Be Concise! Less is More with Email Marketing

Email: The Fundamental Tool

Email is an underestimated marketing tool, and if properly utilized, it can be an asset to your business. Originating in the 70s, email has become one of the most fundamental tools for communication, and it’s safe to say that it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Trends and social media fads fade, but email is not a fad; it is a crucial source of connection.

In marketing, emails give clients and consumers accessibility to time-sensitive information. Since email is a foundational communication tool, it has a wide reach, and therefore an email marketing practice is significant for your business to adopt. While new trends constantly emerge, email marketing must adapt to maintain relevance and modernity.

One emerging cultural trend that has been incorporated into email marketing is minimalism. Minimalism has impacted email marketing by transforming its content from long-winded, chunky blocks of text to concise and coherent messaging that the average consumer can easily digest. 

Another emerging trend in marketing is visuals and graphics. Especially since this is a time of scrolling. If the content isn’t gripping or eye-catching, then the average consumer will scroll past it. In fact, the average consumer’s attention span has decreased to an estimated 8.25 seconds. That is less than a goldfish’s 9 seconds! As marketing trends evolve towards shorter video clips, email must evolve in the same regard. The focus for email marketing should be on short and visually appealing content that will keep the consumer’s interest on the screen. 

If you are seeking quality and concise email content for your business, The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm, LLC can help! Our team of email specialists stays up-to-date with trends and are knowledgeable about crafting succinct email content that is click-worthy! Learn more today about email marketing!

Why Less Really Is More

Easy to Read

Skimming has taken over the way media is consumed. Our eyes catch keywords and bolded text; then, our minds fill in the blanks. With so much media competing for attention, only the most interesting and clean email marketing content will win!

Format to Any Platform

Email marketers must also consider how consumers are accessing their emails. In addition to a desktop display, emails must also be phone and tablet friendly. One of the easiest mistakes is incorrectly formatting, and so the content will be lost of all meaning to consumers who are scrolling on their phones. You’re better off keeping email marketing content short and sweet, so it will remain readable on any platform, and your message will have an effect.

Consider the Consumer’s Time

Clients and consumers have strict time restraints. Their inboxes are bombarded with thousands of emails, mostly unread. Only the most important emails will be opened and properly regarded. Make it easy for your clients to sort through their inboxes. Spark their interest with an inviting subject line. Subjects that are dull or spam-like will be scrolled over. Additionally, when the consumer clicks on your email, the body should follow the intriguing subject line. 

Earn Your Audience’s Trust

Recipients on your email list will value your content more if you create concise content. This helps establish a reputation with your client base. They’ll begin to understand your brand and enjoy opening your creative emails tailored toward your clients’ needs. This will improve your open rates and translate into more conversions for your goods or services, which will promote better business for all.

Transform the Way You Reach Your Customers

Looking to increase the open rates or improve conversions of your email campaigns? The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm, LLC can help transform how you reach your customers and clients. Our team of marketing experts has the experience and knowledge to take your future email campaigns to the next level. Contact us today at 321-255-0900 to learn how we can help your business achieve email marketing success!

You might buy an email list if you want to grow your email list. After all, it’s a quick and easy way to get started, right? Wrong! Buying email lists is a bad idea for several reasons: first, you’re likely to get sued for spamming people who didn’t opt-in to your list. Second, you can purchase email lists often filled with invalid email addresses. Third, purchased email lists are less likely to result in conversions than email lists built organically. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the dangers of buying email lists and provide tips for building an email list correctly.

Violating the rules of consent

Violating consent rules by emailing people who didn’t sign up for your list is a bad idea. It’s also illegal in many places. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives customers the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

Many email service providers (ESPs) have strict rules about emailing people who didn’t sign up for your list. If you violate their terms of service, they can shut down your account. It’s not worth the risk to buy an email list. You could violate the law and get your ESP shut down. Email marketing is unsuitable for emailing people who don’t want to hear from you.

Reputable email services won’t do business with you

If you’re emailing people who didn’t sign up for your list, reputable email services won’t deal with you. So, not only is buying email lists illegal, but it’s also bad for your business. Don’t risk your email marketing campaign by buying an email list. It’s not worth it!

