While the quote highlights Rutan’s philosophy of learning through iterative testing and failures to achieve breakthroughs in engineering, it seems tailor-made for A/B testing.

A/B testing has been a holy grail for email marketers for decades. But it’s also one of the most time-consuming tasks. Numerous variables affect email campaign performance today, making it harder than ever to gather valuable data through manual tests. For example, Subject Line X might perform well one week, but using that result to guide decisions months later isn’t always reliable.

Luckily, AI disruption is rewriting what’s possible with email A/B testing. With 64% marketers already using AI and automation, AI tools make the testing process faster, more efficient, and smarter. 

With AI-powered A/B testing, you can handle multiple variables and run real-time tests. This means you get fresh insights into what works best and can use that information right away while it’s still valuable.

In Email Upler’s latest infographic, “Optimizing Email Design and Coding with AI,” many email marketing industry leaders share their experiences with various AI tools for email campaign testing. 

In this blog, we’ll explore how to increase the effectiveness of your email marketing experiments using AI-powered A/B testing tools. 

What Is A/B Testing in Email Marketing?

A/B testing, or split testing,  involves creating two versions of an email to see which one performs better. These versions can differ slightly or significantly, depending on what you’re testing—be it email design, subject lines, CTA placement, or send times.

Once you’ve crafted these versions, you send them to different subsets of your email list. Each email version engages recipients and prompts responses. You then analyze their performance using key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, or conversions to determine which version is more effective.

Let’s say you’re launching a new product and want to send an email announcement. You decide to test two different subject lines:

• Version A: “Exciting News! Check Out Our New Product”
• Version B: “The Wait is Over! Get Ready for Our Latest Launch!” 

You send Version A to 10% of your list and Version B to another 10%. After a few hours, you check the results. If Version B has a higher open rate, you send that subject line to the remaining 80% of your list.

A/B testing in email marketing offers flexibility to cater to your specific needs. It can be as simple as a head-to-head battle between subject lines to see which gets the most clicks. 

However, A/B testing can also be a multi-layered experiment. Imagine sending out two completely different email layouts – one with a minimalist design and the other with a more visually engaging format. By analyzing which version drives more clicks, you can identify the layout that resonates best with your audience.

Now, let’s look closer at how you can leverage AI to run A/B tests for your email marketing campaigns.

Why A/B Testing Matters to Email Marketers?

• To make strategic choices based on real-time results. You can refine your email marketing strategy by analyzing performance metrics for maximum effectiveness.
• To boost email open-rates. A/B testing lets you compare different subject lines and see which resonates best with your audience.
• To improve click-through rates. A/B testing allows you to compare calls to action, design elements, and even content snippets to see what compels recipients to click through to your website or landing page.
• To convert passive readers into loyal customers. A/B testing lets you test personalized offers and CTAs tailored to specific audience segments, increasing the likelihood of conversions. 
• To craft personalized emails. A/B testing, combined with AI, helps you experiment with personalized content, product recommendations, and offers, leading to a more engaging and effective email experience for every subscriber.

5 Key Elements to Optimize Using AI-Powered A/B Testing in Email Marketing

Test Ideation

AI can take the guesswork out of deciding what to test next. Instead of relying on hunches, let AI analyze your data and suggest variations for email subject lines, designs, or call-to-action buttons. These AI-driven insights ensure your A/B tests are based on solid data.

For example, AI tools like Phrasee and ShortlyAI can analyze your email content and target audience and then generate and test multiple subject line variations.

Des Brown, Director at TouchBasePro, recommends using their platform for its optimized content feeds, recommender engine, and ability to calculate the best email sending times. Another favorite of his is Subjectline.com, which excels in automated A/B testing of subject line efficacy.

Incorporating these AI tools into your strategy can significantly enhance your test ideation process, leading to more effective and insightful A/B tests.

Data Analysis and Modeling

Feeling overwhelmed by A/B testing data? Ever wished you could predict how your next email campaign will perform? AI-powered data analysis can be your game-changer for unlocking email marketing success.

AI simplifies the process by diving deep into your A/B test results, uncovering hidden patterns and trends that might take ages to identify manually. This way, you can pinpoint areas for improvement before launching your next campaign.

Imagine getting ahead by accurately predicting the performance of your future email campaigns. AI tools like Epsilon and Salesforce Marketing Cloud analyze historical data to provide actionable insights and suggest improvements, enabling you to make informed, data-driven decisions.

Additionally, AI-powered A/B testing tools can predict which elements, such as specific product images, will boost your click-through rates based on previous campaigns. By tapping into these AI predictions, you can focus on what truly works for your audience and fine-tune your email marketing strategy.

Personalization

Email personalization with AI is easy and effective. AI marketing tools automatically personalize emails in real time using subscriber data. 

Engage your recipients by tailoring emails to their specific interests and behaviors. Tools like Movable Ink and Emarsys use AI to personalize content based on recipient data such as demographics, purchase history, and website behavior. This drives higher engagement and conversions.

A/B Testing Process

If you feel bogged down by the complexities of A/B testing, AI can simplify it all for you. AI can streamline the entire A/B testing by summarizing key themes, prioritizing which tests to run first, and refining manual workflows, making your testing more efficient.

Save time and increase efficiency by automating your A/B testing process. Tools like Adobe Campaign and Optimizely handle everything from creating test variations to tracking results and identifying winners, allowing you to focus on strategy.

Automate your tests to compare elements, like call-to-action button colors, and let AI determine the most effective choice.

Send Time Optimization

AI predicts the perfect time to send your emails. This strategic approach can drastically boost open and click-through rates because people are more inclined to interact with emails when actively checking their inboxes.

Mailchimp and Klaviyo, powered by AI, are some of the best email marketing platforms that recommend the optimal send times for your email campaigns. Plus, these tools keep learning and adapting, refining recommendations as you send more campaigns.

With AI-driven send time optimization, you can maximize the impact of your emails and effortlessly achieve better results.

5 Best AI-Powered A/B Testing Tools for Email Marketing

1. Mailchimp

Key Features: Built-in A/B testing for subject lines, content, and send times. AI-powered segmentation and personalization capabilities.

2. ActiveCampaign

Key Features: Comprehensive testing of subject lines, pre-headers, email content blocks, images, videos, and CTAs.

3. Klaviyo

Key Features: Built-in AI for predictive analytics, A/B testing, smart send time optimization and industry-specific benchmarks.

4. Drip

Key Features: AI-driven testing of up to 4 email content and subject line variations in one campaign. Includes dynamic segmentation and automation.

5. Benchmark

Key Features: Ideal for small to medium-sized businesses. Offers subject line and campaign comparisons, Google Analytics integration, and optimal email delivery times.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are AI Tools for Email A/B Testing?

AI tools for A/B testing in email marketing use artificial intelligence to automate and optimize the process of testing email variations. These tools analyze data to predict and identify which email tweaks work best for your audience.

Why should I use AI for A/B Testing?

AI enhances A/B testing by automating processes and providing deep insights. It saves time, improves accuracy, and allows for sophisticated testing, leading to better email engagement and conversion rates.

What are some common types of A/B testing I can do with AI?

