands are getting better at engaging and retaining their customers. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to monitor your campaign results and other statistics. It will help you better your strategies for your customer demographic. Your Email Service Provider (ESP) will be your biggest ally in monitoring your campaigns.

After you identify the weakness in your email template, you need to alter the content and A/B test it. A/B tests will help you pinpoint the factors contributing to the success of your email campaigns so you can replicate them in your future strategies. However, the ESP can only provide all the data and statistics, it is the responsibility of the email marketer to be proactive and create better campaigns.

Conclusion

The scope of email marketing is not limited to sending promotional emails. You can also use it to offer advice, provide high-quality content, and interact with your customer base. The process for creating an effective email marketing strategy may be slow, but success in this endeavor is certain.

Author: Kevin George is the head of marketing at Email Uplers, that specializes in crafting Professional Email Templates, PSD to Email conversion, and Mailchimp Templates. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes & jazz, and he breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on email marketing blog.