You can’t buy a good email list.

Even if you could buy a good email list, you shouldn’t. A good email list comprises people who have opted in to receive emails from you. They’re interested in what you have to say. They’re more likely to engage with your email and buy from you. On the other hand, a bought email list is full of people who have no idea who you are. They didn’t sign up to receive emails from you. They might not even be interested in what you have to say.

No one knows you on a purchased list.

Bought email lists are also full of people who don’t know you. When you email them, they will not recognize your name or brand. They might think you’re a spammer and report you. After all, according to Spam Laws.com, advertising-related emails make up 36% of all spam messages. Or they might just delete your email without reading it. Either way, you’re not going to get the results you want.

Your email delivery rates and IP reputation will suffer

When you email people who haven’t signed up to receive email from you, your email delivery rates will suffer. Your emails are more likely to end up in spam folders, and your IP reputation will take a hit. This hit can harm your ability to deliver email to the people who want to receive it.

You will be annoying.

Nobody likes getting an email from someone they don’t know. You will annoy many people if you email people who haven’t signed up to receive your email. And when people are annoyed, they’re less likely to do business with you.

Your service provider can penalize you.

If you’re using a service like Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook to send your email, they can penalize you for sending email to people who haven’t signed up to receive it. This prohibited act can result in your account being suspended or even terminated.

We can help!

The AD Leaf was created to work with you to develop these marketing strategies to create the best experience for your customer and increase sales for your business. Our professional help will ease your stress toward marketing so that you can focus on all other aspects of your business. We will be your trusted advisor if you have questions about driving success this holiday season. Call us today! (321) 255-0900.

With these email marketing tips, businesses can generate leads that lead to revenue all year round. A 2015 study by the DMA found that for every $1 spent, email has an average $38 return on investment (ROI). This is huge for businesses since with just a little effort invested into a great email campaign strategy. The campaign could pay off in a big way!

Step 1: Generate an Email List

The first thing is to start gathering emails from past or potential clients. Don’t worry if a list is only a couple hundred subscribers. A healthy growing list is better than thousands of users. For example, a business that compiled a list of 150 people from networking events and clients could generate more leads and revenue than a gigantic list. This is because these people are specifically tailored to your industry. Then, don’t sell to them but educate using intelligent material like a high-quality, topical blog article. This presents you as a thought leader, which people are more inclined to reach out to for advice. This advice then turns into a sale. 

Step 2: Create a Plan

Even though your product or business could appeal to a wide variety of people, it is crucial to define an audience. Choose exactly who to reach and the best messaging to communicate with them. This helps to create personalized and targeted emails that help increase engagement and build trust. How did users sign up for emails? This signup source can help create a customer journey segmented into groups. Each group should have a different message. Also, in this plan decide the sending frequency. Sending too often, and subscribers will flee. Wait too long, and subscribers won’t have a relationship with you. It is like a memorable courtship that needs to be nurtured correctly.

Step 3: Craft an Open-Worthy Subject Line

The average person receives 121 emails per day. You need to cut through the digital clutter. The best subject lines are concise and grab your attention. Some examples are:

• Please Touch Me! Enterprise Delight via Multitouch
• Defense Against the Dark Arts: ESAPI
• Do Gamers Dream of HTML5 Sheep?
• Baby Got (Feed)Back

Another trick is using punctuation marks. Question marks and unusual punctuation offer another method for standing out. Try to avoid exclamation marks as they are over-used for attention. The best use of this is using question marks to ask your readers a question. For example, “Rough Day?” “Want to save 10%?”. Just make sure your subject line doesn’t go over 50 characters since those with less have higher open rates.

Step 4: A/B Testing

A/B Testing or Split Testing is an effective way to learn more about your audience and get the best results from an email marketing campaign. A great start is testing multiple subject lines. These are the most important and make or break a campaign.

Play with email lengths. According to Boomerang’s research, the ideal length for an email is between 50 and 125 words. Emails that fell within these two lengths netted a response rate above 50%, proving just how important it is to pay attention to your messages’ size.