Common types of A/B testing with AI include:

• Testing different subject lines to optimize open rates.
• Experimenting with email content, images, and video variations to improve engagement.
• Testing call-to-action (CTA) buttons to increase click-through rates.
• Optimizing send times for better email delivery and response rates.

How do AI Tools for A/B Testing work?

AI tools for A/B testing analyze past data and user behavior to predict the impact of different email variations. They automate the testing process, monitor real-time results, and provide actionable recommendations for optimizing email campaigns.

How much do A/B Testing AI tools cost?

Costs for AI tools in A/B testing vary based on features and providers. Some offer basic functionalities for free, while others require subscription fees based on usage and additional services. It’s advisable to compare options to find a tool that aligns with your budget and email marketing goals.

The post How To Use AI-Powered A/B Testing For Impressive Email Marketing Results appeared first on SiteProNews.

Which is why the email newsletter is among the top email marketing trends in 2024. It’s no longer simply a medium for delivering news and updates. Rather, it’s part and parcel of sending tailored content to your audience with the goal to engage and convert. 

The Case for Email Newsletters: Milk Road And Morning Brew

Milk Road and Morning Brew stand out as illustrious real-world cases for the potential of email newsletters. Their story could be the story of any brand eager to spread the word. 

Let’s start with Milk Road. It began as a newsletter for cryptocurrency-related news, which was launched by Shaan Puri and Ben Levy in February, 2022. By the end of just three weeks post-launch, their newsletter had over 70,000 subscribers. And within 10 months of the launch, Milk Road commanded a staggering 250,000 subscribers to their newsletter. 

How did it happen? Through their masterful application of the newsletter: 

• Milk Road created a nice-looking newsletter template where most brands did not care much for functional aesthetics when it came to newsletters. 

Source: beehiive

• Milk Road pushed a simple referral program whereby readers were invited to share each day’s newsletter, and receive a free PDF of their most recent blog post.
  
• Over time, Milk Road started featuring recommendations for other newsletters which, in turn, displayed Milk Road’s newsletter on their newsletters, thus inviting more signups.
  
• Milk Road used paid acquisition to garner more readers. By showing targeted ads (memes and social proof ads) on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, they were able to add 50,000 crypto-loving readers to their subscription list.
  
• Milk Road recognized the significance of analytics to separate the chaff (low-quality subscribers) from the wheat (high-quality subscribers). 

Source: beehiive

• Milk Road conducted audience polls to gather feedback for continuous improvement. It’s a great way to signal a brand’s commitment to its audience. 

Morning Brew

Let’s turn to Morning Brew, which was founded by Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief. What started out as a small newsletter in 2015 topped 4 million subscribers by 2022.

Like Milk Road, Morning Brew identified what exactly people wanted (i.e. how to stay updated on recent news, stories, and events), and then went on to deliver that. Add to it their pithy writing style and neat, packed nutshell summaries of the biggest news items.

It might be unsettling but Morning Brew’s strategy was as simple as black and white. The founders’ main aim was to write well, track well, and persist in that:

• They would analyze their copy against other newsletters. Line-by-line, word-by-word comparative analyses helped them to see what constitutes a good story. They went chest-deep into the newsletter industry to find out what worked and what didn’t.
  
• Like Milk Road, the Morning Brew founders understood the importance of cracking analytics in order to steer a brand in the right direction. Analytics furnished them with the data needed to convince investors and sponsors.
  
• Both Lieberman and Rief were consistent in their efforts to write great newsletters and leverage analytics to monitor their performance. For over two years, all they did was track the open rate every day at 11 AM. 

Now you see why the once-humble newsletter is trending alongside more recent developments, such as generative AI, in the world of email marketing. 

Tips to Make Money off Email Newsletters

1. Deliver High-quality Content

High-quality content is the foundation of a successful email newsletter. Creating content that saves time and educates your audience is key to increasing audience engagement. 

Speaking of content, it’s important to remember that not all niches favor newsletters. If your newsletter is purely informational and entertaining, it may not go the distance. Take time to appreciate the kinetics of your niche, and see if email marketing is the right channel for it. 

2. Deploy Sponsored Content 

You could partner with companies in your niche to create sponsored content within your newsletter. This could include relevant blog posts, product reviews, expert interviews, etc. 

3. Offer Paid Subscriptions

Target your most engaged subscribers with access to exclusive content such as in-depth analyses, market research, business decision strategies, etc. This caters to those who want extra value from your newsletter, enabling you to create a recurrent revenue stream.

4. Create A Referral Program

A newsletter referral program works by rewarding subscribers when they share your newsletter with others. In fact, Morning Brew’s referral program helped them grow from 100,00 subscribers to 1.5 million subscribers in just one-and-a-half years. 

A referral program works because it makes willing advocates out of subscribers. You don’t need to adopt mass promotional tricks to win people over. Subscribers championing your cause to their own networks is a quicker, surer means to gain outsiders’ trust. 

Besides, it also reduces subscriber acquisition costs. You acquire new subscribers for free, with just the reward system requiring an overhead. 

5. Try Cross-promotion

Cross-promotion in newsletters is the process of featuring another newsletter on your own, and vice-versa. That’s what Milk Road did, if you remember. If you’re doing it with a trusted, long-standing business, you can leverage their credibility to establish your own.

Cross-promotion increases your reach to new target markets. Compared to traditional advertising methods, it is cost-effective as well. Depending on your niche, cross-promotion may enable you to diversify your customer base.

6. Literally Worship Analytics

Not an overstatement. Without analytics, it’s like the blind leading the blind. Forgetting or overlooking it can be fatal to your business, even in its initial stages. 

Having prioritized it, you need to learn how to master analytics. Various email marketing platforms offer advanced analytics. At first, it can be difficult to navigate reports. Start small; identify at least one key metric that you want to track. Take the help of tutorials. You could also ask gen AI tools to answer ESP-specific technical questions. 

Start Small, Start Now!

The search volumes for newsletters are mind-boggling. From sports to geopolitical events, there’s a genuine appetite for in-depth reporting and updates. People prefer email newsletters to bite-sized social media posts and mass advertising. If you believe you can make a difference with your newsletter, now is the time to make good on your faith and get cracking!

The post Email Newsletters: An Unexpected Well-spring of Revenue Generation in 2024 appeared first on SiteProNews.

You might have pumped in dollars and deployed the best creative minds to craft, write and design the best-in-class email marketing campaigns, but all that effort will amount to nothing if those emails never reach their intended audience! Sounds scary? Well, cease to fret as we unravel the basics of email sender reputation, the factors that have a role to play in determining it, and finally, ways to enhance it. 

Let’s hit the throttle!

Decoding Email Sender Reputation

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) renders a score to your organization on the basis of varied factors such as bounce rates, the success or failure of previous email campaigns, reader engagement, the number of times your email subscribers mark your email as spam, etc. 

A major determinant of your email deliverability rates, your email sender reputation could very well be the difference between your campaigns translating into visible monetary ROIs or, worse, getting marked as spam or even blocklisted! 

While building your email sender reputation is not child’s play and cannot be done overnight, it will require a concerted effort from your team over a period of time. ISPs are not very transparent when it comes to the parameters they consider before segregating those IP addresses that make the cut and those that don’t.

