Email Marketing: Avoiding the Spam Folder
Spam filters are a great invention! It saves you from looking at unwanted emails constantly. However, as a brand or business owner, it can be a tough challenge to bypass in order to make sure your newsletters and other forms of email marketing are getting through. Spam filters work by using certain methods to identify potential red flags, such as checking the IP address against a black list of known spammers, deceptive subject lines and content within the email. These are all good things but when it comes to your marketing campaigns not so much. So, what are some solid ways to keep your emails out of the spam folders? Here are some of our tips.
Avoid spam triggers by:
Always using an unsubscribe button
Avoiding subject lines with all caps or exclamation points
Staying away from attachments
Adding too many images
Proof read people! Phishing emails tend to be laden with grammatical errors and can send your email to the spam folder if it contains to many typos.
Always get permission. This one goes without saying but let us reiterate. Make sure that your newsletter email list is full of people who have consented to receive them.
Email your subscribers regularly. This will help the spam checker to weed you out as a real person and not spam since your regularly sending emails to their addresses.
Whitelist your emails. All this means is that your recipients will add your email address to their contact list. Then, the spam checker will tell your emails to go into their inbox instead of the graveyard.
Use spam checkers. This system helps assist you in checking your emails for potential spam-like content. GlockApps and Mailmeteor are two great systems.
We hope this helps you on your email marketing journey. “41.5% of brands state that email marketing is critical to business success,” according to Litmus and we couldn’t agree more. Here at Locomotive we are always looking for more ways to improve our marketing and grateful to share our findings.
The Power of Email Marketing
Here’s a question for you… do you think that most people check social media or their email first in the morning? We’ll give you a second to think about what it is that you do…
Here’s a question for you… do you think that most people check social media or their email first in the morning? We’ll give you a second to think about what it is that you do…
If you said check your email you are correct. Most people check their email first in the morning before anything else. This is one of many reasons why email marketing has the top ROI of any marketing strategy or channel. A study done in 2015 showed that for every $1 spent an email has an ROI of $38 according to DMA. Therefore, it’s important to draft a great email campaign for your readers. Not only can it be great return on investment it can help your business grow. Here are just a few ways that it can do just that.
1. Increase your brand recognition and awareness. Every time someone sees your brand logo in their inbox their recall will improve. Talk about things that your company values, its products/services, its mission. Help your audience understand who you are. Help them connect with you as a brand.
2. Customer engagement and retention. Add interactive content such as videos, infographics, etc. Feature some of your customers in your email marketing. For example, perhaps you have worked with an influencer or done an affiliate program. Extend your thanks by featuring them in your email marketing campaigns.
3. Customers are enticed to act. Put call to actions in the emails. Make them stand out with brightly lit colors. Keep them short and send them to a landing page rather than your home page.
4. It’s personal and builds relationships with customers. Everyone hates mass emails. They feel spammy. Personalizing emails to your customers so that it resonates with them. Create connections that will build relationships that last by giving them information they want.
5. Increased website traffic. This one is a given. Your email should have links to your website listed for a number of reasons. It could be to a blog on your site. Some work you’ve recently done. A sale you have going on. You get the idea. People may not always be looking at your site so this is a way to drive traffic.
6. Optimized time and budget. As stated above, ROI is insane for email marketing. Email marketing is cheap and some is even free. By putting effort into the emails and using the 80:20 rule you will increase your revenue with little budget spent. The 80:20 rule states that roughly 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients. Focus your energy on that 20%. This is where personalization can come into play as well.
Now that we know why email marketing is a powerful marketing tool, do you have the proper criteria to create a stand out email marketing campaign? Here are some basic rules of thumb to follow to create a killer email.
1. Personalize, personalize, personalize! Same as we stated above and this couldn’t be more important.
2. Make it visual! This increases engagement and motivates people to take actions.
3. Promote action! Make sure there are plenty of calls to action in your email. This will also allow you to track how the email is doing.
4. Write a catchy subject line. We would say that this is second most important next to personalization. This is where you have one chance to hook your audience into reading. Also, email marketing should have short excerpts so make every word count!
Email marketing is one of the most efficient ways to grow your business and see great returns. It can help build your audience and increase sales if done correctly. To sum it up, don’t slack on your email marketing. The benefits far outweigh any cons.