Email can be used in a variety of different ways to grow your company. Objectives will vary depending on the aim and audience of your email campaigns. Regardless of the goal of your campaign, there are some key aspects to consider when crafting your content.

List Building

“51% of marketers say enriching contact data quality is their most significant barrier to achieving email marketing success.” There are thousands of companies that sell email data and finding one that is accurate and reliable can be a challenge. Researching several companies and acquiring sample lists will help you choose the best option for your business. Additionally, building lists through inbound marketing efforts can be the best way to compile accurate and highly targeted lists.

Contact Segmentation

Segmenting your email lists will help you to deliver more relevant and targeted content. It can also cut down on unsubscribes as your contacts will only get information that resonates with them. There are an infinite number of ways to segment your audience and much of that will be determined by the content you’re sending and the overall goal of the campaign. Industry, vertical, micro-vertical, job role, company size and buyer persona are just a few examples of how to segment your contacts.

Detailed Personalization

Email marketing personalization goes far beyond simply including a contacts first name in your subject line. Including a person’s name is certainly important but in order to truly get your prospects attention there are several other factors and techniques that should be considered. Personalization can come in the form of targeted content, details relating to the interests of your prospects, common pain points, anniversaries and anything else that will speak directly to a particular person or group of people.

Crafting Subject Lines

Creating an eye-catching subject line that sparks enough interest for a recipient to open your email can be difficult, however, there are several aspects to consider that will help make yours more successful. Email subject lines should be short, personalized and contain actionable language. Asking a question, soliciting emotions and creating a sense of urgency will entice prospects to open.  Most importantly, your email itself should deliver on the promise of your subject line.

Blog Recaps And Newsletters

Email newsletters have long been a great way to communicate with clients and prospects on a consistent basis. While the main purpose has been spreading information and keeping your company in front of your target audience, they are being uses more and more as a lead generation tool. Blog recaps and premium offers such as consultations, eBooks or whitepapers can be used within email newsletters or sent on their own to convert recipients into leads, drive website visits and gather business intelligence regarding their interests and stage in the buying cycle.

Calls To Action

Any piece of content you produce should provide direction for next steps.  CTAs can come in the form of a button (image) or hyperlink. You want to make sure that there is some form of call-to-action above the fold (where you do not have to scroll down) in order to convert a contact that has interest from an open to a click-through. You should have a secondary call-to-action available to increase your conversion rate.

Incorporating Social Media

Including social sharing buttons in the footer of your emails can help to increase the reach of your content. The ability to share a particular piece with the click of a button makes it far more likely someone will share your content through their social channels. This also helps to build both your social media following and email list if they convert.