However, Google has rolled out an insight into its Postmaster Tools that one can peruse to gain a clearer picture. They have changed the way they calculate their spam rates; you can check the same here. 

A conflation of IP reputation and domain reputation, email sender reputation is influenced by both. Let’s delve into each of these elements,

• IP reputation: While every ESP offers a whole plethora of shared IP addresses, there is also an option to purchase dedicated IP addresses. The latter is an expensive option; therefore many prefer to go with the former.

However, every shared IP comes with its own history and reputation, which servers take very seriously. A decent reputation takes years to build, and one failed email campaign to dig its own grave. Thus if you are facing a spike in failed deliveries, you know where to check!

• Domain reputation: Domain reputation has a significant role in influencing your sender reputation. You might invest in the best, tried, and tested IP address from premia mailbox providers or ESPs. However, all of that will amount to nothing if your domain reputation is not such a hit with the network. Similarly, a well-reputed domain name won’t rake in the moolah if your IP address has a not-so-great reputation. 

Metrics Affecting Email Sender Reputation 

Just like there are a number of intertwined factors behind a person’s reputation, your email sender’s reputation is not much different. Let’s unravel some of the factors at play here;

• Spam traps: These are anti-spam measures adopted by ISPs in order to identify and block email marketers who choose not to adhere to email distribution rules and regulations, such as buying email lists and sending out mailers to those who didn’t sign up for it in the first place. While there is no way to tell a spam trap mail id from a legitimate one, you can try looking out for those with typos and refrain from sending emails to those who don’t particularly wish to receive them, and clean your subscriber list frequently. 
• Spam complaints: The more the number of people hitting ‘Report as Spam’ on your deliverables, the further south your email sender reputation dips. 
• Sending history: A certain karmic connection of sorts, this involves your past sending behavior in terms of cadence and content. Spam filters are always on the lookout for those with unreasonably high sending volumes.
• Content quality of your emails: Sending out spammy emails that aren’t grammatically correct or contain images that are too large, and content that’s obnoxiously irrelevant, you run the risk of getting marked as spam by ISPs.
• Bounce rates: This refers to the number of emails that don’t make it to the intended inbox. They can be either soft or hard, depending on whether the bounce was either due to temporary issues, such as storage problems, or a more permanent one, such as a non-existent email id or one that is no longer in use.
• Subscriber engagement: This is a reflection of how subscribers choose to interact with the emails you send. Open rates, click-throughs, and reply frequencies, if any, affect your reputation as a sender. 
• Unsubscribe rates: As the name suggests, this is the number of subscribers who choose to bow out of your mailer lists. 

Ways to Salvage Sender’s Reputation

There are tools available across platforms with which you can get an insight into your current scores on the reputational front. For instance, Google Postmaster Tools can help you gain a better understanding of how well you are doing in terms of spam reports, authentication, encryption, and delivery errors. However, in order to avail of it, you need to have a high sending volume. 

Once you are clear on your current standing and seek to improve your sender reputation, the following pointers will help you; just remember to implement them in your next email campaign, or you can choose to let experts do the job for you! 

• Ensure that your domain is authenticated: Having proper authentication protocols in place lets incoming servers know that you are indeed who you profess to be! We suggest checking the following credentials in case you are facing deliverability issues~ DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance), SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). 
• Choose to grow your email subscriber list organically: Playing jazz tunes to someone who likes the blues won’t really turn out that well for both parties, right? They’d either tell you to stop playing or, worse, choose to leave the avenue. Similarly, buying email lists or sending emails to those who never really expressed any interest in receiving content from you is not GDPR compliant and will have negative repercussions on your sender reputation. The way out of this is to go for double opt-ins. 
• Regularly clean your email lists: So you have chosen to go the organic way both in letter and in spirit, congratulations! A little grooming every now and then never hurt anyone. People switch email accounts when they change jobs, and unsubscribing from your emailing list may be the last thing on their minds. Also, sometimes people run out of storage in their inboxes. All these factors can impact your bounce rates. The first is an instance of a hard bounce. In short, there ain’t much you can do about it other than getting it off your mailer list. While the second one is an example of a soft bounce, one which may get rectified over time. You can probably try shooting them emails at a later stage. In case they have lost interest over time, you could try sending re-engagement emails. And if it all comes to nothing, bidding adieu to them is a smart move! 
• Don’t forget to add that unsubscribe button!: This may seem counter-intuitive, but in actuality, it makes a lot of sense. Letting people know that you value their time and yours helps build a clean and solid email reputation.

Summary 

Well, that’s a wrap, folks! Here’s to an ever-improving email sender reputation, and in case you need help crafting those awe-inspiring email campaigns, we at Email Uplers are here to help! 

The post An Insight Into the Factors That Affect Email Sender Reputation and Ways to Improve It appeared first on SiteProNews.

Achieving that, however, as any email copywriter will tell you, is no child’s play. To write an email copy that is engaging and stirring requires you to both have a strong grasp over writing as a craft and be fluent with the nuances of email as a communication channel. You can build the template of your choice with a drag and drop email template builder, but writing a copy that is on the money is a whole different ball game altogether. But, don’t you feel overwhelmed by all that. We’ve got your back. In this blog, we’ll be sharing with you a host of best practices that will let you fine-tune your email copy and stand out from the crowd. Eager to find out what they are? Read on!

1. Make It Personal

Picture this- two emails arrive in your inbox, both are promotional in nature. One is written generically, talking about the business’ best-selling products and what makes them so sought-after, in the first place. The other contains products that are curated specifically for your taste, and talks about how they are the best fit for you based on your buying patterns in the past. Which email will have more of your attention? The answer spells itself out, doesn’t it. That’s the power of email personalization.

In this climate of information overload and email fatigue, readers are only willing to engage with emails that strive to foster a dialogue with them and ones that directly address their interests and preferences. To be able to get the spotlight successfully on your pixel-perfect email templates, you must begin with dividing your email list into different segments based on various parameters such as age, gender, occupation, past purchases, browsing patterns, position in the sales funnel, and the like. Doing so will allow you to identify the diverse buyer personas that are interacting with your brand and craft content appealing to each of their unique sensibilities. At the end of the day, the more relevant your content is, the better the results your campaigns will be able to drive.

Another personalization technique that can fetch you great dividends is using dynamic content. With the help of dynamic content, you can customize a particular section of your template differently for different customer segments. Imagine the superlative user experience that will help you drive! Now, there are quite a few ways to incorporate dynamic content into your email but one of the most convenient methods include using merge tags. They let you import data into your campaigns directly from your mailing list. Their appearance might vary from one ESP to another. For example, in Mailchimp, personalization strings are composed between “| |”. On the other hand, in Salesforce, they’re kept between “%% %%”. Normally, merge tags are inserted in the body copy but you can also place them in your subject lines and preview texts as well. 

