According to a study by Experian Marketing Services, the average open rate for an email in France is 41% and the click-through rate is 5.67%, which is quite satisfactory! Email marketing and newsletter are still and always one of the best digital marketing levers for companies looking to acquire new customers and retain them. Implementing an email marketing strategy for your company allows you to regularly communicate about your news, your product and service offerings, your new releases, and the added value of your brand. Sending mailings also helps to drive traffic to your website. In short! For all these reasons, email marketing is therefore a key marketing and communication tool for companies, easy to implement and inexpensive. Trustt provides you with the best practices to adopt to create successful email marketing campaigns. Follow the guide!
Table des matières
1. Define Your Email Campaign Objective
Before launching into sending a marketing email, also called an email in English, the first step is to ask yourself why you want to implement this campaign and who it is intended for?
First, precisely define your campaign objective.
For example:
- Recruit new customers,
- Generate traffic to your website,
- Introduce a new product or service,
- Generate conversions,
- Retain your customers,
- Highlight your social media accounts,
- Do retargeting,
- Etc.
The key to success for a successful email campaign lies in defining a single sending objective. This main objective will condition your entire email: the subject, the content, the Call-To-Actions, the links, etc.
The objective of your email campaign must be measurable by the email open rate, the click-through rate on Call-To-Actions, the unsubscribe rate…
2. Implement a Targeting Strategy for Each of Your Campaigns
As in any marketing/communication operation, you must deliver the right message, at the right time, and to the right recipients. That’s why you must have previously well-defined your target and know them inside out!
So, ask yourself the following questions and answer them precisely:
- Who are your customers?
- What are their needs and expectations?
- What are their motivations, their interests?
- Etc.
It is recommended to segment your customer base to send them targeted and relevant email messages. In your database, you can create mailing lists and thus filter your subscribers based on their attributes (age, gender, location…) or their behavior (number of emails opened…).
You will thus have a better chance of achieving your objectives rather than sending the same email en masse to your entire database.
Moreover, by sending the same email to all your customers without distinction, you risk increasing your unsubscribe rate, as a large number of subscribers will not feel concerned by your email.
Finally, for your email campaign to be successful, it is crucial to take into account the maturity of your prospects or customers (prospects, new customers, loyal customers, etc.) in their buying journey in order to send them an appropriate email. Indeed, if it’s a prospect who has just discovered your brand, they will not have the same communication needs and will not be receptive to the same arguments as a regular customer.
The solution developed by Trustt organizes your email collection and allows you to obtain qualified and segmented opt-ins to design targeted communication!
3- Optimize the Subject of Your Email
To create an email campaign that rocks and allows you to achieve your conversion objective for example, your contacts must first want to open your email… Yes, that’s the basics!
This is why the subject line of your email is not to be neglected. It’s the key element that will make your recipients want to click on your email to open it and see what’s inside.
Various email sending tools exist (Mailchimp, Sendinblue…) and allow you to set up the subject line from the first step of creating your campaign.
As you can understand, the text corresponding to the subject line of your email must be sufficiently catchy and relevant to make your contacts want to click on it. Don’t hesitate to be original and use emojis in your communication to attract the attention of your subscribers!
Moreover, the subject line of your email must absolutely highlight the topic of your email. If it’s about launching a new product, use words like new or discover in preview
at the beginning of the sentence to catch the eye of your contact list.
Finally, limit yourself to an email subject line of 50 characters maximum so that your text can be read in full.
4- Work on the Content of Your Email
Once your recipient has clicked on your email, the work is not over! They should find several things in their email:
Relevant Content
Your content should be neither too long nor too short and be consistent with the subject line of the email. Indeed, the content of your email must live up to your subject line at the risk of disappointing your contact.
A Good Text/Visual Ratio
You will need to think about the design of your email so that it is attractive and makes your recipients want to continue reading. In general, each of your emails should incorporate your company’s graphic charter to maintain visual consistency across all your communication materials. Additionally, your email should be structured, containing titles and text blocks as well as visuals. The whole should be harmonious and pleasant to read for your subscribers.
A Responsive Design
Today, the vast majority of emails are read on mobile devices (over 50%). Therefore, it is essential to create responsive design emails, meaning emails capable of “being read on any type of” screen: PC, tablet, mobile.
Call-To-Actions
Try not to multiply messages at the risk of losing your readers: one message per email. Also avoid saying too much, but instead place Call-To-Action buttons to pique the curiosity of your contacts and encourage them to take action.
A Landing Page
You can redirect your contacts to the appropriate pages of your website or to a dedicated landing page. Creating a landing page responds to an objective of converting your subscribers, which is why it must be thought out and optimized down to the smallest detail in order to maximize your conversion rate.
5- Schedule the Email Send at the Right Time
Now that your email campaign is finally ready and optimized, all that’s left is to schedule its send. The question you’re probably asking yourself as a marketing professional in charge of setting up this campaign is: what is the ideal time to schedule the send of my email campaign?
Indeed, you can’t send it at any time at the risk of sabotaging all your efforts and reducing the chances of success of your marketing campaign.
Your goal is for this email to be read and generate engagement. That’s why you need to think about the date and time when this send is most relevant.
Depending on the sectors of activity, the right moment can be totally different.
According to a study by customer.io, Tuesday is the optimal day to send an email, followed by Thursday. Conversely, Monday and Friday would be the worst days.
Moreover, most recipients check their mailbox less during the weekend. It would therefore be preferable to send your email campaigns during the week.
However, each mailing list of contacts is unique! This is why we advise you to conduct your own tests to find the best time for your email marketing strategy!
6 – Analyze and Optimize Your Email Campaigns
The final step of your marketing campaign always involves taking the time to analyze the impact of each of your emails, using various indicators such as:
- The deliverability rate = number of emails delivered compared to the number of emails sent.
- The open rate = number of emails opened compared to the number of emails sent.
- The click-through rate = number of links clicked in your emails compared to the number of emails sent.
- The unsubscribe rate = number of people who unsubscribe divided by the number of emails sent.
The analysis of these key performance indicators allows you to determine whether your email campaign is successful or not. Based on the results, you can also optimize your future campaigns if necessary.
If your email database is significant, don’t hesitate to use A/B testing. This involves conducting a test on the subject line or email content to find the combination that allows you to optimize your open rates and click-through rates.
You now have all the tools you need to create an effective email campaign that will help you achieve your marketing objectives. It’s your turn to take action!
