With so many trends influencing marketers today, it’s easy to forget about the basics. Marketing teams that lose track of the fundamentals are bound to encounter problems as they take on bigger, more complex challenges.
That’s why every marketer could benefit from a refresher course on the best practices that they learned so long ago.
Email still represents a major piece of the marketing pie, meaning that it’s a great place to start reviewing best practices that may be overlooked. Here are four of the most effective email marketing practices that brands should never lose sight of in their campaigns.
Segmentation: Email marketing campaigns are nothing without a strong, segmented database. However, too many brand leaders believe they can get away without segmenting their email blasts, trusting their content and promotions.
The bottom line is that no matter how tantalizing an offer seems on the surface, it won’t have the same impact on every email recipient. Segmentation helps ensure only relevant messages and offers reach the inbox. This contributes to a much smarter and more effective campaign strategy.
“Relearn the virtues of A/B testing.”
Testing: All marketers learn the virtues of A/B testing early on in their careers, and they must recognize that this technique is essential no matter what channels they decide to leverage in their campaigns. Running tests is a low-cost strategy that can pay off in a big way.
When it comes to email, testing is easier than ever, especially with the help of a service provider that collects and analyzes this data automatically. With simple testing processes in place, a brand can take a bolder, more experimental approach to email marketing.
Subject lines: A strong subject line can be the difference-maker that separates a winning email campaign from a flop, and it’s relatively easy to come up with creative titles for messages. Marketers should be sure to use concise, exciting language that makes recipients want to find out more.
“As an industry, we still don’t spend enough time on the words that draw people into our emails,” stated Marketing Land contributor Jose Cebrian. “Subject line testing should be a part of every campaign. If it’s not, you’re bunting on the campaign. It’s just not that hard to do.”
Personalization: Who doesn’t love to receive a promotional email that reflects personal preferences and even includes a greeting by name? Personalization is an obvious best practice, regardless of marketing channel.
The best part is that creating personalized messages doesn’t have to be a drawn out, hands-on process. Working with a marketing services provider can help automate and streamline the personalization process for minimal effort and maximum results.
Getting more advanced
Once a marketing team has refreshed its memory on email best practices, it can begin to use more complex strategies for its messaging. There are plenty of interesting and effective tactics out there that can help an email campaign thrive, and innovation will be rewarded handsomely. Need the basics? Download our Email Marketing 101 e-book here.