Customer data, goes without saying, is critical to designing impactful dynamic content blocks. Wondering what kinds of data you can utilize? Take a look:

• Expressed preference
• Past purchases
• Geolocation
• Gender, race, and ethnicity
• Past website interactions
• Past email interactions

2. Avoid Using Jargon

The primary purpose of email copy is to establish a connect with the reader. You stand to heavily endanger that by using jargon. This is a piece of advice you’ll be offered by every full-service email marketing agency out there. No matter how complex or sophisticated the scope of your product or service, never, ever resort to introducing industry jargon in your copy. It will instantly put off your readers. This tip is mostly directed at SaaS and B2B players where marketers might feel inclined to utilize technical terms to explain their offerings to their audience. But, here’s the thing: in order to use your product, your customer doesn’t need to know its working principle; they need to understand the real-life applications of its features. And that is something that can only be communicated in language that is simple and accessible. 

While buying, let’s say, a refrigerator, do you concern yourself with the technical specifications of its compressor? No. Instead, you concern itself with the application it drives- the refrigerator’s levels of cooling. In object oriented programming, this philosophy is called encapsulation: hiding the complex working process of an entity and only revealing the functional aspect to the end-user. As an email copywriter, you stand to gain by leaps and bounds by internalizing this. At the end of the day, your foremost goal as a marketer should be offering clarity to your audience.

3. Take Your Subject Lines and Preview Texts Seriously

Given subject lines are the first things a recipient notices about your email, getting them right is of utmost significance. The merit of your subject lines will directly influence the opens and click-throughs your emails are able to register, which is why they’re treated with incredible gravity by agencies offering email marketing services. Writing a winning subject line is no walk in the park, of course, but thankfully there exist yardsticks to easen your pursuit of excellence. Let’s take a look at them.

• Firstly, pay attention to your subject line’s length. This is 2023, meaning your subscribers will be accessing your emails across both laptop and mobile devices. So, if your subject line doesn’t adhere to the prescribed limits, which is believed to be between 6-8 words, you risk spoiling your audience’s user experience. 
•  Work toward piquing the curiosity of your reader with your subject lines. Tell them just enough to garner their attention while simultaneously making sure to not divulge too much.
• Make sensory and action words the hallmark of your subject lines. This will help you coax out an emotional response from within them, thereby securing their interaction with your emails.
• Personalize your subject lines. And no, this doesn’t mean remaining confined to the “Hey XYZ” trope. That has become pretty dated. With a plethora of data at your disposal, you have the liberty to get quite creative with your personalization tactics. Mention the product that they browse-abandoned on your site, recommend another that aligns with their buyer persona, hook them with an update that is relevant to their location; you get the drift don’t you?

Your work, however, doesn’t finish at curating your subject lines. To amplify the effectiveness of your subject lines you need to follow them up with equally potent preview texts. By lending context to your subject lines, preview texts generate further interest in the reader’s mind, giving them an additional nudge to open your email. An ideal preview text is one that is successfully able to build upon the value proposition of the subject line it accompanies. Also, one needs to be mindful of the character limit of their preview text. If it is too short, it’ll end up absorbing characters from the email body, and if it is too long, it’ll be trimmed by the email client. 

4. Prioritize Conciseness

There’s nothing that subscribers look forward to more than clarity in the communication they receive from their favorite brands. And a surefire way of delivering clarity is by laying heavy emphasis on brevity. Emails that are crammed with too much detail increasingly run the risk of getting overlooked by their recipients. Hence, the ideal course of action is to keep things crisp, to the point, and informative. 

Additionally, pay attention to the structure of your copy as well. For starters, avoid using long and winding sentences; they severely undermine the readability of your copy. Steer clear of placing large blocks of text in the copy. Wherever possible, break your copy down into brief paragraphs and bullet points. To further enhance the clarity, use headings and subheadings. 

5. Seal the Deal with Your CTAs

Your CTA copy can have a direct impact on your email’s conversion rates. Keep the following points in mind while writing one.

• Ensure the tone of your CTA agrees with the rest of your email copy. Having an informal CTA accompanying a copy that is postured formally will come across as extremely incongruous.
• A CTA button has modest dimensions, making it necessary for the content it holds to be succinct in nature. So, make certain your CTA doesn’t extend beyond 2-4 words.
• Your CTA should read such that it gives subscribers an exact idea of where they’ll be led to or what action they’ll be accomplishing upon clicking on it. Functionality, thus, needs to be the core value around which you need to frame your CTA copy. Often in a bid to be clever and charming, brands end up putting clarity in the backseat. Sure, phrases like “Shop Now”, “Download”, and the like might not sweep you off your feet, but they go down as excellent CTA examples purely on account of their unambiguity. Of course, if you’re able to organically work in wit and humor into your CTA, don’t hold back. As long as it is not coming at the expense of clarity, you’re good.

Wrapping It Up

The more you dive into email copywriting, the more you’ll discover about it. The techniques shared above aim to give you a solid foundation regarding it. Feel free to scan through the marketing emails and newsletters of the best brands out there to further build up on the insights we have shared above!

The post 5 Tips to Help You Ace Your Email Copy appeared first on SiteProNews.

Businesses employ email verification tools to scan through their email lists and weed out invalid email addresses. This is important even if you follow all the email marketing trends and best practices for your campaigns. In the verification process, they take a definitive step forward towards reducing the bounce rates and improving the ROI of their email campaigns. If you are new to this, you might get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of options that the market has to offer. But, fret not! Today we will be walking you through a list of the choicest email verification tools out there. Now, this is a page worth bookmarking, isn’t it?

ZeroBounce

URL: https://www.zerobounce.net/

Lauded with multiple awards, ZeroBounce is a top-notch email verification tool that ensures all the effort you invest in your campaigns is rewarded generously. ZeroBounce integrates seamlessly with all major marketing platforms in the business including Mailchimp, Cloudflare, and Constant Connect. To figure out whether the addresses in your contact list are active or not, it makes use of an artificial intelligence scoring system. This enables it to promise a commendable accuracy rate of 98%. Besides identifying inactive contacts, ZeroBounce is also incredibly effective at eliminating abusive addresses and spam traps. Moreover, the website has a free email validator tool where you can enter an email address to instantly receive a status update. You can test upto 100 emails for free. After that, pricing begins from $16 per month. ZeroBounce examines your status with blocklisting companies; as a result, you have complete clarity regarding whom to contact to issue a delisting request. It is SOC 2 and GDPR compliant and uses military-grade data encryption to protect the user’s files during the email verification process. Registering with ZeroBounce is easy and swift. Upon completing the registration process, the user is awarded 100 free email validation credits- every validation costs one credit. In subsequent times, you can always purchase additional credits as per your requirement. The minimum purchase size is 2000 credits.

mailfloss

URL: https://mailfloss.com/

An automatic email verification software, mailfloss keeps your email list free from invalid addresses, thereby ensuring that your campaign’s ROI remains unaffected. You can integrate this tool with several email marketing service providers. With mailfloss, you can verify your email list in bulk. What makes mailfloss special is that, unlike many verification software solutions that outright eliminate misspelled addresses, mailfloss resolves common typos and syncs them with your email service provider automatically. Since it automates the process of email verification, it enables you to allocate greater time to other aspects of your business. One of the most redeeming features of mailfloss is that it carries out automatic daily cleanups.  Moreover, its decay protection feature detects decayed email addresses present in your list, preventing it from going stale in the process. It allows you to exercise full control over the cleaning process by giving you the option of setting up your own blacklist and whitelist options. Creating an account with mailfloss is a matter of 60 seconds (as they claim on their website). And since it offers a free trial, you can start using it the very instant you finish setting up. Paid plans start at $17 per month for verifying up to 10,000 email addresses. After using the tool for the first 30 days, if you don’t observe any significant improvements in your email deliverability, you can cancel your plan. Upon doing so, you will be refunded the entire sum, sans any terms and conditions.

