Image via OneFineSoul
Here are tips to help you tackle email like a pro this holiday season.
Choose the right ESP
Look for an Email Service Provider that offers a variety of templates to ensure your emails render properly across desktop, webmail, and mobile clients. There are a number of free or low-cost options that provide tools and templates for designing and sending emails easy.
Top Used ESPs For Small Businesses
- Benchmark Email
- MailChimp
- VerticalResponse
- Constant Contact
Create a mobile friendly format.
Ensure your email is legible on mobile devices. Take into consideration the size of your images and text. It’s recommended to stay within 12-16 pixels for copy, and images should be at least half the width of your email design to guarantee easy viewability.
Include a call to action (CTA).
It’s important for readers to understand what action they should take with the email. Some of the most common include “Shop now,” “Read more,” and “Get my look.”
Write attention-grabbing subject lines.
A winning subject line creates urgency and teases just enough information that the reader feels compelled to read on. Your subject line should tease the content of your email using humor, surprise, or the promise of something useful that’s included.
Examples of successful combinations:
- Everything You Need For…
- The One [style] You Need For…
- The Best Sales To Shop Now
- The Only Sales You Need To Shop
- How Did We Survive Without…
Tip: avoid using the word “newsletter” in your subject line.
Provide the best content.
Keep your message clear, concise, and engaging. You can test different copy, images, and topics to see which spark the best engagement. Before you start writing, think about the purpose of your email. Do you want people to click to visit your blog? Try teasing your article. Are you more focused on pushing directly to a retailer? Feature products using text links to encourage engagement. The purpose of your email and CTA should be aligned.
Also, don’t be afraid to repeat content. If there is a post you really want to drive more traffic to, feel free to promote it in your email more than one time.
Tip: Messages about sales tend to be strong performers, especially around the holidays. Always make sure products you’re linking to are in stock and push people directly to those landing pages, instead of retailer home pages.
Find a send cadence.
It’s important for your readers to know when to expect to receive emails from you. This doesn’t have to be a strict calendar, but avoid sending multiple times per week then disappearing for months at a time. We suggest emailing at least once per week to keep your email list engaged and expecting your emails.
Optimize send time.
Test sending at different times to see when you get the highest open rate and try out tools like Timewarp to automatically deliver based on a subscriber’s time zone.
Track your results
Keep note of the percent of people opening (open rate) and clicking (click rate) your email. This will help you understand your average engagement so you have benchmark stats to compare with when you test content, subject lines, or send times.
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