email marketing: best practices · sender score • email providers are constantly updating their...
Post on 05-Jul-2020
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Emai l Market ing: Best Pract icesMeagan Kurnat, West Bloomfield ParksDesiree Stanfield, Oakland County Parks
Why focus on emai l?
1
Why emai l?
▪ Cost effective
▪ High ROI
▪ Easy to target demographics
▪ Results are measurable
▪ Consistent communication helps build relationships with
customers
43% of consumersPrefer to hear weekly from companies/organizations
91% of people check emai l dai ly
3x conversion rateCompared to social channels
Bottom LineEmail is still the most highly effective tactic used to drive a large audience to action.
Design Best Pract ices
2
• Content & Subject Lines
Visual Design & Color
Design effects del iverabi l ty
Content Best Pract ices
• “Call to action” or CTA• Make it clear from the start of the email what action you want the reader to take
• “Above the fold” still matters• As word counts go up, readership goes down• Content idea: repurpose high performing social media content in e-blasts.
CTA
Subject Lines
• Keep subject lines simple• Include a CTA when appropriate• Strive to keep under 54 characters or fewer than 8 words
• Avoid using excessive punctuation or text in all caps
• Make sure your subject line matches the content of what’s in your email
• Use a preheader to help boost open rates.
Subject Line
Preheader
Preheader Excluded
65% of emai ls are opened on a phone/tablet
48.23%
16.52%
35.25%
MobileTabletDesktop
Use a “mobi le f i rst” approach
Content rules:• Use the two sentence rule• Only include content that is absolutely necessary
• Use multiple headers to break up content blocks
Design Tips
• Use white space• Ensure font size is large enough• Use relevant graphics to compliment text and intice users to take action
• Make sure graphics are optimized for quick download (750 px wide, smaller than 100kb)
• Match brand standards or at least use a consistent template
🎨🎨
Brand Standards
• Logo• Brand colors• Tagline• Tone, messaging• Font• Standard template or headers
Use a “mobi le f i rst” approach
Other things to keep in mind:• Use large buttons as opposed to hyperlinked text.
• Test email on desktop AND mobile before sending.
• If you’re pinching/scrolling left to right, it’s not mobile friendly.
• A one column design will help ensure the email looks good on mobile.
Color Matters
Color Pairings• Four main ways you can pair colors: Complimentary, Arbitrary, Contrasting or Matching
• Complementary colors are the most visually appealing and naturally attract the eye to those focal points.
• Try making “call to action” buttons a complementary color to your email header
🎨🎨 Complementary colors
Design affects del iverabi l i ty
Images:• Limit number of images• Make sure images are sized
correctly• Don’t use images where
HTML could be used (like shaded boxes and borders)
Images Content Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks:• Avoid unnecessary links
• Avoid common hyperlinking terms like “learn more” and “click here”
Content:• Make sure to always include
content in an email• If you send just an image, there
is a high probability it will go to spam. Or users won’t see the text within the image if they don’t download images.
Ask for help!
• If you’re paying a monthly fee for your e-blast service, you are also likely paying for support.
• Most providers have people on staff who can code, help with best practices, evaluate your program, etc.
• Schedule regular “check-ups”
Examples: the good, bad and the ugly
3
Segmentat ion4
Segmentat ion
▪ Provide subscribers with choices for areas of interest
▪ Keeps subscribers engaged and results in fewer emails received
▪ Clean list annually; add new categories
Bui lding Your Audience
5
Bui lding your audience
▪ Every interaction is an opportunity to grow your list
▪ Require email for registration of programs, events
▪ Collect emails at trade shows, camp registrations, etc.
▪ Add email opt-in to website
Adding a Website Overlay
Pop up notifications or “overlays” can help capture website traffic into your customer database.
Some things to keep in mind:▪ Don’t be too intrusive (can even
affect your SEO if you are)▪ Keep mobile in mind▪ Only ask once
36% increase in new subscribers
Establ ish your frequency
▪ Events/programs requiring registration require longer lead time
▪ Learn your audience’s preferences from staff feedback
▪ More isn’t better
Avoiding the Spam Folder
6
Keep subscriber l ists updated
• Remove hard and soft bounced email addresses
• Its better to have less, more engaged readers than a large list of subscribers
• Consider “reactivation campaign” to engage non-active users/remove inactive ones
Sender Score
• Email providers are constantly updating their algorythms to combat the billions of emails sent daily.
• Sender Score is a number between 0 and 100 that identifies your sender reputation and shows you how mailbox providers view your IP address.
• Spam filters consider a long list of criteria when judging the “spamminess” of an email.
• Variety of for-profit companies can calculate your sender score: one is www.senderscore.org.
What determines Sender Score?
• Complaints • List quality • Length of sending history• Subscriber engagement
• Positive engagement: messages read, forwarded, replied to or marked as “not spam”
• Negative engagement: Messages marked as spam or messages deleted before being read
What can you do?
• Follow design best practices.• Avoid cliché content/phrases.• Don’t embed videos directly.• Use a mix of graphics and content.• Know your engagement rate and work to improve it.
Analyzing Metrics
7
Which metrics matter?
01 Engagement Rate
02 Click Rate
03 Open Rate
Engagement Rate
▪ Engagement rate tracks your most active audience members (those who clicked or opened an email in the past 90 days).
▪ It is one of the most important metrics to measure as it guages a messaging strategy over a period of time.
Ways to improve Engagement Rate
▪ Utilize the “Three Ts”: tone, timing and targeting
▪ Test what works
▪ Balance images with a strong subject line
▪ Keep it short
▪ Have a compelling call to action
Click Rate
▪ Click rates represent the number of recipients who clicked on a link within an email, divided by the total number who received the message.
▪ Good indication of how effective your call to action is.
Ways to improve Cl ick Rate
▪ Ensure all links are relevant and take users exactly where they need to go (example: don’t lead readers to your homepage and force them to search for a specific page)
▪ Test your call to action (Analyze individual messages to see which ones drive action)
▪ Make it easy for your readers to take action (big colorful buttons, streamlined content and an immediate call to action)
Open Rate
▪ Open rate is the number of participants who opened an email compared to the number who received it.
▪ Not a comprehensive metric but still useful.
Ways to improve Open Rate
▪ Segment your audience
▪ Keep your subject lines simple and sucinct
▪ Personalization
▪ Consider bundling emails to cut down on frequency
Questions?8
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