Email marketing is not a quick, two-step process of writing a message and hitting send...at least if it’s done correctly. An effective
email marketer’s to-do list can probably hit upwards of 25-30 items to complete or double check before they hit send—that’s a lot to keep straight. Which is why we’re thrilled to share our interactive
2017 A-Z of Email Marketing guide for today’s stocking stuffer.
This robust guide is full of 26
email marketing tips complete with interactive quizzes, checklists, and videos. These best practices, examples, and links to additional resources is just what newbies need to get started, or vets need to review, in the new year.
Start at the top with A for Audience! This should also be your starting point for every campaign you craft. Ask yourself:
- Who am I writing this message for?
- How do they prefer to be spoken to?
- Have they expressed interest in being called a nickname, like Kate instead of Katherine (nothing makes me cringe like a "Hey Katherine!" in a subject line)?
- Have they told you that they only want to receive certain kinds of communication in your email preference center? Running a subscriber-centric program is the golden key to good deliverability.
Once you’ve established who your audience is, think about our tip for the letter B—Build Your Own List. Seems like an obvious thing to do (ensuring that you’re only sending messages to recipients who have opted-in to receive your mail), but often times businesses take shortcuts like renting or buying email lists. These random email addresses don’t know who you are, so what’s their engagement with your messages going to look like? Ugly. On the good end of the spectrum, the will unsubscribe. And at the bad end–spam complaints.
And that’s just A and B folks! Continue on down the alphabet to Z and I bet that you’ll be a different
email marketer when you reach the end.
Keep your eye out for even more of our stocking stuffer posts on the blog this month!