Tips for email marketing

Leontine van Geffen is an Applied Sciences lecturer in Digital Marketing at Amsterdam University. She explains what email marketing is and how it can benefit your business.

“Email marketing, like calling someone, is a form of direct marketing”, Van Geffen explains. "The big difference is that customers on your mailing list have indicated they want to receive communications from you. For instance, by signing up for your newsletter on your website. Before you start writing and sending emails, it is important to research the needs, wishes, and habits of your target audience. Next, you establish a strategy and create a plan to collect email addresses."

Getting started

You start with a strategy that  describes the objective, frequency, and target audience of your email campaign. According to Van Geffen, email marketing can serve any number of goals: “Acquiring customers could be a goal but also increasing customer loyalty or collecting reviews.”

You then need to collect email addresses. You may only mail people who have given you their permission to do so.  “You can get an email address at every moment of contact”, Van Geffen explains. “Your homepage is a logical place where your customers can register for your newsletter. But also think about other contact moments, for example, make sure people can register when they place an order." Give potential subscribers a reason to sign up, such as discounts, useful tips or a free e-book. Use your social media channels to promote your newsletter and get more registrations. Also look into placing a pop-up on your website.

Tips for email marketing

1. Make your newsletter personal

Create a newsletter that touches, connects with, or entertains your reader. For example, describe your mission and show what you do for that mission. This gets customers involved. Do you want to know what moves your customers, so you can respond to that with your newsletter? Then do customer research, for instance via an e-mail survey. Or check your newsletter results to find out which topics are most read.

2. Engage your target group

If you know what your customers are doing and what they need, you can distinguish yourself by reflecting this in your newsletters. For example, put out a call for people to send in a photo of them using your product. Share these photos in your next newsletter or link to a promotion.

3. Come up with an interesting subject line

The subject line of your newsletter is the first thing your reader sees and so very important. Write a surprising, inviting, or provocative title. Use clear language, ask a question or respond to a current event. Test with titles such as: ‘Curl your hair yourself in 3 steps’ (hairdresser's newsletter) or ‘Father's Day: a free smoothie with breakfast’ (restaurant newsletter). This way, readers will immediately know what the newsletter will give them.

4. Use storytelling

Storytelling is a way of writing that responds to readers' feelings. As a result, they recognise themselves in your story. This makes them feel a connection with your business. Stories make your newsletter more engaging and increase engagement.

5. Add images

Images make your newsletter more attractive and can help get your message across. Many email tools have their own images you can use. Or take pictures yourself. Always ask permission from the people in the picture. For copyright reasons, you cannot download and use images from the Internet.

6. Be creative with your call-to-actions

A call-to-action is a text, button, video, or image that literally calls the recipient to action. Use clear and attractive call-to-actions in your newsletter to encourage your readers to act. Van Geffen: “The number of times readers click on a link is measured by the click through rate. The higher the click through rate for a particular link, the more people have clicked on it.”

According to GMDA's Email Benchmark research, the average click through rate on emails in the Netherlands is between 0.5% and 6%. So if 5% of your readers click on your call-to-action, that is good and you do not need to change the call-to-action. Do only 0.5% of your readers click on that link? Then experiment with a different colour, text, or location of the link.

7. Keep your mailing list up-to-date

If you see that certain email addresses are no longer in use, remove them from your mailing list. “Tools will tell you exactly which email addresses to delete. This keeps the bounce rate (the percentage of emails that do not arrive) down.” If your emails have a high bounce rate, your customers’ email provider (such as Gmail or Outlook) may have classified your emails as spam. People tend to overlook emails in their spam box. If you have a ‘polluted’ list, your subscribers may never read your newsletters.

8. Test and improve

Test different aspects of your emails, such as subject lines, content and sending time. This will help you discover what works best for your target audience.

“The open rate depends on many factors, like day and time, the sender’s name and email address, and the subject line", Van Geffen explains. "Are your recipients more likely to open emails on Monday morning or Saturday evening? Alternatively, experiment with using the recipient’s first name instead of their surname or putting an emoji in the subject line. Whatever you do, make sure it fits your business, product, or service. The end goal is to make your email stand out among the many emails that flood into your recipient’s inbox.”