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Anyone who’s ever launched a lead nurturing campaign knows that the resource of a prospect’s email address is a marketing privilege not a right. With the overarching potential to be opted-out from at every turn, every email counts, with as few as one faulty move and it’s into the spam filter. With such a tiny window to grab your lead’s attention, do your emails bear the stain of a spam message?
1. Include a Call-to-Action
When a prospect or lead opens your email (if they even get that far) there’s about a two second window where they’ll decide to delete the email without a second glance or to read on. Intriguing your prospects with promotional content such as links to further information or resources you offer on your site is a great way to rekindle their potentially faltering interest in your correspondence.
2. State Value in the Subject Line
Use the subject line to generate interest right away. If possible, keep your subject captions to 6 words or less. Keeping things short establishes and maintains a direct and captivating tone. This will also ensure that even if the recipient of the email gives only a precursory glance, the incentive to subsequently open and read the email itself is already apparent. While it could be effective to create an air of stipulation (like for example a rhetorical question) it’s better from a branding standpoint not to gamble with leaving the purpose of the email to your prospect’s guesswork.
3. Sign Off in a Personal Manner
Take advantage of the fact that email has increasingly personal and not just corporate connotations. To do this effectively, decide on using someone’s name before inserting your company’s footer. As far as the name itself is concerned you have options, but the most cohesive option is choosing someone who implemented the campaign personally. If you’re stuck deciding between two, alternate from campaign to campaign and see which generates the most positive response.
4. Avoid Using Your Company’s Name in the Sender Field
This is a great way to get the most out of the personalization available within email. Generally speaking, there’s no real intrigue associated with receiving email from a company, as opposed to receiving email from an individual. The underlying reason for this is very in line with the overall inbound marketing ideology; to reiterate though, the prospects in your company’s email database are there because you earned their attention, and they’ve sought your services or product on a individual basis. And what better way to emphasize this achievement than to showcase the personal care and quality assurance synonymous with your company.
5. Segment and Target Your Database Correctly
This tip is so painfully obvious it’s actually commonly over-looked. Companies and marketers all too often take for granted the inherent interest associated with a prospect’s email address. This leads them to create one great big, vague email campaign. This shows a lack of investment and, not to mention a lack of knowledge concerning your demographic. Is there any worse message to convey to potential customers that you don’t know or acknowledge their needs or desires? Probably not, so the more specifically the offers or information pertain to your recipients, the higher the chances are of a positive impact being made on the recipients.
What tips would you add to this list?
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