7 steps to getting your emails noticed and read

Email marketing can be a very useful tool for small businesses if done correctly.

Getting your emails past the spam filters is one thing, but how can you give your newsletter or promotion the best chance of being read once it hits someone’s inbox?

I’ve put together a basic 7 step guide below to put you on the path to successful email campaigns.

• Your subject line

Avoiding certain words like ‘free’, ‘income’ and ‘earn’ will help ensure your subject line doesn’t get classed as spam.

Assuming you’ve passed through any spam filters, you need to think about making your subject line relevant, interesting and compelling for your target audience.

Think about the emails you read in your own inbox; what’s different about them? Aiming for a more personal tone than an obvious sales pitch is a good tactic to get your emails opened.

For example would you be more inclined to open an email with the subject line “Save money on carpet cleaning” or “Your carpets could be making you ill”?

• Make your first sentence count

Once your recipients have opened the email, you really need to grab their attention in the first sentence or risk losing them to another email in their inbox.

You could state an interesting fact, ask a question or tell them how your product or service can solve a problem they’re having.

Whichever method you choose, your first sentence needs to connect and have impact if the rest of your email is going to be read.

• Keep your email focused on one subject

How long do you typically spend reading an email? Most people are deluged with emails every day so will probably spend under a minute looking at what yours is saying.

With this in mind you don’t want to waffle on about lots of different products or services. Keep the subject of your email focused on one thing only and you’ll reap the rewards.

• Don’t forget links back to your website

Your email should include a combination of text and images to make it interesting. Don’t forget to link images back to the relevant page on your website as people will click on these.

For example a ‘special offer’ graphic should take people directly to the offer on your website rather than just being a static image.

• Offer something of value

People get bombarded with countless different advertising messages every day of their lives. Why should they read your email newsletter? You need to give them a reason to do this rather than just hoping they might.

For example, a 5% discount is probably not going to be enough of an incentive for people but a 50% discount or free entry into a prize draw may well be.

• Include a clear call to action

Your call to action is also very important in your emails. For example if you run a ladies clothes shop and you want people to buy items in your sale, you need to ask them and provide a relevant link through to your site.

Having a graphic as your call to action can work very well in emails and could simply say “Save 50% Online Now”.

• Test different emails to find the recipe for success

It’s highly unlikely your first attempt at an email newsletter/promotion will be a runaway success. Using a professional email platform such as MailChimp will give you access to lots of useful information on opening rates, click through etc.

Over time you can tweak your emails and assess what changes are having a positive impact on your online sales/enquiries.

If you liked this article you may also want to read my top 10 email marketing tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under Email Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.