When it comes to planning your Email Marketing Strategy, you need to remember that there are other brands and companies out there that are bombarding your customers with email notifications and updates. This highly competitive industry will undoubtedly give you and your business a disadvantage if you are put in a slump, clueless what to do. Because of this, it can be challenging to stand out and capture their attention. 

There is even a particular situation that your offer is the best option for your customer, but because of an unappealing way of reaching them out, you end up getting ignored. Worse case is you might even get marked as spam and forever be unable to reach them.

So, what do you do? How can you be on top of the game? The answer isn’t that simple, but it certainly is feasible. With the proper knowledge of effective strategies that you can follow with ease, you will be on the right track soon. 

There are strategies that you can use for your email to stand out and for your overall email marketing strategy to be effective. Below are the best practices that most successful marketers and we do to improve your dwindling email marketing approach. 

1. Create engaging and valuable content

If you want your email campaign to stand out, make sure to share content that is interesting, engaging, and that has value to your customer. Avoid the practice of hard-selling, and nobody likes to be forced like that. Companies who do this end up in the Trash box even before the customer reads the entire content of the message. 

Also, initiate a two-way conversation with your email. Do this by asking what they think about your update or your email or if they have a question for you. Don’t forget to sound friendly and open while remaining professional.

Remember that personal touch towards your audience is still one of the best ways to hit their soft spot. They are most likely to enjoy reading more when they feel that you understand them and their needs. Personal touch will always be the number one email marketing strategy that you can hone and prosper.

When you send engaging content that has value, your deliverability rates will increase, and your subscribers are more likely to open and read your emails. No one would love to read senseless content, that is for a fact.

2. Be transparent with subject lines

Don’t trick your readers with deceptive and clickbait subject lines. If you do, they will lose their faith and interest in you, or worst they might stop opening your emails altogether, leading you to their spam folders instead. 

There are ways to make new and clickable subject lines that are not deceptive. Here are some of them:

• Keep it short and relevant – Keep your subject line between 28-39 characters and use keywords that are relevant to your audience. 
• Match their expectations – If your subscribers signed up for a newsletter, then send only a newsletter and not some hardcore promotion. 
• Ask a question – A question spurs a conversation that can intrigue your subscribers leading them to open your email. 
• Use emoticons, numbers, and signs, wisely – Be extra creative in creating your subject line using elements like emoji, numbers, or symbols. 
• Avoid using spam filters – Spam content filter triggers include Free, Sale, Advertisement, $$$$$, ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation, too many emojis, and inappropriate emojis.

3. Split testing is important

Always do split testing of your email. Create two versions of your email and see which of the two performs better. Split testing will give you valuable insights that can help boost your engagement and conversions. 

Split test everything starting with your subject lines, preheaders, email templates, body copy, etc. Also, split checks with date and time. 

4. Segment your email according to your list

Manage your database carefully. It will help you understand and identify which client is suited for which email content. You can separate your list based on different demographics (company type, location, interests, etc.). It will be easy for you to create and personalise an email that is tailored to what your subscribers want to read. According to Optinmonster, customised and personalised emails have a 75% higher open rate than those that are not.

It also helps you target the right people when you have certain offers that apply to a defined group of people.

5. Optimise your thank you page

If you added a link for the client to click which is similar when someone subscribes in a newsletter or downloaded an ebook, it is imperative to have pleasing thank you page and email. In any transaction, the first and the last thing they will see will impact them the most.

What we mean is it’s not only essential to have an engaging content upfront, but you have to leave your readers at an aww. Make them a great impression from start to finish.

You can optimise your thank you page in many ways. One is by using a merge field. Second, tell your subscribers how happy and excited you are for them in joining your list and community. Third, give them a preview of some exciting content that they can expect as a subscriber. Last, include a social share button. 

If you think of it, these are just quite simple. However, this is unfortunately neglected most of the time. It is also essential to have proper English comprehension in creating any written content. You must have someone check your content to make sure that it is enjoyable to read. If you do not have anyone available, use online apps to help you out such as Grammarly or any grammar checker.

These are the best practices to help your email stand out from the competition. If you want to get started with creating an effective email campaign for your brand or business, you can contact us. As Ontraport experts, we are skilled and experienced in creating and and helping you improve your email marketing strategy that is unique to your business. Contact us today!