Email marketing is a leading way of reaching out to and engaging with those who have already shown an interest in your brand or products - either by purchasing in the past or signing up to receive updates.

Provided you are adhering to the requirements of GDPR and give recipients the legally required option to opt-out at any time, email marketing gives you free reign over what you say to potential customers and how often you say it. While some brands opt for irregular updates, others send out emails on a daily basis.

What works for you will depend on your business and your audience, as well as what you hope to achieve through email marketing.

Which leads us nicely into this article, packed with tips and tactics to try for yourself.

The Benefits of Email Marketing

When done right, email marketing is cost effective and can offer a great ROI across a multitude of different goals and actions. Whether you want to sell a new product, ignite interest in a new service, or gain feedback from past customers, email marketing is valuable and flexible, and cheap to manage.

But there’s one problem. The amount of emails that customers receive on a daily basis means that standing out isn’t just challenging - it can be near impossible. Very few customers will spend their days looking out for marketing emails and will only click if inspiration or interest strikes at the exact time that they see your email in their inbox.

Which is why having the right subject lines, the right approach to timing, and the right split of content and advertising is key.

How to Create Compelling Subject Lines

Every digital marketing agency worth their salt has at least one blog post dedicated to creating compelling email subject lines.

But while some refer to dodgy tactics such as adding “RE:” at the start of a subject line or making subject lines so mysterious that recipients click just to see what the email is about, we believe in approaching this part of marketing with our creative hats firmly in place.

The first piece of advice we have is to put yourself in the shoes of your target customer and think about what they want to receive on that particular day, at that particular time. If it’s the height of summer, think about how your product or service could solve a problem they have - and reference it in the subject line. Make it so relevant that it seems like it was written for them.

In addition, injecting a few fun emojis and some first-person language can make the email feel more personal. Share “my discount” or “our advice” rather than writing from a detached position. Adding some urgency works well, as does a little user-generated content - encouraging potential customers to read the views of “people like them” rather than using traditional marketing.

And don’t forget how compelling it can be to receive a personalised headline or subject line!

Timing Email Marketing to Perfection

Here at Social Loop, we are all about creating a calendar for content and sticking to it - but only when we know what truly works well.

There are so many articles out there that will tell you to post on Monday’s during rush hour commuter time, or on Sunday evenings when consumers are relaxing and scrolling. But this means putting all consumers into a single box regardless of who they are or who the brand is - something that simply doesn’t work.

Instead, you need to find a day and a time to send out emails that work for you and that work for your audience. A/B testing can present an opportunity to try different timescales (and can also let you try different email styles and content types). You could also sign up for email marketing from all your closest competitors and see when they send their emails.

Creating Great Emails for Your Audience

Finally, the best advice we can give when it comes to email marketing is to make sure that every email has a purpose and a goal.

It’s no use sending out a daily email if you have nothing to say. Rather, you will find that less frequent but more valuable and insightful emails are much better received - especially using the timing and subject line tips shared above.

Effective email marketing is about using great copy and a clear strategy to reach out to potential customers directly, always in an effort to engage them in some way. Some emails could be geared towards following you on social media, while others could be about launching or sharing a product page or a new review. Whatever your goal, remember to view each email as an opportunity to engage as well as to sell.

For tailored advice on how best to position email marketing for your business, and for more information on our email copywriting and digital marketing services, get in touch with the Social Loop team today.