Tag Archives: Email Marketing Help

January 13, 2016 · 12:53 pm

This is How to Write a Compelling Email Subject Line—and Boost Your Open Rates

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Report after report and study after study suggests that email is the most effective digital marketing tool.

So if you’re not seeing much of a benefit from your email marketing program, you’ve gotta wonder why.

Maybe the reason people aren’t responding to your emails is because they aren’t even opening them in the first place. Obviously, that’s a problem. A low open rate means your email marketing strategy is dead in the water.

Your open rate is even more significant than your total subscriber number. Think about it this way: Having 1,000 subscribers who all open your emails means much more exposure for your brand than having 6,000 subscribers but only a 2 percent open rate.

No question: You’ve got to get your emails opened. And the best way to do that is to tweak your subject lines—but how?

Tip #1: Make your subject lines longer.

Both the conventional wisdom and the natural instinct is to make your subject lines short and snappy. We’ve offered that very advice in the past. But one new study suggests that maybe longer—like, 60-70 characters, if not more—is the way to go.

Perhaps the rationale is simply this: When you’re working with just a couple of words, it’s hard to offer more than salesy platitudes and generalities. But if you give yourself more space, you can actually convey value and specificity to your readers.

So maybe it’s worth trying long subject lines for a while, just to see how they work.

Tip #2: Write in all lower case letters.

All caps screams of desperation, and can be pretty annoying. Mixing upper and lower case—you know, like you would in normal, everyday writing—is fine. But consider: a lot of the emails you get from your friends and family members probably come with all lower case subject lines.

Writing an all lower case subject line can convey intimacy and familiarity, then—and that’s not such a bad thing for your brand!

Tip #3: Provide value—but don’t give everything away.

As for the actual content of your subject lines, something we recommend is focusing on the value you offer—the benefits your email will provide—without getting into the specifics.

Show your readers what’s in it for them to open your email, but not necessarily how they’ll get it.

Example: Try a subject line that promises something like this: “Drive traffic to your website… and turn it into paying customers!”

You’re showing your readers exactly what they stand to gain from reading the email—but to learn how they’re going to gain it… through SEO, email marketing, or whatever else… they’ve got to open the email and read it.

Try some of these tips in your own email marketing—and see how your open rates improve. Talk with us about it by calling 803-831-7444, or visiting www.grammarchic.net.

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December 14, 2015 · 11:16 am

4 Things That Will Guarantee your Emails Don’t Get Opened

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Email marketing can pay off big time—but only if you do it right. And obviously, if you’re spending a lot of money on emails but not getting any of them opened by your target audience—if those emails go directly from inboxes to trashcans, contents unseen—then you’re doing little more than wasting money.

So what can you do to ensure that those emails get read? We’ve shared some email marketing best practices before. Today, what we’ll offer is a set of don’ts—some common email marketing elements that are sure to get your messages promptly deleted.

In other words, these are rookie errors—boneheaded mistakes—that will basically squander whatever effort you put into your email marketing campaign. Naturally, we recommend avoiding them at all costs!

Email Elements it Pays to Avoid

  1. Spelling and grammar errors. Yes, it sounds like common sense—but you’d be amazed at the number of business owners who take time to proof their messages but not their subject lines. If somebody receives an email from you and it’s got a glaring error in its subject heading, that immediately undercuts your authority—and all but guarantees your email gets rejected.
  2. Impersonal greetings. Here’s something else that can wreck your subject line—and thus, your entire email: A greeting that’s obviously impersonal and unspecific. Any message that comes with a title like Dear Sir or Madam will look like spam, and likely be treated as such.
  3. Spammy words. Along the same lines, spammy buzzwords located in your subject line will get your emails buried and your servers blacklisted. Avoid saying click here, % off, order now, sale ends at midnight—anything that clearly marks your marketing email as cheap or salesy.
  4. Bombast. Finally: Remember that a subject line is meant to be short and snappy. If your subject line lacks brevity, it may turn off busy readers who’d rather you get straight to the point.

There is plenty you can do to make email marketing a more effective tool for your business—but also plenty you shouldn’t do. Keep these tips in mind as you strive to achieve email marketing success.

For help crafting an effective email marketing campaign, contact the Grammar Chic team at 803-831-7444, or www.grammarchic.net.

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September 15, 2015 · 9:13 am

Help! I’m Sending Out Marketing E-mails But Nobody’s Clicking Through!

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E-mail marketing can be one of the most effective ways to grow your business and engage your customers—except when it isn’t.

For every e-mail marketing campaign that yields stellar results, there’s another e-mail marketing campaign that seems ultimately to be a waste of time. We talk to small business owners pretty regularly, and often we hear them say that they’re sending e-mails to their e-mail list but nobody’s actually clicking through on the call to action. The e-mails get read, maybe, but nothing good comes out of it.

That’s obviously frustrating, yet it’s not an insurmountable problem. There are plenty of ways to tweak and enhance your marketing e-mails to make them more compelling—more clickable. We’ve got several quick fixes in the list that follows.

How to Fix Ineffective Marketing E-mails

Include more calls to action. Readers may not have the time or attention span to read your entire message, even if it’s pretty brief; if you have a single call to action link, in the bottom of the e-mail, a lot of your customers will miss it. Try including multiple CTA links, in different places in the e-mail.

Fix your anchor text. Does your call to action anchor text just say click here? Because that’s not very compelling. Try something more forceful: Discover. Explore. Take action. Join us. Uncover.

Write a better subject line. This is the most important part of your marketing e-mails—period. Compose headlines that are grabbing, that address pain points, and that offer immediate value. Let readers know that the answers they are looking for are right there in the message of your e-mail. (We almost hate to say it, but if you want to see what clickable headlines look like, just go to BuzzFeed.)

Focus up! A good marketing e-mail is singular in its focus. You should have one central topic, one basic piece of information you’re trying to impart, one call to action. If your e-mail content is all over the place, you’re going to lose readers.

Optimize for mobile. A lot of your customers are going to be opening their e-mails on mobile devices, so double check that your template is one that iPhones and Androids will display properly.

Make it scannable. Keep your message to just a few short lines, keep sentences short, and use bullet points.

Get help. Don’t be afraid to reach out to the pros to help you fine-tune your e-mails and really capitalize on your e-mail marketing list. The Grammar Chic team is standing by; get solutions today by calling 803-831-7444, or visiting www.grammarchic.net.

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