Email Marketing Best Practices
Did you know that 122,500,453,020 emails are sent every hour? With that many emails, how savvy do you think you have to be in order to see a boost in your email marketing campaign success? Getting noticed in a crowded inbox is one of the main struggles for email marketers, but fortunately, below we have listed a few ways you can improve your email marketing strategy and hopefully get noticed!
- Use subject lines that get noticed. Would you open an email if the subject line said “Open Me” vs. Ways to Help Your Business? A good subject line makes all the difference. Think of it as your email’s first impression! It should be no more than 30-50 characters. Why? Well for one, it should be short and sweet and to the point, but also because many emails are opened on mobile devices now and that space is limited. It should also be compelling and give the reader an idea of what the email will be about, enticing them to open and read more.
- Be sure to include your logo in the upper left hand side of the email. Viewers will associate your logo with your business every time they open one of your emails. It might seem like a small task, but brand consistency is very important when it comes to building loyal customers. Your emails and website should be consistent with what your brand is representing. Immediately when someone opens your email, they should know it comes from your dealership.
- Offer an incentive to increase open rates. Think about some of the emails that you open from businesses. Many of them probably contain some sort of promotional offer in the subject line. Try incentivizing your contacts by offering a promotion, such as 15% off a certain product and/or an end of season sale. But make sure they have to bring in the email in order to receive the discount. That way you are capturing a new customer!
- Run an A/B test on your email. You won’t know what is effective unless you test it! A/B testing is the perfect solution for this! The first step of setting up an effective A/B test is to decide what you want to test. There will be multiple characteristics you want to test, but make sure you only do one at a time. For example, you can run a trial on your call to action, subject line, layout, content, text font, headline, images and personalization. Every one of those steps will have some type of effect on your conversion rate. It’s important to know which areas take priority. For example, if you’re having issues with customers opening your email, then you should test your subject line first.
- Make sure your email is mobile friendly. A mobile friendly email means it can optimally open on both a desktop/laptop and a mobile device, guaranteeing it looks great no matter where your customer opens it. Did you know that 53% of emails today are now opened on a mobile device? To ensure your emails are mobile friendly, use a single column template so that you don’t have to zoom in or scroll over to see the email. You should also avoid tiny fonts. It is recommended that your minimum font size for text should be 14pt and for headlines 22pt. Make sure your clickable call to actions are large enough for their thumbs to click on and are easily seen.
- Make it easy for your users to subscribe. Use your website, social media and in person events as avenues to adding subscribers to your email list. For example, create a contest on your website or Facebook page where visitors can enter for a chance to win a “Fitbit” just by providing their email address. (But be sure to follow CAN-SPAM laws and allow them to opt-in to receive further email communications from you down the road!) Open houses at your dealership are another great way to network and collect email sign-ups for your dealership. People are more likely to provide contact information after having met you and experiencing your excellent customer service!
Email marketing is an inexpensive way to reach new and existing customers. With these tips, we hope you will be able to improve your email strategy, increase your open rates, and build upon your customer experiences!