Hi Sarah,
In this month’s newsletter I am going to share with you an exclusive social media marketing package to kickstart your business online!
Sarah will either continue to read about the wonderful new offer your business has, or she will close your email and move on with clearing her email inbox.
You need to give Sarah a reason to open your email and continue reading. Why would she read your email when her time could be better spent socialising on Facebook with her friends? What do you have to offer Sarah to get her attention?
Providing images of the latest in store products not enough to make her click ‘view more’, particularly when the images are already on social media and your website. Same idea when providing a link to your latest blog article – Sarah probably read that last week when you published it.
So what do you have to offer that will make your brand stand out from the competitors and the recipients cluttered inbox?
Something Free
What would you rather? To pay for parking or to park for free? Pay for water or get free table water when dining out? What about when you get a free coffee because you are at your tenth coffee purchase on your rewards card…? We love anything free!
A popular freebie established brands such as Subway, Baskin Robbins and Boost Juice offer, is a free meal on the customer’s birthday. This is an effective email strategy as customers had to sign up to the brand’s loyalty or membership program to gain this exclusive offer, and most likely agreeing to receive future email promotions.
Customers are inclined to pack their voucher rather than a sandwich for lunch, and visit the closest shopping centre to get their birthday freebie.
But what if you are a business like Buzz Web Media and offer services rather than products, and still want to nurture your consumers? It’s time to get crafty and create free downloadable templates.
Free templates are an effective strategy to showing customers that your services will benefit them. Health brands like Kim Beach, offer free nutrition and exercise tips on the company website and blog prior to customers purchasing the complete program. Allowing customers to test your expertise will allow them to trust you, your brand and your service, giving you a leading advantage over your competitors.
Remember, knowledge is power and wisdom is key. Offer your audience a tasting platter via email freebies so they can make an informed decision about what they want to consume later.
Something Catchy
The subject line is the first thing recipients see when receiving an email. You need to provided a short, clear sentence to indicate what the email contains, and without boring the recipient. If a subject line is long, you run the risk of having the end of the sentence cut off, particularly when a recipient is viewing their emails on a mobile device.
A good guide to writing the perfect subject line is to sum up what the email is about in less than 50 characters. Any subject lines with 60 to 70 characters reaches the ‘dead zone’ as you have not directly informed the recipient of why they should open the email, rather waffling on about the email content.
Subject lines should have a call to action to intrigue the recipient to read the email. If you can write an engaging subject line in 10 characters you have hit the email marketing jackpot!
Subject lines that are effective usually fall into one of the four categories:
Time Savers
Examples:
- SEO That Works In 3 Hours
- Top 5 Ways To Plan Content For Social Media
- Scheduling Tools For Social Media
How To’s
Examples:
- How To Use LinkedIn For Personal Branding
- How To Create a Successful Social Media Campaign
- How To Write The Best Email Subject Line
Tips
Examples:
- Avoid These 7 Social Media Mistakes
- 5 Experts In Digital Marketing Share Their Favourite Resources
- Organic Social Media Followers V’s Bought Social Media Followers
Offers
Examples:
- Half Price Google Adwords Mentoring Workshop
- Save 25% On Your Website This Spring
- Happy Birthday! Enjoy A Free Ice Cream On Us
Something Responsive
There is nothing worse than receiving an email offer on a mobile device and not being able to read the email because the template it was build in is not compatible with smartphones and tablets.
Approximately 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices. If your email template is only responsive on desktops and laptops, you’ve already lost over half of your audience.
Take our weekly Buzz e-newsletter for instance. The Email fits the screen of a desktop and laptop, allowing all elements to be seen. When viewed on a mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone, the newsletter still fits the screen width with all elements in view without the recipient having to scroll sideways.
If your emails are non-responsive, meaning that the email is the same size on a mobile device as it is on a desktop, I highly suggest you invest in a responsive template builder. After all, over half of your recipients will be viewing your email on a mobile device. Plus, you have spent time crafting the perfect subject line and engaging content. Don’t let user experience let you down.
Apply these three strategies to update your email marketing techniques and engage with your audience.
