Email marketing is an unignorable marketing tool for small business owners. If you need further convincing of this fact, simply take a look at these incredible email marketing stats.
For most, the starting point for email marketing is the humble email newsletter.
After all, more than 60% of consumers say when they sign up to a brand’s newsletter they want to hear from that brand once a week at a minimum.
And what better way to stay in touch with your subscribers than via a regular email newsletter?
We’ve worked on the email newsletter strategy of businesses in all sorts of industries — from construction to health and fitness to professional services — so when it comes to email newsletters we know that small changes can deliver massive results.
It pays to keep your email newsletters engaging by continually refining your approach.
Could your email newsletters do with a fresh approach? Here are 3 expert tips to improve your email newsletters moving forward.
1. Write your email newsletter copy with a single subscriber in mind
Before you send your next email newsletter, I want you to stop and think about your email list. Not the size of your list but the individuals that are on it.
Like Amy, who read your email newsletter as her newborn son sleeps on her chest at 2AM.
Or Matt, who reads your email during his 45-minute train commute to work.
Or Carly, who scrolls through her inbox while she’s waiting in line at the post office.
Don’t write your email newsletter to a faceless mass of subscribers.
When you write to a single subscriber, they come alive in your mind.
Your writing will immediately become more engaging and personal. Your subscribers will be more excited to open your emails because they feel like they have a genuine relationship with you.
I feel this way about Steven Bartlett, the host of the Diary of a CEO podcast. Because I listen to it each week, I genuinely feel like I know him (even though I absolutely do not).
The principle with your email newsletters is the same.
This is such a simple change that you might think it won’t have that much impact.
But trust me, follow this rule consistently and the results will surprise you.
2. Involve your audience
Most of us know how valuable user-generated content can be from a social media perspective.
Reviews, testimonials, photos and videos are all valuable sources of social proof.
And if you’re wondering what “social proof” is, it’s a well-researched behaviour where people copy the actions of others to ensure they’re fitting in and acting the way everyone would expect them to act.
It explains why, when people shop, they look for reviews, recommendations and ways that others have used a product before making their decision
That’s why clever email marketers know, user-generated content can play a valuable role in email marketing, too.
Traditional user-generated content, like those reviews, testimonials, photos and videos I just mentioned are all useful bits of content to include in your email newsletters.
But it doesn’t stop there.
You could spotlight one of your customers, asking them how they’ve used your product or service.
You could spotlight a connection — someone who has done you a favour recently or you’ve recently connected with — to reinforce that there’s a real person behind these emails and that you genuinely care about your subscribers.
Most people will like this because it’s an easy 15 minutes of fame.
Not only is social proof known for boosting sales, but it will strengthen the relationship you have with your subscribers.
It increases brand loyalty and can improve email engagement because it offers a fresh, interesting perspective to your subscribers.
3. The beauty of plain text
When it comes to email newsletter design it can be easy to go overboard — adding layers of branding, custom graphics and photography throughout.
So you might be surprised to hear that when it comes to email newsletter design, bells and whistles are optional.
Visual appeal and brand consistency is important, but they don’t have to make the email complicated.
High-quality, relevant content is what’s most important, not how many GIFs you include.
Take Morning Brew, for example. It’s one of the world’s most popular email newsletters and is packed full of excellent news content. Is it pretty? Not particularly. But more than two million subscribers seem to love it anyway.
What do they know that others don’t?
Aside from strategic email list segmentation, nothing boosts email engagement more than old plain-text email.
The more images your email has, the lower the clickthrough rate is likely to be.
And this includes GIFs!
Comparing entirely plain-text email newsletters to text-heavy email newsletters that feature a GIF, the GIF versions have a 2.3% lower clickthrough rate.
When it comes to study findings like these, I always recommend A/B testing these recommendations with your own mailing list.
Just because this is how the majority of email subscribers behave, doesn’t mean your mailing list will follow suit!
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