Maximize Demosphere - May 2011
The May edition of Maximize Demosphere focused on Email Marketing Best Practices and is featured below. Click to download a copy of the slides in PDF format. The slides are available to view as well with no narration.
During the session, we discussed Email Marketing Best Practices and the positive impact that good email can have on your organization. We first discussed email formatting tips:
- First, a stat - 95% of US consumers use email and 93% subscribe to at least one newsletter. People use and read email!
- Optimize your message for previewing - don't waste a ton of space with graphics.
- Limit your message to 3-5 stories total and only show summaries.
- Be smart with your subject lines - set expectations & don't deceive. NO CAPS. Keep them short.
- Consider the best time to send your emails and be consistent once you've found the optimal time.
From there, we dove into some general best practices and things to consider:
- Test all your links - make sure everything works. Proofread the message. Does it sound correct?
- Drive Sign ups - make sure all constituents are included. Include a sign up box on your site in a visible location. Promote via Social Media.
- Define your purpose - why are you sending the email? Are you educating? Informing? Starting a conversation? Something else?
- Integrate Social Media. Allow readers to share your message via Facebook, Twitter, etc. Also, promote via these channels and give users a reason to subscribe.
- Ways to get people to click on your emails - use buttons w/ white space around them, place above the fold, consider limited time offers - make it urgent!
- Advanced - segment your lists - if content isn't valuable to all, they won't pay attention. If there's ways to break out your lists effectively, do so.
- Think mobile - many users reading messages on their mobile devices. Sample your emails there as well.
- Analysis. Use reporting features to see how many people are opening, what they're clicking on, and optimize future efforts.
Finally, we shared some additional resources to continue to expand your knowledge of the field:
- Blue Sky Factory Blog
- Constant Contact Blog
- HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog
- MailChimp Blog
- VerticalResponse Blog
- Set a Google Alert for "Email Marketing" and follow the feed.
Feel free to watch the recording of the session and/or download the slides! We hope you can join us for a future session!
