This is a guest post by Michael Cusden from SimplyCast.com
Strangely enough, sometimes the best way to see whether your email marketing campaign is doing well or not is to do some internal testing. Just for a moment, you can disregard what your metrics and analytics tell you and put the changes you want to make out to your subscribers directly.
But, first, let’s figure out how to set up testing so that it provides you with honest-to-goodness results.
- Pull 100 random email addresses from your list
- Divide them into two separate groups
- Only test one change at a time
- Set one group as the control (what you’re already doing) and the other as the change
- Monitor the results
- Request feedback through directed surveys about which your subscribers prefer
We’re going to look at 4 of the most common places that marketers like to update in their emails and walk you through how to do it.
Content
What works better? Long content or short? Which content strategy provides more opens, clicks and sales?
Though email marketing best practices often suggest that content is better shortened, it truly depends on what type of business you run, what you’re offering and what your customers prefer.
If you’re considering a change in your content length, put it to your subscribers to help you make the right choice.
At the end of the day, it is your customers that dictate what you do. If you see results that show long newletters have a better result, well you know what to do. It is always easier to add more than edit it down.
Writing less and still having an impact is what professionals do for a living, so don’t worry if it takes some practice refining your message.
Subject Lines
Does you subscribers like teasing subject lines or those that get to the point about your call-to-action?
Subject lines, by nature, are a bit tricky. Again, it’s entirely up to who you are as a company and who your subscribers are. Sometimes, customers will open anything that is sent by a trusted company and other need a little incentive to do so.
That is the ideal, but for most doing email marketing, that trust has not been fully achieved. Simple is best and never be misleading. Customers are trained well enough now to spot a white lie or something that is too good to be true. Be to the point and if you can plug-in something creative, then all the better.
Graphics
Some companies prefer to have just one gigantic graphic, that acts more like an advertisement, than content explaining what the promotion is about (Victoria’s Secret, does this well). Others prefer to keep their graphics to a minimum, only including the necessities (like their logo, social media icons and a small graphic for their promotion) rather than plastering their email with pretty pictures.
Both strategies work, but what’s right for you?
This goes back to the content question. A graphic that lists all the details can cut down on the writing by a lot and graphics are much more attractive to read. The best bet is to get everything you need to sell your message in the graphic and if needed, add the full details in text below. That way you cover yourself either way. Most people won’t scroll past the image, so make it count.
Sender’s Identification
Often, major companies that have an e-newsletter opt to have their “Sender’s identification” remain anonymous, hidden under an automated name. Other companies opt to tie each and every email to an actual responsible person in their company.
It’s no secret that spam filters and customers alike don’t trust any email that doesn’t come from a human. This is especially true for subscribers who recently opted in for your emails.
Test both. You’ll never know what is preferred!
But before you send your email newsletter out to thousands of people, make sure you are ready for the flood of replies if sending from a human email address. They may not be able to keep up.
What tests do you use to improve your email marketing? There are so many more than the four mentioned here. Please let us know.
Tell me one thing, Being a newbie in the blogging, I havent monetized the sites as yet and I plan to do after an year only. SO how this Email marketing can help me with out spamming?
This is an interesting strategy to test your readers and followers that I hadn’t really considered before. I think that the other commenter is right about making the email line catchy and fun. People are more inclined to click on an email that seems interesting and beneficial to them (now the hard part is thinking of something catchy enough!). Something that I’ve sort of struggled with in the past is getting email subscribers, so maybe I should try this and see what the results are! Anyways, thanks a lot for posting. I’ll check this out.
Thanks Michael for sharing this… I agree with all your points about how to improve our email campaign especially your point about “Sender’s Identification” which I’m about to test now. I want to make it a little bit personal and hope to get more clicks… Thank you
Appreciate the insights via testing methods, apart from that content generation should also go hand in hand.
Gotta try my hands on Email Marketing soon. 🙂
I didn’t know that you can do that, and I could really see the benefits of testing. Through it I could discover the perfect marketing campaign that will gain me a lot of visitors. Thank you for the post!
I find that I get more clicks in Short Emails that drive people to my website but will get more response and engagement from longer posts that solve a problem or serve a purpose…
I like the content in my newsletter to be original from the Blog. This creates a whole new set of followers…
Thanks!!
Ryan H.
Hi Michael,
Thankyou so much for sharing 4 ways to improve our Email Marketing campaign. I already workout on the points you have mentioned and in my journey to email marketing I found subject line and content very important so for those who are new to email marketing must focus on subject line very much.
Great tips, I plan to make this a regular practice and have to wonder why I wasn’t already testing first. I appreciate the excellent post.
Hey Micheal! Never thought that how powerful could email marketing is, your article cleared so many misconceptions & difficulties about how to use email marketing properly no matter what kind of business you’re doing.
And Kenny Fabre I agree with you that subject creates the first impression which should always be interesting, attracting & eye catching.
Hi Michael,
Out of the 4 ways, which do you think is the most important factor? Personally, I’ll choose subject title as the first.