Here Are Top 30 Tips for a Profitable Email Marketing Strategy

These statistics merely touch the surface of how effective email marketing can be if your strategy is focused on actionable goals and is based on measurable metrics reviewed weekly.

Here is what you need to know to ensure your email marketing strategy is profitable for the long-term success of your business.

1. Focus on your subject lines and experiment.

Your email subject lines should stick out, be short, simple and reflect your company’s voice.

2. Ensure your emails are mobile friendly.

There is nothing more annoying then trying to check an email on your phone and it doesn’t work.

3. Find the right frequency.

Test what times your email list is most responsive to your messaging, as compared to industry best practices.

4. Don’t email just to email, spread a message.

If you feel obligated to send out an email, then the content of that email probably isn’t quality.

5. Design your emails inline with your brand.

Your emails should be a continued extension of your other brand assets across each marketing channel.

6. Send a customized welcome message.

Welcome new subscribers to your email list to be friendly and to confirm that they really wanted to join the list.

7. Balance content with product and service offerings.

It is not a good experience for your list to be constantly bombarded with sale after sale, but instead to build their trust over time with quality content and engaging information.

8. Don’t settle for terrible stock footage.

The visual aspects of your emails are important for giving a positive long lasting impression of your business, which is why your business should take the time to find visually compelling photos or design assets on your own internally or through a freelancer.

9. Avoid spamming your list; know the rules.

The general rules of thumb for not triggering spam filters is to keep your content short, sweet and to the point.

10. Make it easy for people to subscribe.

Add email subscribe forms throughout your website, on your blog, and on different content areas of your properties.

11. Emails should be available in multiple formats.

Always offer your email in HTML and plain text to ensure that it is viewable for all types of users from any browser, email client or device.

12. Segment when possible.

Segmenting is an important practice because it personalizes your messaging to individuals, addressing their specific needs.

13. Change the “submit” button to a strong CTA.

The email sign up forms throughout your web properties are important for growing your list.;

14. Add GIF’s for a modern, engaging touch.

GIF’s are still not widely used in emails as much as they are shared across the rest of the web, which is an advantage to your business if you use them in your emails correctly.

15. Incorporate social media functionality.

Include social media icons at the bottom or top of your email to allow subscribers to follow your various accounts on social media.

16. Always get permission, avoid becoming spam at all costs.

The best way to get email subscribers is for them to willingly opt-in. Do not buy a list or utilize practices that get users to unwillingly sign up for your list. 

17. Confirm permission was purposeful with double opt-ins.

After a person signs up for your list, ensure with an autoresponder email that they truly intended to sign up and that the email they signed up with is valid. 

18. Offer exclusive discounts, sales and giveaways.

To keep your subscribers engaged over time, as well as aware of the value of being a subscriber, offer contests, promotions, sales, promo codes and discounts that are exclusive to your list.

19. Align your messaging with relevant events, holidays and trends.

Tie in your messaging to current events by offering sales related to popular holidays, content geared towards trending topics in pop culture as it applies to your business, and your perspective on mainstream conversations.

20. Be clear from the beginning on what subscribers should expect.

Be clear from the moment a person is about to sign up for your email list that their information won’t be shared, what type of messaging they will receive, that they can unsubscribe at anytime and any other information pertaining to their sign-up that they should know from the start.

21. Use email autoresponders to your advantage.

Autoresponders are simple emails that can be set up ahead of time to be sent to specific segments and subscribers to respond to particular events across your website.

22. Provide incentives for continued sign-ups.

Offer prizes, discounts and specials to members of your email list that refer others to the list via email or social media. 

23. Build trust overtime, then push a sale.

Tied together with balancing content and commerce, trust is built overtime by consistent and transparent messaging in your emails and messaging across the company. 

24. Focus the best content or most popular products above the fold.

According to Campaign Monitor, the average email is read for only 51 seconds, therefore the first impression really counts.

25. Sync emails with corresponding landing and product pages on your website.

When offering products or services on a landing page from a specific email, sync the design, calls to action, compelling copy and the products featured to make the email, landing and product pages more effective as a unit. 

26. Constantly test your emails in different browsers and email clients.

Ensure that your email client is properly rendering your email content on the most popular web browsers like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Opera as well as the various options for desktop email clients, web based email clients, tablet and mobile devices.

27. Make it as easy as possible to unsubscribe.

Starting today, setup a one-click unsubscribe button at the bottom of all your emails.

28. Monitor the unsubscribe rate daily, weekly and quarterly.

Check your unsubscribe rate often to ensure that it is either remaining consistent, decreasing or is not increasing significantly. 

29. Survey email lists, especially unsubscribers.

Occasionally survey your email lists to better understand the type of content they’re looking to receive from your business.

30. Emails should be readable without images.

Offering your emails in both HTML and plain text as discussed above is important, since HTML is formatted with visuals and plain text is not. Ensure that when viewing the plain text version of your emails, that the text is clear, concise and readable. Format the plain text version of your email to make it as beautiful and engaging without visuals as possible.

Source: http://goo.gl/ZNRa4B