If you are a business trying to keep your customer informed, up to date, and encourage them to come back to your site, a quality email marketing campaign is the best way to grab their attention and send them personalized messages. Whether you are looking to entice people back with an exclusive sale just for them, or you just want to showcase your newest products, email is your best marketing friend.

However, knowing what a great marketing email looks like can be tough, so here, we look at some of the little tricks that marketers use to boost their click rate.

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Start with an attention-grabbing subject line

The subject line is probably the most critical part of any email. It needs to shine in the recipient’s inbox and entice them into opening the email. No matter how amazing the content of an email is, without an attention grabbing subject line, your efforts will go to waste. You can read more about best practices here, but the most important thing is that you keep your subject line short and to the point. Add a sense of urgency and personalize it as far as possible. Instead of something like ‘great deals this weekend’, you might want to consider “Hey Kirsty! Check out our half-price sale this weekend only.” The more clickable your email is, the more likely your customers are going to read it.

Get the content right

This goes for any content – emails, social media, blogs, websites, anywhere. Before posting it, you need to think about the purpose and the message. If the content is not interesting or informative, the chances are they won’t want to read it. In an email, you also have to think about where you want the reader to go once they have finished reading it. This is usually to your website, where you want them to read more or buy something. Either way, your email is the beginning of your conversion or sales funnel, so you need to make sure that the rest of your campaign is up to scratch too.

Long, waffly emails are almost always ignored, or at the very least, skimmed through and not absorbed properly. People just want to pick out the key information, especially as they may reading your email while they are commuting, or on a lunch break. Try to keep it to 20 lines or less where possible, and make it easy to read and digest. Bullet points and headers are great for this. 

Don’t ignore the power of quality images. People are drawn more to images of products than plain text links, so make sure that you hyperlink any images. 

How does it look?

The written content is obviously the most important aspect, but you also need to consider the overall look of your email. Having a professionally styled email makes you look much more put together and well, professional. Whatever you do, do not send plain text emails as these are dull and overlooked. MailChimp is an excellent resource for businesses, offering a range of free and paid plans and gives you multiple ways of styling your email campaigns, as well as saving templates for you to use again.

While professional is the way forward, don’t be afraid to inject a bit of fun and personality in your emails. Consider adding a GIF – there are plenty that you can download for free or for a small fee, or you could even get smart and make your own on something like Canva. It can draw attention to your message and create a much more dynamic experience for your reader.

Branding

When you look at an effective marketing email, you probably recognize the company branding instantly.  Branding is key for marketing. Your logo should be clearly visible, above the fold, on your email, and your brand colors should be at the very foundation of your email design, even if you are subtly using branding. You want your reader to immediately work out who you are and what you are offering them. 

In a world where social search engine and pay per click advertising is king, email marketing is often overlooked. However, it is a superb way of reminding your customers of who you are, as well as introducing them to new products or services, or tempting them back with discounts. It is also important to remember that you own your email list and have full control, unlike social media, so it is well worth focusing on.