Make the subscription process easy
There’s nothing more damaging to your email advertising than attracting the right consumers to your email list, only to lose them to a subscription process that makes them say, “forget about it,” and leave. Consumers aren’t going to opt-in for your emails if they have to work hard at it, so make it as easy and smooth as possible to get their email in and receive their reward if there is one.
With that being said, your unsubscribe process should also be easy. You don’t want to tick off your recipients and push them to move you to a folder they don’t bother with or label you as spam.
Use double opt-in
It may be tempting to build your email list as high as possible, but it’s crucial that you are only spending time and money on recipients who WANT to receive your emails. Otherwise, you have a lot of wasted effort.
This is where using a doubt opt-in feature can ensure only the people truly interested in your offers are receiving them. It includes your initial subscription process, followed by an email delivered to the recipient telling the user to confirm their subscription (i.e., clickable links saying Verify My Email Address, Yes, I Want to Subscribe, etc.).
Avoid spamming
There was a time when brands thought pushing out as many emails as possible was the only way to get one or two emails opened. In fact, it was called the “spray and pray method” and was used often. Today, that kind of strategy will only get you sent straight to the spam folder because it antagonises the receiver and makes your brand look bad.
The truth is, there are absolutely no examples of campaigns that were successful with a spamming method and believe it or not, it’s also a violation of privacy and illegal in many countries. For this reason and more, you should avoid it at all costs.
Schedule advertising emails
Much like having a plan for your campaign sets you up for success, having a schedule ensures your advertising emails are delivered on time and at the best times, according to your pre-planned agenda.
For some marketers, this could mean laying out a calendar and adding a reminder, but automated software with the delivery schedule already set in advance will be more successful. Just be sure to identify and include the best time and day to deliver emails to your audience (always keep testing to pinpoint more accurate days/times) and factor in time zones.
Perform split-testing
Tracking and measuring all your results in email advertising is crucial to the success of your campaigns. Performing split-testing ensures that your email efforts are as optimised as possible, reaching and resonating with your recipients to the best of your ability. Every small detail can make a difference in this area of marketing.
This is how it works. You take your original email and test it again a modified email to measure results. The modified email will have a single, small change in the subject heading, CTA, design, etc. You should only change one element at a time for this to work and increase traffic to your intended destination.
Mobile-friendly
In this day and age, everything in your marketing and advertising should be optimised for mobile, meaning short paragraphs, CTAs front and center, and mobile-friendly images and design/structure.
This is especially important since research shows that mobile not only accounts for 52.2% of webpage traffic worldwide (57% in the U.S.), but 60% of email opens are from mobile devices.