There’s nothing more frustrating than sending out an email blast to your list, only to realize that only a handful of people even bothered to open it. Email marketing has been around for quite some time now, and it’s still as powerful as ever.

When it comes to improving your open and click-through rates in an email campaign, there are several things that you need to do to ensure success. Read on to learn more about five things that you can do to help improve your email marketing campaigns.

Use a Good List

You could have a great email campaign with some of the best and most persuasive copy on the planet—but if you’re emailing the wrong people, you’re wasting your time. If you’re struggling to obtain a good list, perhaps you should consider an email list-building service? It can help you get the contact info of people most likely to buy your products or services.

Be sure to purge your list regularly. Bad email addresses or people who have opted out can significantly lower your success rate, and you might inadvertently wind up on a spammer list. Most major email sending programs, such as MailChimp, allow you to quickly sanitize your list to ensure its good health.

Avoid Running Afoul of the CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law created by the FTC that regulates email campaigns. There are many essential aspects of it, such as:

Don’t use deceptive subject lines
You need to identify your message as an ad
The message must include your physical address
Tell or give your recipients a way to opt-out of future emails
Honor all opt-out requests within ten days

There are several other CAN-SPAM Act rules that you should familiarize yourself with regardless of whether you’re running your email campaign, or you hired another company to do so on your behalf.

Is Your Content on Point?

Once your email list is in order, it’s now time to focus on the content. Many Alexandria and Arlington businesses owners struggle to write email content that will persuade the recipient to take action or convert.

Professional copywriting can help you dial in the three most important aspects of an email marketing campaign:

The Subject Line (and to some lesser extent, the preview)
The Content
The Call-to-Action

The subject line is the hook—what gets people to open the email. The content informs them of an offer that’s valuable to them, and the call-to-action persuades them to take the next step. If anyone of the above three are weak, the entire campaign is in jeopardy.

Email Content Tips

If you intend on writing your email content, here are a few more tips for your consideration:

Use bullet points — Bullet points allow the reader to quickly skim the email and get the gist of what it’s saying. Nobody wants to take the time to sit there and read several long paragraphs.
Use shorter paragraphs — Shorter paragraphs allow people to read and digest your information much easier. Keep your paragraphs to no more than 2-3 short lines at most.
Images — Use pictures and images sparingly, if at all. They tend to increase the email size and, in some cases, can trip the SPAM filter.
Hyperlinks — Hyperlinks are another thing that can cause your email to automatically get sent to the SPAM folder instead of the recipient’s inbox. Ideally, try to use as few hyperlinks as possible.

Tracking and Reporting

Tracking and reporting are critical to helping you understand what is, and more importantly, what isn’t working. By looking at email open rates and a wide variety of other metrics, you’ll be able to perform A/B testing that will allow you to dial in your campaign.

Adding a pURL will allow you to send the email recipient to a dedicated landing page while tracking the link. It’s also a more concise way of adding a long hyperlink to an email and will provide you with a wealth of valuable data.

Email Marketing Help in Alexandria and Arlington

Email is still a powerful marketing tool that can generate a tremendous ROI if performed correctly. At AlphaGraphics of Alexandria and Arlington, our expert email marketers can design and execute the perfect email campaign. We can also help you write your content and create a viable list.

We’ve helped countless local Alexandria and Arlington businesses with their email campaigns over the years. If you’d like to speak to a marketing expert about your business, give us a call at (703) 549-2432 or contact us on our website.

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