Email and Content Marketing Tips
As the web continues to evolve, the way we communicate with customers to get them to buy our services and products is constantly changing. Content and Email marketing are two of the most important tools companies use to keep in contact with customers and better serve them. The goal is to make customers as loyal as possible and to gain insight into their buying habits. This article will provide some tips to help you successfully execute content and email marketing.
Optimizing Your Emails
Email remains one of the biggest marketing channels since it gives businesses a direct channel to customers’ inboxes. Utilizing this channel requires attention to both content and design of your emails. Here are some tips for optimizing in both of these areas.
Content
When it comes to email, the content should be compelling, interesting and clear in its purpose. Here are some of the elements that should be included in every email you send.
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A relevant subject line – It should be eye-catching, descriptive and fit into the character limit of your subscriber’s inbox
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A friendly, engaging greeting – Subscribers will be more likely to open emails if the greeting sounds natural
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Clear call to action(s) – Make sure the content directs the reader to a particular action and the language is clear, specific and easy to follow
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Relevant and helpful images – If a visual is used, make sure it’s consistent with your message and content
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Personalization where appropriate – Personalize emails with customer data if you have it, as it will boost engagement
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Don’t forget about mobile users – Most people check their emails on a mobile device, so design accordingly
Design
As important as the content is, don’t forget that design has a major influence on whether or not your emails are opened. Here are some tips for effective email design.
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Keep it simple – Don’t overcomplicate the look and feel with too much clutter.
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Be consistent in design – Use the same font, color palette and style for all emails so readers will recognize your brand.
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Utilize white space – Vary the whitespace throughout emails to draw the reader’s attention and break up large blocks of text.
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Optimize for mobile – Email design should be optimized for mobile devices so users will always have a good experience.
Content Marketing Tips
Content is king when it comes to online marketing and it is by far the most cost-effective form of marketing available to small businesses. Here are just some of the tips and tricks to take advantage of content marketing.
Focus on Your Target Audience
Before you create any content be sure to put some focus on finding your target audience or ‘ideal customer.’ Content will only be effective if it is targeting the right people, so get to know your target audience and how you can best serve them with content. To get a better understanding of your target audience, use surveys and ask questions like:
• What kind of content do they respond to best?
• What content do they find the most helpful?
• What kind of topics do they want to learn more about?
• What kind of information will motivate them to make a purchase
Creating Quality Content
Once you understand your target audience, you can then create content specifically tailored for them. Quality content is key to successful content marketing. It should be engaging and interesting, as well as informative and helpful. There should also be an element of storytelling present in the content to keep readers interested and engaged. Here are a few types of content to consider:
• Blog posts
• Social media posts
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• E-books and whitepapers
• Video tutorials
In addition to the content itself, be sure to optimize posts for SEO with relevant keywords. This will make sure the content is discoverable and reaches its intended audience. Be sure to use the same style of content creation across all your social channels.
Promoting & Distributing Content
Once you have created quality content, the next step is to get it out to the world and build your following. To do this, you can use content curation sites as well as your own social media channels. When posting content on social media, use hashtags so it’s more likely to be seen by a wider audience. And if you have a mailing list, you can use email marketing to promote the content to that audience as well.
The opportunity to grow a following through content marketing is huge and there are so many great tools available to help you promote your content. Take advantage of them to create content that is both engaging and informative and that serves a purpose for your target audience.
Measuring Your Success
Like any form of marketing, content marketing needs to have its success measured to see if it is performing as hoped. Understanding which pieces of content are performing well and which are not can give you valuable insight into how your target audience is responding to your content. The most important metric to look at is engagement. This can include likes, shares, comments and click-throughs; all of which can give you an idea of the impression your content is making.
Content and email marketing are an essential part of any business’s digital strategy. Done correctly, these marketing channels offer an affordable and targeted way to grow an audience and reach customers. Use the tips provided in this article to help you create content that resonates with your target audience and drives engagement. By being strategic in your content and email marketing, you can ensure that your efforts are paying off and that your customers have a great experience with your brand.
