6 Best New Email Marketing Techniques 2016!
We here at Winning Email like to keep on top of the email game, and that includes learning about and experimenting with new email marketing techniques. Let’s go over 6 of the hottest new email marketing techniques we’ve recently discovered…
- Pre-Targeting
This involves warming up your list before you send a major campaign (that’s focused on conversions). Here’s how it works:
- Figure out which subscribers you want to target. This may involve segmenting your list by whatever criteria you decide, so you can easily export these subscriber’s email address to a spreadsheet or text file.
- Import these emails into an ad platform that allows re-targeting, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Google AdWords.
- Create ads that raise brand awareness, and maybe even give your followers a small taste of what your major campaign is focusing on.
- Give the ads some time to get exposure (maybe a week?)
- Send your major email campaign
2. Avoiding the Promotions tab in Gmail
Apparently Gmail’s introduction of “tabs” (Primary, Social, and Promotions) has reduced open rates by up to 30%. So what can you do to avoid your email ending up in the Promotions tab?
Considering that more than 66% of emails are opened on mobile devices, we need to focus on that.
Optimize your emails for mobile devices FIRST
There’s a bunch of tools out there for testing how your emails will appear on smaller screens. Here’s some of our favorites:
- Litmus: https://litmus.com/email-testing
- Email on Acid: https://www.emailonacid.com/email-testing
- PreviewMyEmail: http://previewmyemail.com/
If you notice high open-rates but low click-through rates, this could be an indication that your content is not designed for smaller screens.
3. Un-personalization
Apparently the over-personalization of emails lately has caused some of us to be turned off by seeing our name in the Subject line. I guess us marketers have just over-used it to death 😉
Try experimenting with casual subjects and opening lines (which become the preview text), so not to turn people away immediately, and hopefully you’ll see a bump in open rates.
4. Fancy, new personalization tricks
I know, I know, I just told you that personalization was dead. Well maybe it’s not! Of course you should be taking everything I say with cautious optimism, and TEST IT OUT YOURSELF. Don’t just assume that since it has worked for other people it’ll give the same results from your subscribers.
Fw / Re
I personally can’t stand this one, but I’ve seen case studies where it’s definitely worked. Simply add “Fw:” or “Re:” to the start of your Subject lines, and BOOM … people think it must be important or that you’ve had prior contact on the subject.
Using business names
If you are fortunate / smart enough to capture the name of the company your subscriber works for, you can use that in your email Subject. People definitely pay attention to work-related emails, right? 😉
Examples:
- Here’s what I think about Winning Email
- Did you know Winning Email is doing this?
- Winning Email … busted again …
5. NOT selling
This one seems pretty unintuitive, but by not selling anything in your email, by just providing VALUE and GREAT CONTENT, you build a positive repoire with your customers, which can help with a future email campaign that DOES include a CTA.
Try including a little teaser at the end of the email, to get them thinking subconsciously about what’s to come …
6. Off-peak sending
Rather than sending at peak times (in the morning during week days), like EVERYBODY else, why not experiment with sending at off-peak times? Maybe your subscribers get overwhelmed by too many emails at one time, so they’re more likely to archive/delete/spam them. But if it’s a Sunday and they’re sitting around watching football, maybe you’ll get more of their attention? It’s worth a try!
