E-mail Marketing gives you a unique opportunity to communicate your company’s brand and voice, as well as encourage repeat visits and ultimately increase sales or leads. This is, however, under the assumption you are being smart about several things. Here are a few keys to implementing successful e-mail marketing campaigns:

• Use an e-mail marketing service provider like MailChimp for easy sending, as well as tracking & reports. This way you know how beneficial each campaign is to your business.
• Your e-mail subscriber list needs to be qualified. Don’t buy e-mail lists!
• The frequency of your e-mails should to be appropriate for the audience. Don’t overwhelm your customers with too many e-mails. This will lead to them unsubscribing.
• Be strategic about the time of day and day of the week you send your e-mails out.
• Your e-mail subject line should catch your customer’s attention & incent them to open the e-mail. This is essentially your ad copy.
• The e-mail content needs to be relevant & beneficial to the subscribers. You want them to click the links in the e-mail and ultimately convert. If subscribers find content useful, they will open future e-mails you send out.
• Your e-mail marketing design needs to be creative and professional. This can determine whether or not your subscribers read your e-mail once opened, and take action.

PROFESSIONAL E-MAIL MARKETING DESIGN IS KEY

While all these things are important, e-mail marketing design is what we’ll be talking about here. Like your web site design, your e-mail design is the first visual impression your customer will have of this communication. You have only a second or two to convince your customer to spend time reading what you have to say, and then take action. If the design is poor or uninteresting, your customer will bounce. They will close and delete the e-mail and most likely not open the next one you send. So having beautiful, compelling custom e-mail marketing design is a key element that affects the success of your campaign and ultimately your bottom line. Working with an expert in this area, such as your Marketing Executive paired with one of our professional designers will ensure the following things.

1. Width: It’s important to keep your e-mail width at 560 pixels max, for optimal viewing on all devices & platforms.
2. Vertical Layout: Use of a vertical layout is best for scrolling. Priority content should be at the top, or above the fold.
3. Organization: If you have multiple topics, be sure to visually organize each section for easy navigation.
4. Call-to-action Buttons: Just like your web site, your call-to-action buttons should be obvious & motivate your customer to take the desired action. There is more information on this concept here. Call-to-action buttons should link to pages which provide additional information and/or a way to follow through on the topic they have interest in. This may be purchasing a product online with a special promotion, or submitting a form submission in order to schedule an appointment with your office.
5. Impactful Visual Elements: This is what keeps your customers from bouncing. While providers like MailChimp offer template designs you can use, these are bland and are not customized for your specific purpose. Thus, they are less effective. Custom and convertible designs catch your customers’ attention and ensure better results. You want your e-mail marketing design to be a tool, an asset to your company and if intriguing enough, even a reason for your customers to take notice of future communications.
6. Branding: Don’t waste the opportunity to enforce your brand, and communicate your company voice. This should include your logo, fonts, the style of images you use, and colors.

TAKING ACTION:

Talk to your Marketing 360® Marketing Executive about helping you navigate all elements of a successful e-mail marketing campaign. They will work with one of our professional designers on staff to create a successful e-mail marketing design.