The Best Practices for Email Management
Email marketing has long been one of the most effective forms of online marketing. Out of all the online marketing strategies that you are probably using, email marketing has one of the highest ROI's (return on investment) out of any of them. This is due to the low cost associated with running an email marketing campaign - but in order to obtain a substantial return, you need to make sure that you are using the best email management practices. The following are a few email management tips to ensure that your email marketing is effective:
Keep your subject lines short and sweet
If possible, keep your subject line under 50 characters. It should be short and to the point - don't try to stuff it with more than one subject. Your readers should know exactly what the email contains by its subject line. Of course, your subject line should be compelling as well - you want to pique the interest of your readers.
Personalize your emails
Readers are going to be turned off if the email sounds like it was sent out to everybody on your email list. It should sound like they are reading an email from an actual person that cares about their opinions. To do this, write in the second person (you) so that they feel more engaged. Use their first name, but don't over use it. Once or twice is enough. Don't be afraid of using some personality and humor in the content of your email either - this will make it easier for readers to relate to you.
Optimize your emails for mobile use
More and more people are using their mobile devices, such as their tablets or smartphones, to access the Internet every day - and one of the things that they do most while on their smartphones is to check their email. If your emails aren't mobile-friendly, they aren't going to get read. This means keeping the subject lines short so that readers don't have to scroll sideways to read it and making sure that your email content loads quickly and is easy to read. This means avoiding large images that will slow down the page load speed or having large blocks of text in your content that are difficult to navigate.
Segment your emails
Not every email you write will be appropriate for everybody on your email list. Use email automation in order to segment your list. For example, if your business sells athletic shoes, you could segment your list into readers that play different sports (something you can find out from their opt-in form). This way, if you write an email about basketball shoes, you can choose to send it only to readers that play basketball. Soccer players and hikers probably won't have any interest in that content.
Email management is an important part of running an effective email marketing campaign. These are a few of the best email practices that you should implement to ensure that your email marketing strategy is an effective one.