NeverBounce

URL: https://www.neverbounce.com/

Boasting upwards of 125,000 users, NeverBounce is hands down one of the most user-friendly email verification software solutions out there. Even though it is relatively new to the market, having been launched in 2014, it has quickly worked its way up through the ranks and at present has Dell, Harvard School, Uber, and Girl Scouts as some of its clientele. NeverBounce has a stellar reputation for meticulously checking for and eliminating hard bounces, spam traps, and addresses that mark emails as spam. It offers over 85 integrations with some of the popular platforms being Marketo, MailerLite, HubSpot, iContact, and Mailchimp. NeverBounce has three primary offerings:

1. Bulk email list cleaning
2. Real-time email verification
3. Automated list cleaning

The platform promises to provide you with 99.9% deliverability. All you need to do is upload your existing list, let NeverBounce do its magic, and download your new, clean list. Additionally, every account on NeverBounce can avail of a free instant bounce analysis. With this feature, you can find out whether or not you have to clean your list before sending emails. NeverBounce has two kinds of payment models- pay-as-you-go pricing and subscription plans. You can choose one which suits you best. For the former, rates begin from $0.003 per email for up to 1 million emails. And for the latter, plans start at $16 per month for 2000 verifications. If you have more than a million emails to process, you can contact their sales team to facilitate custom enterprise pricing.

GetEmail.io

URL: https://getemail.io/

Many professional email marketers in the business use GetEmail.io to test as well as resolve their email deliverability issues. Powered by big data and machine learning algorithms, GetEmail.io is reliable to a fault when it comes to weeding out defunct and invalid email addresses. The who’s who of the tech world including Google, Oracle, IBM, and Shopify use GetEmail.io for optimizing their email lists. A new user can test the app for free to get a first-hand feel and look of the tool. Email address verification occurs in the blink of an eye on this platform courtesy of the comprehensive email database it possesses. Pricing starts at $49 per month.

Clearout

URL: https://clearout.io/

Promising upwards of 98% accuracy, Clearout, without any doubt, features among the top-tier email verification tools in the market. Entrusted by as many as 30,000 multi-sized businesses at present, Clearout’s bulk list email verification (which lets you upload up to 1 million addresses at a time) and instant email verification services help you lower hard bounces, expand your reach, and give a leg up to your deliverability rates. It also boasts a cutting-edge greylisting technique using which you can verify the real status of an email address without affecting your turnaround time. Additionally, its auto-suggest feature helps you steer clear of committing typos and spelling errors in the email addresses. Upon signing up, the user receives 100 free email verification credits which they can utilize to get a first-hand experience of this tool. Clearout offers both, the pay-as-you-go plan as well as a monthly subscription plan. The latter will cost you $24.50 per month, allowing you to save up to 30%. However, this will provide you monthly with 10,000 email verification credits so it is not really suitable for businesses who are just getting started with their email lists.

Wrapping It Up

Selecting the right email verification tool is crucial to sealing the success of your email marketing campaigns. We hope the multiple options shared above help you in arriving at an informed decision.

The post 5 Email Verification Tools That Will Skyrocket Your Deliverability appeared first on SiteProNews.

Why is Email Accessibility Important?

If you are a budding business, creating accessible emails can be a huge investment for you. Nevertheless, it is a crucial aspect for any marketer for these reasons:

• A Litmus report has revealed that email marketing generates an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent.
• Email has got a penetration of 90.3% among U.S. users.
• The global email marketing market is expected to reach USD 17.9 billion by the year 2027.
• Email continues to be the preferred channel for consumers who want to stay in touch with the brands they follow.
• Last but not the least, it is the only channel that facilitates personalized messaging and provides complete control to the marketer.

With that said, let us quickly discuss the advantages of email accessibility before moving on to the accessibility best practices.

Benefits of Creating Accessible Emails

1. Accessible emails can reach a broader audience as all subscribers can access and consume the content.
2. It reflects your values and helps to build your credibility as a brand that cares for its customers.
3. Creating accessible emails translates to imparting better user experience.
4. As more users will engage with your emails, it will lead to a higher conversion rate.

Email Accessibility Best Practices

1. Your subject line and preheader text should be simple and descriptive. They should be short so that they do not get truncated on devices with small screens.
2. Use emojis judiciously, considering the subscribers using assistive technology and screen readers.
3. Do not write in all CAPS otherwise some screen readers may perceive it as acronyms and misinterpret the message.
4. Keep your email copies as short as possible. It will help people with shorter attention spans or subscribers who cannot read long paragraphs.
5. Avoid using technical jargon in your email. The key is to use a language that even a ten year old can understand.
6. Use hyperlink text that lets the reader know where they will be redirected to after they click on the link. For example: “Here you will be able to download the guide to email marketing trends 2022” works better than “Click here”.
7. Do not reference images in text with something like “Check the image below”. This can confuse people using screen readers.
8. Developers code emails using tables. It is the most efficient method to make sure that your emails render well across all email clients and devices. Considering the subscribers using screen readers, you must maintain a logical reading order of your emails. It should follow the left to right and top to bottom reading sequence. Failing to do so can confuse the readers and ruin the purpose of your emails. It is a good idea to use a single-column layout to design your emails.
9. The ideal contrast ratio for accessible emails is 4.5:1 for small fonts and 3:1 for large fonts. This means that you must either use dark text on light background or light text on dark background. White text on a black background is the safest bet for most marketers. 

Tools to check contrast ratio: 

• Contrast Ratio
• Contrast Finder
• Monsido
• Coolors

10. Avoid using too decorative fonts. If you need to use custom fonts in occasion-based emails, you must provide a suitable fallback so that there are no accessibility issues.
11. Using appropriate line length and line height is a must for accessibility. The ideal line length should be somewhere between 45 to 75 characters.The line length should be 1.5 times the font size. The lines should neither be too close nor too far from each other. For example: Font size of 15 pt, line height of 25 pt, and the line length of 70 characters would work well for your emails.
12. Use simple visuals that are not too flashy for the readers. GIFs must not have flashing rate between 2 to 55 Hz as it can aggravate the condition of photosensitive epilepsy. Your images should have a suitable Alt-text for the screen readers to understand what they are about.
13. Include plenty of white space in your emails to increase the likelihood of conversions while abiding by the accessibility rules.
14. Make your CTA button actionable, easily clickable and tappable. As suggested by WCAG, your CTA button should be 44×44 px while Google recommends it to be 48×48 px. Also, have a strong color contrast so that it is instantly noticeable.
15. While coding accessible emails, you must use semantic tags like <p>, <ul>, <ol>, <h1>, and <h2>. Screen readers will be able to understand the flow of the content and its hierarchy by these tags.
16. Make your email accessible with the keyboard. Some subscribers find it difficult to use the mouse as they are unable to see the mouse pointer on the monitor. Therefore, you must code your emails in such a way that they have keyboard-only access.
17. Make use of the lang attribute to inform the screen readers about the language used in the email. For example: If your email is in French language, include lang=“fr” in your email on a wrapper element inside the <body> or as a div tag around the entire body copy.
18. Set table roles to presentation, otherwise the screen readers will navigate the table as a data table and read out the HTML code. This will make no sense to your subscribers.

