Yes, you need to segment your lists and yes, you should upgrade your transactional emails, but every email marketer also needs to invest time in big picture strategies like positioning, voice, value and conversion optimization. The 40 tips below may seem basic, but you’ll find many at the core of the best email marketing campaigns out there. You’ll also notice that many of the examples employ five or more of these tips in a single email. For best results, apply liberally.
1. Create an exclusive club.
2. Show that you care.
3. Ask for feedback.
4. Use social proof.
5. Get personal.
6. Make conversion a habit.
7. Include downloads.
8. Tell readers what to do next.
9. Keep readers on their toes.
10.Use the same subject line every time.
11.Use referral codes.
12.Use buttons.
13.Overwhelm users with value.
14. Remind readers what you do.
15. Leverage your partners’ brand power.
16. Make people happy.
17. Tap into social trends and current events.
18. Say Thanks.
19. Make an announcement.
20. Gamify a process.
21. Use the 1-2-3 method.
22. Use the Inverted Pyramid Method.
23. Go for small wins.
24. Send a ‘squeeze’ email.
25. Send emails in the right time zone.
26. Personalize with dynamic content.
27. Leverage the Zeigarnik Effect.
28. Send a recurring email.
29. Use the unboxing technique.
30. Segment on signup.
31. Measure campaigns with scatter plots.
32. Steal like an artist.
33. Stop campaigns.
34. Send at least one great retention email.
35. Integrate with social media.
36. Replenish.
37. Ask people to reply.
38. Send progressively smarter emails.
39. Use all the data.
40. Hold yourself to a high standard.
1. Create an exclusive club.
Making your email subscribers feel special is a great way to generate excitement for the content or offers you send them. It’s also a powerful community-building tool.
Exclusivity can be subtle, like the Apple example below, or it can be overt, like Groove.
Whenever Apple launches a new product, customers camp outside their stores to get their hands on the latest device. By offering a pre-order, Apple can cash in on that excitement without putting additional stress on their retail stores. With free shipping as an added incentive, these emails will no doubt drive huge sales before the next iPhone is even released. (Within three days of the iPhone 6 launch, Apple had sold 10 million phones.)
apple-iphone6-email-marketing
Groove’s Alex Turnbull takes a more direct approach. He emails new posts out to blog subscribers before they are available to people who read via RSS feeds or social media.
“As a subscriber, you’re getting this link about an hour before the post goes live on our blog’s homepage.”
Each email he sends begins with the words “Early Access”.
groove-early-access
It makes email recipients feel like they are part of an exclusive club because, well, they are! Over the course of that hour, Alex can collect feedback and make any changes he feels would improve the post as more people see it. We asked Alex about the strategy. Here’s what he had to say:
The early access emails help us build a better relationship with our readers. It’s a value-add on top of just getting the content each week. I’ve heard from dozens of folks who appreciate the exclusive look at the new content before we release it, and we even see people urging others to sign up because of that benefit.
We send emails every single Thursday. It gets people used to hearing from us, and our open rates are higher because of that. Even if you’re not writing new posts each week, you can still send useful emails to maintain that relationship.
The early access emails help us build a better relationship with our readers.
groove-early-access-email-marketing
2. Show that you care.
Your email subscribers are getting dozens, if not hundreds, of other emails every day. They are constantly being asked to start a free trial, download an e-book or follow someone on Twitter.
There’s an overwhelming amount of noise in the inbox. Showing your users that you care goes a long way towards earning their trust. Squarespace, for example, takes a friendly approach to urgency. False emergencies – “LAST DAY TO SAVE!!!” – comes off as desperate. Squarespace acknowledges the reality of our busy lives and offers a chance for an extended trial.
Everyone gets busy and you may not have had enough time to evaluate Squarespace.
squarespace-upgrade
Buffer’s Kevan Lee told us that his best email advice is to “Delight your subscribers”. Dropbox took that advice to a new level with this email. They gave me 10x the storage space for the same price! Do you think I’ll open the next email they send? You bet.
dropbox-email-marketing
