3 Pro Tips to Increasing the Effectiveness of your Email Marketing Campaign

Current statistics of global population rightly indicates that we are in the Mobile Device Age. The new world technology is rapidly moving from desktop to the use of powerful portable devices. This technology is powering up these mobile devices with computing power greater than a standard desktop. The number of unique Mobile Phone Users is staggering. It is increasing, every day. It is imperative that your email campaign is geared to make best of mobile technology revolution. Here are a few facts to drive home my point that adopting to mobile device is the need of the hour.

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What’s driving this seemingly insatiable consumption is Internet Penetration.

Need I say more? These facts are compelling enough to suggest that Mobile is the device and Internet is the technology a smart marketer must use to connect and communicate with their customers.

So, what do all these facts actually mean for your Email Marketing initiatives?

It means that your email marketing campaigns must be designed and tailored for mobile devices. It underpins the need to optimize your design and content for Mobile Devices.

Scoop #1: Email Design

Use a simple, single column layout as opposed to a multi-column layout.

Mobile device have smaller screen compared to laptops and desktops, so, a simple, clean and functional layout will achieve better results.

Scoop #2: Font Size

Use readable fonts and keep the font size for the text between 12 to 14 point and for the header between 20-22 points.

Scoop #3: Subject Line Length

Keep length of the “Subject of the Email” between 41 to 70 characters. However, I strongly recommend using A/B testing technique to select the ideal subject length with your specific audience. In fact, A/B test should be applied to subject length, choice of words in subject length etc.

Scoop # 4: Choose and include an appropriate Pre-Header and Footer

Pre-Header is the summary of the email that follows the subject line of the email when viewed in the inbox. A pre-header ideally delivers hints and cues on the content of the email. It prompts the receiver to open the email. To ensure high open-rate, use appropriate pre-headers.

As for the footer, always include unsubscribe link or button. It is best-practice of email marketing to be in tune with CAN-SPAM regulations.

Scoop #5: Act wise only Call to Action, button/link

For best results, keepsize of the Call To Action button to about 55x55 pixels. According to a study by MIT the size of an average of an adult’s fingertip is between 16-20 millimeters which comes to 45-60 pixels.

Let’s move on to Pro Tip #2

Market is highly dynamic. Change is the only constant. Customer preferences, social status, location, purchasing power etc., is always changing. An email marketer must be highly adaptable to change. It is precisely why testing is integral to Email Marketing. You must always be prepared to learning about your customer, at all times. You can do so by testing different aspects of your email campaign to discover what works best.

By testing you the winning subject lines, color preferences etc. Let your discoveries about your customer’s preferences and reaction to your campaigns guide you to improve the different aspects of your email campaign.

Repeat what works and change what does not. Testing and discovering broadens the knowledge base. By testing and discovering you will be wiser by every test run and the effectiveness of your email campaign will enhance exponentially.

Some of the interesting find of such testing campaigns are:

Segmentation in email marketing can be termed as the art and science of marketing. It allows a marketer to be creative and yet be scientific. Most of the mass marketing communication is One-size fit-all. But with Segmentation you can reach and engage with your customer by tailoring the form and content of your email on the basis of demographics, geographic and psychographic and behavioral parameters of your target customer base. Segmentation is truly the art and science of targeting a customer base according to their specific tastes, preferences, beliefs and behavior.

According to DMA, the properly segmented email campaign can increase email revenue by 760%.

Demographics: Segmentation based on age, gender, marital status etc., can help you reach and engage with your customers with tailored messages to elicit appropriate response.

Geographics: Segmentation by location, - rural, urban, semi-urban, tier-a, tier-b, tier-c cities can help you choose the type of the offer you want to send out. In fact, there are many factors by which you can tailor the content and form of your communication message. Creating an email list by city, zip, state, and province will let your select your customers of a particular location. For example. A Special offer email campaign during the Durga Pooja will work well in West Bengal while the same offer may not work well in Punjab and Haryana.

Psychographics: Beliefs, Value systems, Cultural inclinations, Lifestyle etc. influences consumer behavior. Fine tuning your sales pitch aligning it with the value systems of your target audience can enhance the effectiveness of your email campaign.Sending a Glamping offer, or an offer for a Golf-kit, to people who do not indulge in these up-scale leisure activities will not yield any positive results simply because they have a different lifestyle.It is simply throwing your marketing budget down the drain.

Behavioral: Segmenting your user data base on type’s behavior your customer exhibit while interacting with your brand has exhibited positive results. For example, customer who visits regularly and the purchasing history also suggest that this buyer buys regularly, too. You would want to retain him, so you will tailor your message differently than who has visited your site for only three times in the past month and has yet to make a purchased. This is called Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

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Based on the open rate of your previous campaigns, you should strike-out subscribers who have never opened your emails. As we know customer preferences changes, it may be these customers who have moved away or they are not interested in hearing from you. Removing the inactive subscribers will positively impact your open rates, because inactive subscribers will not negatively impact the campaign effectiveness.

As I mentioned, segmentation is both an art and science. It is an advanced level of strategy and demands constant testing, discovery and repetition. But when applied properly, it works like magic.