Wrapping Up

Differently abled subscribers must be able to access your emails without any frustration or extra effort. Conforming to these tips will help you create an all-inclusive experience with emails and significantly enhance the performance of your email campaigns.
To learn more and check out some accessible email examples, just head to the insightful source created by Email Uplers: The Ultimate Email Accesibility Guidebook.

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Objective of Healthcare Email Marketing

Email marketing helps you in achieving three main purposes:

• Acquiring new patients. 
• Facilitating patient retention and encouraging them to come back to you, if need arises. 
• Staying in touch with readers and building a strong relationship with them. 

So, how will your emails ensure that you achieve these goals?

Let’s look at some tips and tricks that can take your healthcare email marketing to the next level and contribute to business growth. 

1. Maintain an empathetic tone in your emails

The world is going through a tough time, so you must draft copy that exudes empathy and consideration for readers. Since healthcare is a very tricky service to promote, make sure that you maintain a sensitive tone that does not look like a sales pitch.  

Take a look at this email example by Quest Diagnostics. 

The tone of the copy and the green color reflect warmth and give the feeling that they care for their patients.  

They have even included a “Forward Email” link to prompt the user to share the informative email with their friends and family. In the long run, it enhances SEO efforts to boost the healthcare practice

Another important thing to note in this email is that it follows all the email accessibility best practices (as suggested by Litmus and Really Good Emails). 

2. Build trust with the readers

The foundation of effective healthcare email marketing is in winning the patient’s trust. Share user reviews or testimonials from happy customers and patients to persuade the reader to use your services. 

For example: If you are an ophthalmologist specializing in laser treatment to eliminate the need for glasses, you must include testimonials from satisfied patients who are leading a life without glasses because of your flawless treatment. The same applies to all other fields, including dentistry. 

Perricone sends out a visually rich email to mark Acne Awareness Month. They shared a testimonial by a customer who has used their products and got rid of  troublesome acne.

In addition, they offered a discount to bring in more conversions. 

The email is an interesting read because it looks like a mini-infographic filled with intriguing statistics and facts.

Did you see the nice visuals in the email above?

Well, that brings us to the next point. 

3. Include rich media elements

To make email copy easy to consume, it is advisable to include relevant visuals. Complex topics are easier to understand when coupled with explainer videos or suitable images. This is even more important in the healthcare industry since people might not be aware of the intricacies involved in the medical field.  

Here is an email example that includes a video thumbnail image with a ‘Play’ button to get more viewers.

Similarly, you can use interactive elements like menus and accordions if you have to convey more information in the limited space of emails. Just make sure you follow email design best practices while designing such emails. 

4. Aim to educate readers

An educational tone goes a long way in spreading health awareness and encouraging people to get in touch with you. Just make sure that your email educates the reader without scaring them. It is of utmost importance to let the readers know that they should be aware and not scared. 

DAO Lab sent out a nice email that sheds light on how Chinese Medicine Theory supports fertility and improves reproductive health. Many women might be having questions about this and this email provides satisfactory answers to all those concerns. 

5. Send out relevant content by segmenting your subscribers

If you are a multi-specialty healthcare facility, you must segment your subscribers based on the services they have inquired about or facilities they have availed. For instance: If someone has used your pediatric healthcare services, you must send them relevant content related to pediatric wellbeing rather than hypertension or diabetes. 

Additionally, you can segment your email list according to the patient’s age. Accordingly, you must send out content that is most relevant for them. To cite an example: Older adults might be happy to receive content related to geriatric medicine. 

If you are a marketer for a dental clinic, the same applies to you. If a 60 year old patient has visited your hospital for dentures, you shouldn’t send them emails related to dental problems commonly seen in young patients which would hamper the patient experience and negatively impact the doctor’s reputation. 

6. Set automation workflows and monitor them regularly

Whenever a patient comes to your clinic for the first time and shares their email address, send them an automated welcome email. Introduce your team of healthcare professionals and your story with patients. It is always good to read  about ‘how it all started’. 

Once the treatment is completed, deploy a feedback email asking the user how satisfied they were with the services. You can also send out emails on the patient’s birthday and show that you care for their wellbeing.

You can even send out occasional emails in case you launch any new services or achieve exciting milestones in your business. 

Just make sure that you analyze the metrics of these automated emails and keep optimizing them for best results. If needed, you can even consider pausing the automation which may be necessary in times of unrest and tough circumstances. 

7. Benefit from referral marketing strategy

Incentivize users who help to bring you business. While this can be a very sensitive tactic for hospitals, you can certainly use it if you are in the wellness business or are a healthcare technology service provider. 

Wrapping Up

The Healthcare industry has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past few decades and healthcare marketing tactics have evolved. Emails have gotten more sophisticated and facilitated communication between healthcare professionals and patients. 

Just follow these simple tips and you will surely enhance the visibility of your healthcare business. It will also improve patient access and impart a pleasant experience to patients.

The post 7 Clever Tactics to Up Your Healthcare Email Marketing Strategy appeared first on SiteProNews.

By integrating CRM into email marketing, you will be able to impart a personalized customer experience to your subscribers. Here’s how you can use CRM to deploy more effective email campaigns that can bring results. 

1. Better segmentation and personalization

With the help of a powerful CRM tool like Marketo and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, businesses can segment their subscribers in a better way and personalize the emails accordingly. According to a report by SuperOffice, hyper-segmentation can facilitate customer acquisition and retention, a higher deliverability rate, and an increase in the number of sales leads. Email Uplers recently carried out a study in which it was revealed that personalization is one of the most pressing issues for CRM managers. Most of the experts worked with an in-house team to execute all these marketing operations. 

2. Integration with third-party tools

It is possible to integrate your CRM tools with a number of third-party software programs. By doing so, you can have a centralized platform to maintain all your marketing tasks, whether it is lead generation, tracking the movement of leads in the sales funnel, and reaching out to them at the right time. 

3. Effective lead nurturing

Tools like Marketo and SFMC come with a lead scoring model that allows you to nurture the leads based on their interaction with your website. You can set a drip email workflow to send out relevant offers and product updates that might prompt the subscribers to convert. You can also employ the principles of Artificial Intelligence and behavioral tracking to send out triggered lead nurturing emails.

4. Customized email templates

CRM tools let you create tailormade email templates with dynamic content blocks as well as enticing visuals to woo customers. Most of these tools have an in-built drag-and-drop editor that facilitates the creation of attractive emails that can yield a higher open rate and conversion rate.   

5. In-depth analysis of metrics

Integrating CRM and email marketing gives you a detailed insight into the key performance indicators like open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate. It will even help you to understand how your readers are interacting with the emails. You can get a clear picture of the click-to-conversion rate and overall conversion rate. This will give you a clear picture of how your email campaigns are performing. Accordingly, you can keep optimizing your emails for optimum results.    

