We work with many clients to send impactful emails to their clients and prospective customers on a regular basis and we want to help you take advantage of all the lesser-known aspects of email marketing which can make each campaign a success. This helpful article outlines some key areas which you should consider when planning any email campaign.
It’s not just about how good your offer is – image is everything and if the design of your email isn’t up to scratch, the great thing you’re offering may seem too good to be true to your target audience and you will get a poor response or none at all.
Making Your Emails Compatible Across Different Devices
You should take care to construct your emails so that they are compatible across multiple viewing platforms and devices. Your template should view well on mobiles as well as desktops as most of your recipients are likely to view their emails using their phones or tablets, not just their desktop computers.
Many email marketing platforms will have template guides for you to use which will have this capability built-in, but if you choose to ‘code your own’ then you should seek the advice of a web developer who understands the dynamic compatibility of multiple devices when viewing things online.
Ideal Fonts and Image Sizes for Email Compatibility
Bearing in mind the compatibility issues which commonly occur across various email platforms due to issues such as app compatibility, firewalls and wifi speed (for downloading imagery) then you should also:
- Use a font that is standard across all devices such as Times New Roman, Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, Trebuchet and Verdana.
- Make sure your images use an ideal size so that they are easily viewable and don’t take long to load when your recipient opens your email. It is recommended that your images are no bigger than 600 pixels wide and are less than 1MB is file size. 72dpi is usually sufficient for web viewing, however, this is not always necessary and you can sometimes choose a higher resolution image, as long as the file size stays low so that email opens and loads images quickly, just like a web page.
How to Use a Call-to-Action in Your Marketing Emails
So you’ve set up your email sending account, imported your mailing list (ensuring that it is GDPR compliant), have chosen your fonts and emails and prepared your content that you wish to send to your potential or existing customers. You are ready to set up your email template or have a pre-designed and coded one that works across multiple devices.
When constructing your email – make sure it looks clean and is straight to the point with a big call-to-action button that will guide your recipients to take the action you want them to take.
Are you looking for your recipients to…
- Visit your website?
- Buy a product online?
- Book an appointment?
- Pay a bill?
- Acknowledge a service announcement or an important message?
One of the key methods in getting your recipients to take action is to not give too much away in the email and to keep it simple, whilst placing a big, easy to reach, easy to understand button in a prominent place, not too far down the email (as many will not read that far down) and clearly label the button with the action you want the reader to take.
How to write impactful subject lines to get people to open your emails
Utilise your email subject line and sub-title, and the heading and the first part of the text in the email to hook the reader in with a snippet of what you want them to see and encourage them to take the desired action to find out more or access the rest of your interesting and exciting content that you are trying to get them to see. Subject lines with emotionally impactful words are most likely to encourage someone to open your email, such as:
- WOW!
- Hurry!
- Panic?
- Don’t miss this!
- Have you seen/heard…?
Subject lines use the ‘urgency’ tactic that most salespeople do, to get people to make quick decisions based on how the customer feels. Depending on your audience, tone of voice for your business and the type of email you are sending, you may wish to employ a mysterious, or controversial, or funny, or urgent subject line to entice the recipient to open the email, and subsequently take the call to action inside. As with all your email content, try and keep it short and sweet – ideally 50 characters or less and try to make it catchy.
For help with your email marketing, speak to the experts at Blue Bee who can help with all aspects of email marketing, from designing your templates to writing content, updating your lists, recommending the best platforms for your business and composing and sending emails on your behalf to save you time. Contact us today via our website or give us a call on 01722 775500.