Chapter 7.1 - Tips for effective e-mail marketing

Email is more personal than many other channels (apart from SMS), and as the members of the customer club have made a personal choice to become a member, they already know you. Make sure you provide good value in each and every email and that it is easy to read and looks good on mobile. A good email is short enough that it takes no more than 3-4 minutes to read.

After the sender, the subject field is the first thing the recipient sees. For organic advertising in the physical world, there is something called the "5-second rule". This is the time you have to arouse the interest of the recipient and get them to perceive a message on, for example, a poster or banner. But in e-mail marketing, we have far less time to create interest in the recipient. Here we are talking about 0.5 seconds. The job of the subject field is to get the recipient to click and open, and at the same time give a clue as to what the email contains. It is an art to write short enough, but at the same time give sufficient information.

If you have an interesting subject field, more people will click in immediately, but if your subject field drowns in the sea of generic subject fields from other players, it will remain unopened. Once you get a recipient to open the email you've sent, the 5-second rule of getting to the point and getting the customer interested quickly ticks by.

• Teach - don't sell! “Sales”, “Offers”, “Free”, etc. are often marked as spam.

• Avoid foreign words and slang. Foreign words can give the subject field a frivolous feel.

• DON'T YELL!!! Capital letters and exclamation marks are often marked as spam.

• Carefully consider the use of emojis. Think through who the target group is.

• Avoid excessively personal language. It can be perceived as intrusive.

Newsletters are one of the most common and effective forms of email marketing. This is simply a fixed "publication" that you can send weekly or monthly, filled with news, good blog posts or offers. It helps to keep the company fresh in the memory, create value for the recipient, and encourage purchases - depending on what it contains.

If you have a new product, special offer or an exciting event, this can be a very popular e-mail for many to receive. Clearly present what you have to offer and what values it will bring to the recipient. Other things you can do to stand out is to combine the offers with various benefits, competitions, gifts or prizes. Be creative and use the opportunity to test different ideas.

• Good subject line that gets the email opened

• Clear message and cheerful tone of voice

• Easily visible CTA buttons ("call to action") that encourage action

• Avoid the temptation of too long newsletters

• Feel free to add recommended products or best sellers

• Many people wonder when to send newsletters and whether the time has a lot to say about whether the e-mail is read or not. Whether you choose to send out weekly or monthly, predictability helps you make it a regular, welcome addition to your recipient's inbox.

• Remember that all statistics are an average and no conclusion. So before you decide on a date and time for sending out, feel your gut and test it out. You know your target group best, and it may be that your target group in particular has a different pattern than the statistical average indicates.

• Use insights from the analysis function to see which emissaries get the best response. At best, you find a really favorable time to send; at worst, you have learned what to avoid.

• Use the content plan to schedule seasonal mailings with relevant offers. Clearly present what you have to offer, what value it will bring to the recipient, and include images as well as a tempting button, link or discount code that encourages action.

• Send at the same time each time, and do not start sending after 3pm. It takes several hours to send out a large load of newsletters, so it should preferably be ready in the inbox before eight o'clock in the evening.

• Cancellations - Don't despair! It's perfectly fine for someone to unsubscribe. Anything below 0.5% is normal. Focus on how many people buy, open and read. If not everyone opens, you are at least "top of mind" in that they see you in the inbox.

• In the end, it is neither the day nor the time you send out that is most important for getting your newsletter read. Focus most of all on creating relevant and good content, and subject titles that tempt the recipient to open!