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When I first started email marketing, I was a little naïve. I didn’t think there was much to it. I was wrong. If you really want to get value from your email marketing campaigns, it is important to learn as much as you can, and then apply what you learn and test.
Tracking past the click
Most email service providers (ESP’s) offer some sort of analytics so you can track some simple, but important stats in your email campaigns. They allow a bird’s eye view into stats such as opens, clicks, which links were clicked, bounces, unsubscribes etc. These are important stats that can give you good insight on how your campaigns are doing.
One of those stats to take note is which links were clicked. Pay attention to where the links were positioned in your email. Were they text links or image links? Were they articles, sales messages, coupons/offers etc.?
Photo by Heberger
Those built-in statistics are good, but added value is tracking past the clicks. If you properly tag your links, you can segment your email campaigns in your analytics. This allows you to see what users do once they visit your site.
There are a couple ways to tag your links. You can use Google’s URL Builder or something like bit.ly.
Landing pages
Pay attention to bounce rates once they hit your site. If you have high bounce rates, you may need to tweak your landing page. Are your visitors taking action? A solid best practice is to send your clicks to a landing page specific to your individual email campaign. Be sure to limit things for the user to do. You want to provide them with the information they are seeking, but at the same time you want to evoke action. For example, feature a form to fill out.
Test and tweak
Test, track and tweak your campaigns. You can do some simple A/B testing on subject lines. Also, look at your click stats. Which type of articles get the most clicks? What type of message gains the biggest conversion rate on your landing pages? Try making little changes and track.
Best time to blast
One of the biggest questions to a new email marketer is “what is the best time to blast?” This varies of course depending on who your audience is. Are you a B2B or B2C marketer? B2C recipients might prefer late afternoon or weekend messages and B2B recipients may like weekdays at 2. There is no solid answer to this question. The best thing you can do is… TEST!!! Try different delivery times and look at your statistics through time. Once a clear time jumps out at you, stick to it! Then your recipients will begin to expect your email messages on the same day at the same time.
Keep your lists current
A high bounce rate can get you black listed and booted from some ESP’s. Be sure to keep your lists current!
Subject lines
A best practice is to keep your subject line between 45-55 characters. Be sure to avoid excessive special characters and spam trigger words. Make your subject lines relevant to the message. Also, give them a reason to open your message. I recommend you put a lot of thought into your subject lines. You only have about a ½ a second in crowded inboxes to get the open or not. Think about what emails you tend to open and look at the subject lines. Again, analyze the statistics over time. The data will be your best friend!
Tie in social media
Social media is all the rave now, for a reason. People are spending more time online, especially on social sites. You can’t ignore the numbers. Billions of people are connecting on social sites.
Add links for your subscribers to connect with you on sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and your blog. This will allow you to communicate with your subscribers through various mediums and can often help your message go viral.
Not only should you make it easy to connect with people on these sites, but enable sharing links as well if you have content that can be shared. Make it easy for people to easily share your content across other social networks. This can help you build your lists and increase your reach.
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