Email marketing is a powerful, proven tactic that marketers use all over the world. Many, however, are still getting it wrong. Here at Guides for Brides we’ve put our heads together and created The BIG Six, sharing the most important dos and don’ts of email marketing that every professional should know before pressing send.
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DO...Get permission
Permission, in terms of email marketing, is the act of gaining consent from a subscriber to send them commercial emails. Getting permission is SO important and should be your first port of call. An easy and simple way of doing this could be setting up a ‘Signup Form’ or ‘Signup Box’ on your website for new subscribers.
Thanks to the new GDPR legislation that came into force in 2018, it’s also important to make sure your current subscribers have also given you permission to make sure they are happy to continue receiving marketing emails from you. Send a ‘Reconfirmation Email’ asking them to re-subscribe to your newsletters or emails. This is a great way of cleaning your old lists and focusing on the customers who re-confirmed their subscriptions. Clean lists mean your content is more valuable to its receivers.
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DON’T...Send Solus emails
Often companies offer to send out an email on your behalf to their database (also known as Solus emails). From our experience, the open rates on these types of emails tend to be much lower in comparison to it coming directly from you. Whilst the list may be large and may have a high reach, it’s often seen as spam and can result in a huge amount of unsubscribes and cause disgruntled customers.
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DO...Have a clear plan
Like anything, having a plan will make your life easier and email marketing is no different. The plan should include a defined audience, a clear CTA (call to action) and good, solid content. Try setting objectives that are achievable, relevant and easily measurable. Don’t just send emails for the sake of it.
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DON’T...Send an email without proof-reading it
Sending out an email that has endless spelling mistakes and grammatical errors can make you look unprofessional. It’s a good idea to send a test to someone else so they can proof-read it before you send it out. Sometimes you can be too close to something and not see the bigger picture. Another person will be able to point out things you’ve missed, links that aren’t working or design flaws you perhaps hadn’t noticed.
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DO...Show some personality
Marketing emails can sometimes be repetitive, boring or spend too much time selling. Adding some personality can really make a difference. A friendly tone and even some appropriate humour can go a long way!
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Don’t...Ignore your reports
Looking through and analysing your statistics and open rates can help you improve future emails. Reports will help you identify what worked well and what didn’t, from email opens to click-throughs to bounce emails and unsubscribes. MailChimp has a function called A/B testing that allows you to send 3 different subject lines in one campaign. This will help you monitor your reader's response and see what works best.