6. Integration with Social Media

CRM tools come with a feature that lets you integrate your email marketing with social media. By using it, you can determine the social media visitors through email. You can also build your social media visibility and establish a stronger foothold in the digital marketplace.   

7. Powerful email automation

Integrating CRM with emails allows you to set relevant automation workflows based on the customer’s journey with your brand. For example: You will send out a welcome email to someone who has just joined your email list or made the first purchase from you. You can even send out automated marketing emails to your subscribers through this tool. Re-engagement email workflow comes into the picture when you want to win back the dormant customers and encourage them to take action again. Ecommerce brands can even set a cart abandonment email workflow to remind them about the product they left in the cart. Subsequently, they will be tempted to complete the checkout process and make the purchase.    

Things to keep in mind:

1. CRM managers must make sure not to overwhelm the subscribers by sending out too many emails. 
2. Project management is of paramount importance when it comes to CRM and email marketing integration. You must see to it that all the teams are aligned with their tasks and well in sync. 
3. Maintain a record of everything and always have a backup in case you end up losing the data because of some inadvertent circumstances.  
4. Keep a close eye on the quality of leads that you are getting. Having 1000 qualified leads is always better than having 25000 leads but not being sure whether they are qualified or not. 
5. Streamline your email approval process so that there are minimum rounds of revisions and changes. 
6. Even if you cannot create an exclusive email for every prospect or customer, make sure it is relevant to them. This will improve all your communications and bring unmatched results for your business. 
7. Data governance is everything. 

Summing it up

CRM has not only enables data-driven marketing across the various channels but has also raised the bar for customer experience. 

If you are yet to invest in a CRM tool, now is the right time. 

To learn more about CRM email marketing and its challenges, solutions, and pro-tips from the experts, head to the insightful resource created by Email Uplers –Exploring the Realms of CRM:  A Roundup 

The post Shedding Light on CRM and its Integration into Email Marketing appeared first on SiteProNews.

The unsubscribe rate percent is calculated by dividing the number of unsubscribes by the number of emails delivered, multiplied by 100. 

According to anti-spam guidelines, you ought to have an unsubscribe link in your email to avoid any legal suit. As unfortunate as it may sound, unsubscribes are inevitable in the world of email marketing.  

According to Campaign Monitor, the average unsubscribe rate is somewhere around 0.10%. In a way, unsubscribes are considered to be a blessing in disguise, through which uninterested prospects or customers can be removed from the list. In turn, it helps you maintain a clean email list. 

Reasons Why People Unsubscribe

MarketingSherpa has revealed that maximum users unsubscribe from emails as they get bombarded with too many of them from diverse resources. While receiving irrelevant emails was the second most frequent response, the high volume of emails from the same company was the third one.

Benefits of Unsubscribes

Unsubscribes imply disengaged users, a higher churn rate of customers, and a drop in the conversion rate but there is a silver lining to this cloud. 

• Unsubscribes helps to maintain your sender reputation. Rather than a subscriber reporting your email as spam, it is better to have an unsubscribe.
• If you direct the email subscriber to a preference center when he or she unsubscribes, you can figure out why they opted out in the first place. 
• Your list will include qualified subscribers only when people, who are not interested in hearing from you, unsubscribe. 

That brings us to the most important question: “How to reduce the unsubscribe rate”.

Tips to minimize unsubscribes

Although unsubscribes have a bright side to consider, you must work on reducing the number of people who click on that dreaded unsubscribe link. 

1. Carry out list segmentation

By segmenting your subscriber list according to parameters such as age, sex, job profile, past purchases, or resources downloaded, you can send personalized emails that are most relevant for them. 

For example: If you are an ecommerce email marketer and you have a subscriber who has browsed for tunic tops, you can send out personalized product recommendations related to that browsing history. It would make the customer feel special, thereby reducing the likelihood of unsubscribes. 

2. Understand the buyer’s journey

Would you appreciate it if a brand shared their pricing page in the welcome email? No, right? That’s exactly why it is imperative to understand the buyer’s journey. 

3. Note the frequency of your emails

Often, it so happens that a subscriber is included in different segmentation lists. Because of this, they might receive more than two or three emails in a day. This can also be the case if there’s a glitch in the email automation workflows. To avoid this, you must test the frequency of your emails and monitor the automation workflows. Tools like Marketo, that come with a feature enabling you to cap the number of emails sent in a day, can come handy in such cases. 

Besides, you must adhere to a consistent email schedule so that it sets the right expectations with the subscriber. 

For instance: Really Good Emails sends out two emails in a week, on Tuesday and Friday respectively. 

4. Let your subscribers choose the mode of communication

Many subscribers prefer social media messaging, in-app notifications, or push notifications rather than email communications. To cater to such subscribers, you must provide details about alternative communication channels on the unsubscribe page or preference center. Include social media icons and links to download the app to let the unsubscribed users stay connected with your brand.  

5. Ask for feedback whenever you receive an unsubscribe

Whenever a user clicks on the Unsubscribe link, redirect them to a feedback page so that they can share any grievances with you. Based on these responses, you can optimize your email marketing strategy. This will eventually minimize the unsubscribe rate. 

6. Tap on the emotional instinct of the user

Add a dash of emotional appeal to the unsubscribe page. It might change the mind of the user.  

Take a look at how PetDoors.com used the images of cute dogs on their unsubscribe page and noticed an 82.2% reduction in unsubscribes.

7. Test the emails for flawless rendering

Of course, you must draft compelling subject lines and deliver value through the email copy. However, it would make no sense if your email does not render well across diverse email clients and devices. Therefore, you must make sure that a broken email layout does not hamper the subscriber experience.

Wrapping Up

To recapitulate, you must work on creating a healthy email list and try to build a personal connection with the subscribers. Besides, you must make use of relevant automation workflows like re-engagement emails to mitigate the unsubscribe rate.

With these tips in mind, optimize your email marketing strategy right away for minimum unsubscribe rate. 

The post 7 Sure-shot Tips to Reduce Email Unsubscribes That Anyone Can Follow appeared first on SiteProNews.

Email marketing has proven to be a successful digital marketing strategy for years. It involves sending emails to prospective buyers and customers with the goal of converting prospective buyers to customers, and converting existing customers (such as one-time purchasers) to loyal fans.

Studies have found that 81% of small businesses still rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel, while 80% rely on email for customer retention.

Given how popular email marketing has become in recent years, it can be challenging to stay ahead of competitors to gain and retain the attention of customers.

Storytelling allows marketers to engage customers with content that goes beyond product descriptions and sales pitches, so that they’re able to promote their brand in a manner that emotionally resonates with customers. The main mantra that drives storytelling in email marketing is “tell, don’t sell”.

Why you should use storytelling in your emails

Reading a story allows you to glimpse into the lives and minds of different characters as they overcome conflict. This can create an emotional bond between the reader and the characters of the story. 

Similarly, storytelling in emails creates an emotional bond between brands and customers. Customers are more likely to make purchases when they are driven by emotions, such as being moved by a particular brand’s story.

Stories can be a great way to educate your customers about your company’s philosophy and vision. They allow you to distinguish your brand from competitors in a manner that doesn’t directly focus on the products themselves.

How to tell engaging stories in emails

In order to tell engaging stories in emails, it’s important to learn what the components of a good story are. Stories generally contain three main components: characters, conflict, and resolution. 