Change the images. Maybe a GIF would be more engaging, or maybe an audience wants more or less of them. A/B Testing will tell that information.

Step 5: Analyze Your Campaign

When looking at how successful a campaign is, examine opens, and clicks. It is also important to compare these to other companies in an industry. Don’t just look at how a campaign did, but look at the traction to your website or e-commerce store. These are all important to conversion rates.

Need Personalized Email Marketing Lead Tips?

Do you need more help in formulating an email campaign?  Want to get more email marketing leads? Why not set-up a one-on-one call with us? During your personalized strategy session, we will walk you through everything you need to know to make a killer email marketing campaign. Contact us today.

As marketers, as business owners, and as fellow humans, we are in trying and unprecedented times. In the face of a global pandemic, many people are wondering how they are going to keep themselves and their families safe, while still effectively managing their business. The key to surviving these troubling times is communication, and there is no better way to do that than a built out digital marketing campaign. While there are many components to a successful digital marketing campaign, there is even more to think about in the face of a global pandemic. A business owner must balance a sense of compassion with the need to share helpful information to keep their consumers informed. One of the best ways to connect directly with the people you know you are doing business with is through your email campaign. 

Whether you are loyally sending out email campaigns every week, or are just looking to dust off that subscriber list, it can be easy to rub consumers the wrong way with your communication during these tough times. Here are some ways to keep a positive rapport with your email campaigns. 

Be Honest, Compassionate, and Helpful

Transparency is key. The benefit of having a subscriber list is that you have already cultivated a sense of community. These users have either been past customers of yours, subscribed to your newsletter, or have otherwise opted in to get more information from your business regularly. Now is the time to be honest with them and let them know you care while sharing pertinent information about your business. If you were forced to shut down, or reduce hours, make it known that it is for the safety of your loyal customers. You care about them and their well being, make sure they are staying safe and let them know that you will see them soon. 

This can also be a great opportunity to share any updates to your business model you may not have had before. If you have updated your strategy to include curbside pickup, delivery online shopping, etc, share that, your customers may love to know you are still in business. In times of uncertainty, people look to brands and businesses in their community. Showing that you are still working hard to deliver the product or service you love while keeping yourself, your employees, and your customers safe will go a long way in showing your solidarity and dedication. 

Be Conscious

While you may have the best of intentions, it is important to remember that emotions are high, and in our current environment, it can be easy to rub your subscribers the wrong way. Be mindful of your subject lines, and the emotional impact of the language you are using. You won’t want to come across too spammy or to look like you are trying to capitalize. Spare them the “Coronavirus Flash Sale”. These types of subject lines come off as insensitive, and tone-deaf. Instead, try the more sensitive “We’re committed to helping you through this by offering free delivery”. 

This said, you also want to make sure that if you have an important update, it is being heard.  Words like “update”, “community info”, etc are a dime a dozen right now, and chances are, your subscribers are being inundated with subject lines like these days in and day out. The best course of action is to remain genuine and make sure to communicate clearly and effectively.

Let Them Know You Care

The worst thing you can do right now is to stop communicating altogether. Pausing your communication, or “going dark”, is a quick way to have your consumers forget about you. Like we mentioned, in times of uncertainty, consumers will take notice of which brands have pulled back and which brands are still engaging with their community. If you don’t want to, or can’t market your services right now, it may be a good time to think about alternatives. Try focusing on how you are giving back, share ways that your consumers can keep themselves safe, or what they can do to still support local businesses. If curbside or delivery is not an option, many businesses have taken to promoting gift cards. This is a great way to still promote sales and help your community support your business by earmarking some time to come visit you when it is safe. 

As a marketer and as a business owner, the best thing you can do is, to be honest, consistent, and compassionate with your subscribers. The fact is, how brands handle this situation will establish brand trust for years to come. If you need help crafting the perfect messaging with support from a digital marketing campaign, contact The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm. Together, we will partner with you to help you navigate these difficult times and help your business thrive.