Making Your Email Marketing Stand Out

By ELIZABETH JACOBI | Special to the Palisadian-Post

If your inbox looks anything like mine first thing in the morning, you probably find it overwhelming. I wake up to nearly 50 marketing emails, and somewhere buried in between the 50 is an email from a friend or family member. I often delete almost all the marketing emails that hit my inbox before 6 a.m. and yet the ones that trickle in through the day are opened.

I’ve been in the email marketing space since 2001, so I’ve seen a lot of emails. I remember when email marketing was one image, and all the information was in that one image. Today this is often a sign of spam. Email marketing is complex, but it doesn’t need to be. Email marketing is all about connecting and retaining subscribers and customers.

How do you get your email marketing message to stand out among the rest with the inbox being so crowded?

Make sure you are sending at the optimal time. So, what is the optimal time? I wish there was an easy answer, and if someone tells you the best time of day and time is Tuesday at 10 a.m., I can guarantee you that isn’t correct. The optimal send time is based on your specific audience. There are several tools out there that can help with this, or you can simply test to see what works best for your audience.

Check all links and call to actions in your email before sending. There is nothing worse than an email that provides excellent information, but the links don’t work.

How does the email look in the inbox? The inbox today isn’t just your desktop, it is mobile too or even your watch. Make sure it is readable even if images are disabled or don’t show.

Determine the correct sending frequency. This is a hard one and really depends on your type of business. If you are a restaurant or coffee place, you likely need to send an email at least once a week to remain top of mind. If you are a store or eCommerce business, the same holds true. Now, suppose you are a Realtor, consultant, dentist or professional whose business is truly 1:1. In that case, you likely can send monthly because subscribers will be getting appointment reminders and maybe daily listings. If you don’t have a frequency strategy in mind, you likely aren’t sending enough to positively impact your subscribers.

Send relevant emails. Your subscribers tell you precisely what interests them, so make sure that the content you are sending is what they want to receive.

Encourage email signup on all channels,
not just one, which means your website, social media, receipts and QR codes. There are so many ways to encourage email signup today,
so make sure you are using whatever you can to grow your list and then make sure you have an email ready to send.

Email is about the right time and the right message, so think welcome, welcome series, post-purchase series. While this might sound like a lot of emails to start creating, it is easier than you think, and they can all be automated based on your subscriber’s behavior.

Elizabeth Jacobi grew up in the Palisades and is the founder of MochaBear Marketing. She has developed email marketing campaigns and strategies for several local businesses. Not sure where to get started with your email marketing program? Elizabeth provides classes and training sessions, many of which are free or low cost. Pacific Palisades businesses can use code Pali15 for 15% off all classes and training sessions by visiting mochabearmarketing.com/events.