How to Create an Email Marketing Plan that Works - Oyova
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How to Create an Email Marketing Plan that Works

How to Create an Email Marketing Plan that Works

Building Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

If your company has decided to step up its marketing efforts with weekly emails, there’s much to consider before hitting send. Creating a successful email marketing plan is more than dropping in some content into an email template with a link and calling it good. To see results, you need to strategize.

Far too often I’ve witnessed companies sending unfocused emails to their audience only to experience low clickthrough and high unsubscribe rates. Here are some tips to help you create engaging email blasts – sure to build and maintain an engaging audience.

Design an Email Marketing Plan

Okay. First question.

Why are you sending out your emails?

If you can’t answer this question, stop now. Don’t pass go. Don’t collect $100. In order for your emails to be effective, they must have a purpose. For instance, sending an email about “How to Properly Groom Your Cat” to an audience of dog lovers may prove ineffective – and a huge waste of time. And let’s face it, time is money.

When building out your email marketing plan, determine what you need to communicate to your audience. Is it to educate them about your products or provide a new offer? Is it to showcase your work to draw in leads? Whatever your goal, make sure it’s clear and you stay the course.

Second question. Ready?

Who are you sending your emails to?

Again, this isn’t a brain teaser. You should know to whom you’re sending your email since your email should serve a specific purpose. You may be sending them to a list of subscribers. Maybe you want to entice some potential customers. Or maybe you want to educate and reward current customers. Whatever your reason, be sure you’re clear since it will have a direct effect on your content, tone, and design.

Last question.

How often will you be sending out your emails?

You’ve got to keep a schedule and you’ve got to stay organized. Keeping to a schedule will help you prepare quality content and a timeframe that meets your capacity and will help to not overload your audience with content. This may take some trial and error on your part to see what works best with your audience, but have a starting point and go from there.

When you build out your email marketing plan, be sure to evaluate these key points to help you determine the best course of action. From there, you can develop a strategy to help you implement your email project and measure the results.

 

the ultimate email marketing cheat sheet

Get more email marketing tips with our Ultimate Email Marketing Cheat Sheet.

 

How to Create Engaging Emails

Ask yourself, “Self. Why do I unsubscribe or delete email blasts?”. More than likely there were key elements that turned you off about an email blast. Maybe it was a boring subject line? Or maybe it wasn’t helping you solve a problem because it was just promotional noise.

Whatever the reason, here are a few items to consider to help you seduce and engage your audience.

    1. Create a topic

All content for your email blast should be focused on a chosen topic – helping to keep the attention of your audience.

    1. Keep it 90/10

You’ll want the newsletter to be 90% educational and 10% promotional. It’s not about you, it’s about helping your audience solve their problem.

    1. Create an engaging subject line

Don’t be boring. Give your audience a reason to click. Offer incentives and get their attention.

    1. Prioritize your Call-to-Actions

Again, keep it focused. Choose which piece of content you want to get the most attention and then offer the others as options for the reader to explore should they have time.

    1. Keep it short and to the point

You want the reader to click through, so don’t keep them lingering with long copy and cluttered design. Let white space be your friend.

    1. Use proper alt text

Sometimes images don’t appear in an email – and it’s usually due to the reader. Alt text will appear when images don’t – driving your reader to click.

    1. Make unsubscribing easy

Creating an easy path to unsubscribing from your email allows you to maintain an active and engaged subscriber list and help minimize marked SPAM.

    1. Don’t create ‘SPAMMY’ sender info

Try to make your email more personal. Provide a From name and email address that doesn’t seem robotic or spammy.

    1. Create a photo connection

If you’ve decided to use images, make sure they speak to the content. Having an image that ties to the content helps create a connection with the reader and will assist in creating better engagement.

    1. Test before you send

Make sure you catch any errors ahead of time. Check your copy, links, images, Sender information, and lists. And make sure you test it on mobile. Please! This will help you retain a healthy email subscription list. We like to send a test email out to the team just to make sure.

Creating engaging emails takes time, preparation, and focus. Going into email marketing with the notion that “any monkey can send out an email…” just isn’t true. I mean, it is if you don’t want to see results and you’re just sending it out for the hell of it. And you may not see the results you anticipated right away, but it’s important to evaluate your results and build on what works and learn from what doesn’t. Stay the course and your hard work will pay off.

create an email marketing plan that works

Need to step up your email marketing game? Find out how to create an email marketing plan that works.

Want to learn more about email marketing? Download our free eBook below.