To steal some words from the Boss, the great Bruce Springsteen, “Is there anybody alive out there?”
Do you ever send an email campaign and then wonder the exact same thing? The thing is, you can send the most beautiful, well written email in the world–but if you haven’t done your homework, it’s headed straight to radio no where.
Here’s a refresher on what you need to know before you hit send:
Analyze your audience.
There’s not point in shouting out into the great beyond. Use your data to analyze and determine exactly who your target audience is, and then eliminate those who won’t find your message relevant. Look at everything from the basics (age, gender, geography) to the more specific (beliefs, attitudes, values) to narrow down your audience.
Scan before you send.
Use Litmus or another email rendering service to ensure your emails look the way you intended on every type of platform, including mobile. Mobile rendering is growing leaps and bounds and according to Litmus, now surpasses the 50% mark. You can almost guarantee usage by your audience has too.
Test. Test. Test.
A sure way to increase performance of your email campaign is to conduct an A/B split test before your final send. Subject line A/B testing is a great place to start and will increase the likelihood of your email being opened versus landing in the trash or worse yet – junk folder.
Measure and repeat.
Take a look at who actually opened your email and who clicked through or responded. That is your engaged audience. How do they measure up to the target audience you identified before the campaign launched? Make any needed adjustments and prepare your next campaign.
Want to learn more? ExactTarget recently posted this helpful article highlighting best practices on their blog “10 Tips for Increasing Email Opens”. We’re also always happy to talk email marketing. Just give us a shout!