Characters in a story function as a link between readers and the story. Readers will often put themselves in the character’s shoes as they progress through experiences. This leads to readers forming an emotional bond with the characters they’re reading about.

In email marketing, the characters of your story can be the brand, its products, or the people who worked to create them. 

In storytelling, conflicts function as experiences that characters undergo during their day-to-day lives or as they work towards a particular goal. Conflicts can be important in stories as readers tend to form stronger emotional bonds to characters by reading about them overcoming adversity.

In email marketing, conflicts can include difficulties and challenges faced during the creation of a brand or in the development of a particular product. 

Stories then end with a resolution as a way of wrapping things up after the character has overcome their experience or ordeal. In email marketing, a resolution can include a call-to-action for customers to follow. Such as showing them how they could benefit from using a product or telling readers about the brand’s future vision.

Storytelling styles in email

There are an infinite number of ways you can tell a story to maintain the attention of readers. Stories can typically be categorized as linear or non-linear narratives.

Linear storytelling

Linear storytelling is incredibly popular due to the ease with which readers are able to follow along with its content. They follow straightforward sequences of events being told or narrated in the order in which they have occurred.

Most of these stories generally aren’t interactive, as the writer usually provides all the content at once in the email. Linear storytelling can be useful for company origin stories or for dictating the journey taken to create or formulate a particular product.

Some forms of linear storytelling exist where readers can interact with content, so that they’re able to choose which content they’d like to read. An example of interactive linear storytelling could include an email in which marketers are detailing a linear story about the formulation of a product. 

This email could contain links and images that direct readers to parts of the company website where they could learn more about a particular feature of a product. Readers would have to interact with these links and images to read the whole “story”.

Interactive linear storytelling is a great way to deliver your story to a wider audience. People who may not be as interested in your brand or product can choose to read a brief story that gets the point across.

While people with a keener interest in your brand or product can choose to read more detailed sections that discuss your product’s features via links in the email that direct to the brand website. 

Non-linear storytelling

Non-linear storytelling involves creating a story that is told out of order to stoke interest or anticipation. In email marketing this could include talking about a product and the benefits it provides, before discussing the initial need for such a product in the first place.

These kinds of stories are also typically interactive, with the goal of having audiences better engage with the story’s content. This allows them to focus on portions of your story that interest them, instead of forcing them to read the whole thing. These include a call-to-action that often directs readers to the brand’s website.

Types of stories

Now that we’ve looked at story structures, let’s look at the various kinds of topics email marketers write stories about in their emails.

Company origin stories

These stories are incredibly common, and are often used to acquaint readers with the brand. The main characters in these stories usually include the founder and other leaders within the company. 

Such stories usually outline the sequence of events that led to the creation of the brand and its products. They often close out with a list of the brand’s achievements, and their vision for the future of the company.

Brand culture stories

These stories provide a behind-the-scenes look at the company and its structure. They go over the work that goes into creating their products, and talk about the employees that work to make it happen. 

They often include the brand’s values and how they tie in with the company’s structure.  

Interviews

These interviews focus on the people who founded the company or work for the company. They can provide an in-depth look at the human-component of the creation and production processes without directly discussing the specifics of the products themselves. 

It’s also a good way to remind readers that actual people just like them are responsible for creating the products they enjoy.

You can easily find email template examples for each of these story types online, if you’d like to become more familiar with them.

The future importance of storytelling in emails

As you can see, there are no limits to the kinds of stories you can tell in your email campaigns. As email marketing continues gaining traction as an important marketing strategy, marketers are going to have to find increasingly unique ways to tell stories in order to grab the attention of readers.

The future of digital marketing may very well depend on writers with attractive prose and the ability to weave stories that draw readers in.

The post Storytelling in Email appeared first on SiteProNews.

Here are some simple and actionable points on how you can gain social media followers through email marketing. 

1. Include social media links in your email

The safest bet to get more social media followers is by asking your subscribers. Just let them know that you have an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Following you on social media would imply that they would be the first to learn about all your upcoming sales, contests, events, etc. This can work as a good temptation for your subscribers to interact with you on social media channels. 

Take a look at an email by Crate & Barrel. They have included a “Get social with us” section in their email footer to engage their subscribers on platforms other than EMAIL. 

You can even send out an email newsletter to encourage subscribers to connect with your brand on social media. 

Here’s an email example by McDonald’s.

2. Incentivize the subscriber who engages on social media

Offer an incentive to the subscribers who follow you on social media. Let’s say for example: You can incentivize the subscribers who like your Facebook page or retweet your tweet and advertise this through emails. Also, promote this on your website to get more visitors on your social media profiles. 

3. Incorporate a live social media feed in your emails

Including a live social media feed in emails will be a fad among email marketers in 2019. With the changing algorithms on social media, it will be of utmost importance to use emails to promote your social media channels. A live social media feed in emails means that you can add a section of live Twitter/ Instagram/ Pinterest/ Facebook feed in the email that gets updated automatically whenever the user posts anything. For example: If an email is sent on Monday, it will fetch the most recently posted tweet that was posted on that day. The advantage of this tactic is that if the subscriber opens the same email on Wednesday, the feed will get updated to show the latest tweet posted on Wednesday. Clicking on the feed will redirect the subscriber to the social media platform, thereby driving more engagement, views, and followers on your social media channels. The same applies to Instagram wherein you can have a grid-based layout that lets you show either 9 or 16 most recently posted Instagram photos. 

4. Have a better list building strategy

Any business that wants to build a better social media following through email should have a quality (longer) list. Having a better email list will bring in more visibility on your website as well as social media. It will also aid your word-of-mouth marketing since people are likely to share interesting and unique social media posts with their friends or family. Eventually, you will get more customers and better profit for your business. Your business website should have an easy-to-fill subscription form on all the important pages that are frequently visited by potential subscribers. Keep your forms short and simple and limit the information you request. Make sure you strictly follow the rules put forth by GDPR to avoid any inadvertent legal issues regarding list building. 

5. Add more calls-to-action

Call-to-action buttons are your gateway to conversions. Make them enticing enough to generate more click-throughs and prompt the reader to act. You can use CTAs to drive diverse actions like buying a product, sharing a link, downloading a free resource, or signing up for a free trial of your service. That said, you can use a clear CTA to invite your subscribers to like your page on Facebook and follow you on Twitter and Instagram. Make the most of every opportunity you get, to spread awareness regarding your social media presence. 

6. Organize a social media contest

Enhance your brand credibility by holding a social media contest or giveaway and leverage email marketing to get more participation. You can even have a co-hosted event and then share the leads that you get. This would help you get more subscribers as well as social media followers. You can even run a referral marketing campaign – ‘Refer and Earn’ to grab more attention from your target audience. 

Wrapping Up

Amalgamate social media and email marketing to get the best of both worlds. Marketing efforts, if not driven in the right direction, will not get you anywhere. The best idea is to have a unified marketing strategy and run consistent multichannel marketing. 

Have you employed any unique tactics in your emails to gain more social media followers? Do share your ideas in the comments below.

The post How to Use Email Marketing to Gain Social Media Followers appeared first on SiteProNews.