LET ME PAINT YOU AN EMAIL

What makes you open an email? Is it the subject? Maybe the font or color? What ever the case may be, there are several factors that determine the outcome of that email becoming a success or a complete flop. Deleted. Denied. Another email finding its way into the spam or trash folder. 

But not so fast. You can't give up yet.  Email Marketing can be one of the most cost effective methods of marketing, but that is easier said than done. Like any marketing, it takes a certain skill. A certain touch. A certain art.

Let's go ahead and clear one thing up. Email marketing will never be perfected. A campaign with promise of success could flop, as easy as a campaign expected to flop can be a success. Some elements are uncontrollable as a marketing professional and solely up to your target customer opening the email.  Here are some things you CAN control:

IN YOUR HANDS

-Avoid using large images. If your message has a low ratio of text to image, the message could be flagged immediately.

-Be careful using all caps in your text or subject lines. Any excess use of exclamation points (!) or question marks (?) can hurt you as well. Even large text needs to be used carefully. 

-Use common sense. When creating your subject lines or creative, be smart. One little word can affect the image of your brand within seconds. Run your subject/creative ideas through a spam filter first. How can they open it if they don't even get it?

-Know when to send your email. Tuesday has the best open rate in most cases, followed by Thursday. 

-The settings of some of the recipients to your email may not be set to your liking, nothing you can do about it. But do keep it in mind. Some people could have their settings set to "block all images," so do not have your entire email be one big image.  A big white screen is pretty, but not that pretty.

-Break your email down into chunks. Bold and bigger font for each major point with a supporting image as well. Headlines and images work best.

-Nobody has time for long download times. Limit your email to a size where it does not effect the download/view time. 

-Do not over-link. You definitely need to have some links in the email, but do not have a link everywhere you look. You will find yourself in the trash.

Quality over quantity. Always. I will take 100 quality emails over 1,000 so-so emails any day of the week. Sure, if you want the quickest dollar in your pocket, go with the quantity.  But if you prefer repeat business for years to come, quality trumps quantity any day of the week. Not to mention this helps your validity and overall credibility in the industry.  Do you want to be remembered as the kid at school with lice or the cleanest-coolest cat on the playground? 

An email tracking report is a great resource in seeing how well that specific email campaign performed. But keep in mind that the tracking report is more so a rough sketch or estimate of how well the email campaigned performed. The report will highlight:

1.) How many emails were sent
2.) How many emails were delivered
3.) How many emails were undeliverable
4.) How many emails were opened
5.) How many people unsubscribed from the list 

Like I mentioned before, the tracking for your email marketing is more a rough sketch of your email campaign.  Take the results with a grain of salt if you will. Some opens may never be recorded simply because the settings of that person do not allow that type of email to be delivered. Don't freak out. 

An email is not a web page, but is server based instead.  Some people think Google Analytics can track an email campaign but this is false. 

The world around us becoming more mobile by the minute. With that said, your message must grab the attention of that person within seconds. Think about when you're on the go. Do you really take the time to read word-for-word each of your emails? I doubt it. I'm guessing you most likely skim over the subject line and first image that grabs your attention. Your customer is no different.

Check out these stats on email marketing as we begin 2016 -   

Email marketing is becoming more and more of a priority in a company's budget each year, especially when the ROI has been very profitable. With billions of email accounts in circulation, that number is expected to approach 5 billion within the next year. 

Let's review... 

-Some aspects of email marketing is in our control, and other aspects are not.

-Use common sense from the subject, creative, image, when to send, etc.

-An email tracking report can be a great tool, but not an exact replica of your email campaign.

-Quality over quantity has and will always be my rule of thumb when dealing with email lists.

-Email is accessed on a smartphone more than a desktop these days, so take this into consideration when creating your email.

-Be creative, use trial and error. If it doesn't work, change it. If it does, don't try to re-invent the wheel.