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What makes an e-mail marketing campaign stand out?
Every brand may be different, yet the basics of what makes an email fantastic, do not really vary. Check out some quick tips for making sure your emails stand out and get inspired by five brands that have paved their way to success. Let’s go!
- Know your KPIs. You should know exactly what you want to achieve before you go out to achieve it. There are a lot of email marketing metrics and KPIs (subscriber counts, open rates, and click-throughs, to name a few) for which you can measure success. Find the ones that matter most to your brand and track them to see what’s working and what needs to be adjusted.
- Invest time in your subject line. It’s probably the most important line of your entire email. It is meant to capture audience attention and get them interested in what you have to offer. Make them stand out.
- Optimize for mobile readers. Nearly half of all emails are read on mobile devices, so make sure that your email is optimized for mobile reading. Think of your design and your subject line, as it has to be short in order to be viewable on mobile devices.
- Personalize your emails. Send relevant and targeted email communications so your audience can engage with them.
- Always write engaging content. Send emails that your subscribers want to read. Deliver consistent quality content and something of real value.
- Have a well established brand voice. A unique voice helps brands stand out and should be carried across all communication channels, not just email.
- Maintain a clearly defined frequency. Whether it’s daily, weekly or monthly, having an email schedule is key.
- Make it simple. Simplicity is important for both writing and design. Make it as easy as possible for your audience to digest your email and act upon it with a clear CTA.
E-mail marketing winners
Uber
Simplicity at its best. This clearly describes Uber’s email campaigns. After all, nothing beats a clear and concise message that resonates with your audience and Uber seems to know that pretty well.
In its content, Uber informs contacts about new offers like deals, promotions, and guides, always paired with a simple yet strong call-to-action. The brand’s unique style is consistent across platforms, from their email to their website and from social media to their mobile app. The type of consistency Uber uses in its emails, leads to a strong and loyal customer base.
Design-wise, it’s all about simplicity coupled with elegance, in order to make the message stand out and the CTA clear, which is a winner for skim readers.
From content to design, Uber aims to make all of its emails simple, straight and to the point, yet personable and friendly.
Betty Crocker
Betty Crocker outshines all other food brands when it comes to its email marketing, by adding value to shoppers and cooks.
The brand uses its emails to not only push products, but to share recipes, cooking stories, and tips for all of their customers. All recipes are printer-friendly or can be saved digitally by adding them to your Betty Crocker “recipe box”.
In addition, Betty Crocker also adds an element of engagement in their email campaigns, including “Quick Polls” and “Ask Betty” features in its messages, so as to get immediate feedback from its audience.
The brand’s emails are warm, sweet, and make you feel as if you’re reading an email from your own mother, rather than from a brand. In this way Betty Crocker conveys its brand’s personality through its emails, providing value and extending its customer relationships.
Don’t forget to also add value to your email marketing campaign and give your audience a reason to want to open and read those emails.
BuzzFeed
Despite having gained popularity from popular articles with awesome headlines, BuzzFeed is also known for mastering the art of the email subject line, making readers want to click and open that email right away.
The subject lines and preview text are usually short and punchy and most often complement each other. That is one of the reasons its newsletters have become one of the brand’s top sources of traffic.
The other is that they write engaging content. Their good copywriting continues when you open the email. Of course, this is no accident. Every email BuzzFeed sends is designed to drive users to the site and read the full article.
Moreover, BuzzFeed segments its contact lists into people with different interests, in order to serve them personalized and tailored content using Buzzfeed’s laidback and witty brand voice.
The Hell Yeah Group
Netflix
No doubt all Netflix subscribers are familiar with the phrases “top suggestions for you” or “We just added a movie that you’re likely to like”. That’s because Netflix knows how to get to its audience!
Email is a core component of Netflix’s success.
It all starts out with a welcome email to users. After that, Netflix segments users into groups, providing tailored content recommendations based on their preferences. So, for example, users can expect to get more suggestions related to the genre of their liking.
And as the company is big on data, it goes way beyond that. It also uses users’ region, search history and the moments they fast forward or pause what they watch in order to influence users. With the use of this kind of hyper-personalization, Neftlix is undoubtedly winning big, making it more likely for users to get back to watching.
Success is an email away
Email inboxes are flooded with unread and uninteresting emails. And the reason for that is that companies are struggling to get it right. With some tips and a bit of inspiration you can make your emails stand out and give your audience a reason to want to open them and read them
