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Last Updated on March 5, 2018 by Work In My Pajamas
Nearly three-quarters of consumers have stated that they prefer email as their means of communicating with companies, so brands that work on email management are likely to see financial gains. But making your emails stand out could also be one of your greatest challenges. With most consumer inboxes flooded by new offers, the tactics you adopt are critical. Here are some new email list management practices for 2017.
In This Post:
Interactive emails engage subscribers
Many people see a website is visually oriented, with animations, color schemes, and clickable images. They regard emails as essentially just another text document. But emails can contain the same web elements. When they’re both visually appealing and well-designed, emails can prompt interaction and provide click-through traffic.
Usually this means that clicking an element or typing text changes its appearance and triggers some action through HTML or CSS code. More email apps are including this capability to allow user development of more interactive emails. Many email users don’t understand coding, but it’s worth learning some basic functions if it means more click-throughs.
Adapt to mobile technology
The number of people that use cell phones for emailing, rather than or in addition to computers, is climbing. At least part of the resurging popularity of email marketing is due to mobile devices that let people read and send emails anytime, and from anywhere. It’s a long-term advantage for companies to take the time to develop responsive email designs; that is, layouts which adjust automatically to accommodate the smaller screens of tablets and cell phones.
By failing to make emails responsive to mobile users, you make the emails more difficult to read, and much less likely to be effective. If they know they can’t read the email, they’ll be unlikely to open your emails in the future. Take the time to develop responsive designs, and check them on various devices and platforms to be sure they function as intended.
Make emails easy to scan and read
Given the number of email campaigns that are taking place, subscribers may simply not have the time to open every email and read blocks of text to understand your message. Impatient users are far more likely to delete your emails unread if they know it will eat up several minutes of their time. Email list management should include a trend to economy of space.
Instead of presenting them a wall of text, break up your information into short, concise paragraphs with white space in between. For each paragraph, find a brief but compelling header that will indicate the info provided in each paragraph. This makes it much easier for users to skim through your emails and get the information that matters to them. Use bold or italic text to highlight important words or phrases, and make links easy to identify.
Personalize emails with dynamic content
Outgoing emails should be tailored to the recipient. Personalized emails are more likely to be opened, and much more likely to earn click-throughs than generic emails. Emails can be personalized to include names, locations, and interests specific to the reader based on data you’ve collected from your subscribers.
Personalized email management involves using customized fields to insert personal info into standardized text, such as including names or demographic appeals is common, there are ways to streamline the process. Using input from CRM or other databases based on subscriber ID numbers can be much more convenient. For instance, you could mail them forms that are already filled out with their personal info and just require clicking on a “Submit” button to take part in an offer or promo. They’re more likely to respond if the effort required of them is minimized.
Automate your welcome email
Using email automation software can lead to much higher conversion rates, and with much less effort. Automated emails through standard mechanisms such as auto responders aren’t new. But many businesses that rely heavily on email campaigns and click-throughs don’t even bother using them.
If you aren’t using email management software, 2017 is here and you should be getting started. Using it to provide welcome emails is an excellent way to get your message out instantly and automatically to anyone who shows interest.
Planning, testing, and personalization are all essential elements of marketing campaigns that apply equally well to using email. Make them part of your 2017 email list management strategy and you’ll begin to appreciate that email is one of the most cost-effective, flexible, and productive marketing tools you have.
