Email Marketing for the Digital Newbie

You have probably created an amazing introduction, crafted a envy-worthy message, and polished each sentence off of your email. In all your anxiousness, you hit the publish button.

And… the stats aren’t changing! You literally hear crickets.

This can be demoralizing and can lead to the immediate abandonment of email marketing, such is typical of a beginner.

But what are the secrets of awesome email marketing?

Email marketing is a robust platform thanks to its familiarity, flexibility, and universality. With billions of emails sent and received every day, terming it vibrant can be an understatement.

However, email marketing can be a complicated undertaking, especially when you lack the necessary tricks. On the upside, it can be used to generate leads, boost sales, increase traffic to their websites and strengthen their relationships with their clients. 

The first and often the greatest rule is that you should never underestimate any new way of generating leads. Although online marketing has grown by leaps and bounds over the recent past, the email marketing platform is yet to realize its full potential. Here are some major points for the digital newbie to take note of.

Include an Email Banner / Header

Including a branded banner strengthens your brand. I used canva.com to create all of my clients banners. I personally think it should include a picture of you or at least your logo.

Your tag line or a truth statement that relates to your brand. Here is an example of a branded email header I created for Gigi. 

Make the Message Personal

One of the greatest mistakes a marketer often makes is classifying all clients in one email. While writing each client an individual email can be tedious, and you can smartly craft in a way that it appears personalized. Addressing them using professional but kind words is a great way of driving your message home. Use the Merge tags options to personalize the emails by addressing them by their first & lasts names.

Include a Nice Signature

While images often act as “eye-appealers” there’s no point of clustering images on your email. In fact, most of your clients won’t see the picture, making it useless. It is better to include one or two images that support the intended message. Instead of photos, professional email marketers today rely on Html to enhance the look of their pages. It is better to try that as well.

Include Links to Your Website

Be sure to include a direct link to your site. The purpose of the email is first to direct traffic to the site, where they’ll learn about your latest products and services. Without a clickable link, there will be no further sign-ups, or purchases and they’ll fail to learn of what you are offering.

Minimize Imaging

While images often act as “eye-appealers”, there’s no point of clustering images on your email. In fact, most of your clients won’t see the picture, making it useless. It is better to include one or two images that support the intended message. Instead of photos, professional email marketers today rely on Html to enhance the look of their pages. It is better to try that as well.

Follow the Spam Tips

If you are fond of regularly sending your clients lots of irrelevant information, they’ll probably blacklist your emails. Spam messages are often annoying as they hold no real meaning to the customer and you must strive to avoid them at all costs. Send them a short and correct email, one email which they’ll quickly read and understand rather than an entire page full of nothing.

Test ALL Emails

There’s nothing as demoralizing than noticing your emails contain errors after the fact! Send yourself and someone else a test email to possibly catch any mistakes, big or small.  While you are testing, make sure all your links work as well.

Other Tips

• Do not send an email every day unless it is a challenge or connected series. Give your subscribers time to miss you! I made this mistake starting out and the rate of unsubscribers went through the roof!

• Can’t think of what to send them? Do a brief synopsis of a your blog post and add links in the text that take them to the actual post.  

• Include your formal name in the “From” location. It is a way of showing your professionalism as the fact that it is you and not the digital machine that wrote the email.

• At the end of the email, you can appreciate their effort by rewarding them. Offer your email subscribers something special that no one else gets. For instance, only subscribers get 10% off all your classes, courses, products, and/or services.

• Include the buttons to your social media channels as well as the option to share the email they are reading.

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