10 Must-Follow Steps For A Spellbinding Email Marketing Campaign

72%  of consumers prefer email as their source of business communication.

Now, isn’t that something? Email marketing is a superior tool to connect with your target audience, build relationships and drive more conversions. However, reaping the rich array of dividends it has in store is no child’s play. A successful email marketing campaign needs strategic execution, careful and well-curated planning, and consistent optimization. 

In this blog post, we will highlight ten essential steps that you need to follow to ensure that your email marketing campaigns come up on top, always!

Are you ready to wield the power of email marketing and create campaigns that leave a lasting impact? Let’s begin, then! 

Important steps to keep in mind when running an email marketing campaign

1. Pay attention to your objective 

Just like every great adventure begins with a clear goal in mind, you also should be aware and clear about the objective of your email campaign. Take some time out to understand the main purpose of running this campaign. Is it to increase sales, nurture customer relationships, promote a product or service, or increase your visibility?

Having a clear objective will help guide your campaign’s direction, and enable you to measure the campaign’s success effectively. 

2. Curate a quality email list 

High-quality email lists are the bedrocks of successful email campaigns. You need to focus on building an organic list of subscribers who have opted in to receive emails from your brand. You can consider offering valuable incentives in the form of free guides, ebooks, or exclusive coupons to encourage more sign-ups. Clean your email list regularly by eliminating inactive and invalid contacts. This will help you have a healthy and more engaged audience.

Moreover, an organic email list, results in better open rates. If you purchase fake lists, there is a high chance that your emails will land up in the subscriber’s spam, landing you on the radar of suspicion of ISPs and ESPs which will dent your sender reputation and hamper your deliverability. 

3. Draft compelling and click-worthy subject lines 

The subject line is crucial as it is your first chance to grab your subscribers’ attention and entice them to open your email. Hence, you must channel your inner wordsmith and craft subject lines that spark curiosity, inspire excitement, or even promise a great adventure with your brand. 

You can experiment with different approaches using A/B testing to discover the secret formula that resonates the best with your audience. Most importantly, avoid using spam trigger words and be honest and concise in your subject line to build trust with your subscribers. 

Take a look at these examples to get your creative juices flowing.

kate spade: We’re letting you know about code SOEXTRA

Food52: A *must* for your outdoor-dining setup

Sur La Table: 🍕 Pizza lovers, don’t miss $200 off the Breville Pizzaiolo.

GO Outdoors: Craghoppers Adventure Trousers 🚶‍♀️🚶🏿‍♂️

4. Add a Midas touch by personalization 

Personalization is key to making your subscribers feel valued and increasing engagement. Leverage the insights you have gathered regarding your audience to craft content specifically aligned with their interests and preferences. This will help elevate the impact generated by your email newsletter campaigns.

By adding a personal touch, you will make your subscribers feel important and acknowledged, increasing engagement and forging stronger connections.  

Here’s how Forever 21 went about it.

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5. Remember – Content is king 

Your email marketing campaign’s heart lies in the content you deliver. Hence, you need to craft exciting and highly engaging content that captivates your subscribers from the very first word. You can narrate your brand’s story, share valuable information, and provide exclusive offers or even share behind-the-scenes anecdotes to strike a chord with your subscribers. 

Make sure to organize your email content-  add subheadings, bullet points, and paragraphs with sufficient spacing to amplify readability.  No one appreciates clutter, and it may immediately throw your subscribers off. 

Lastly, don’t forget to add clear calls-to-action that guide your subscribers’ on the next step of their journey. 

Feel free to pick up a few tricks from this email by Four Sigmatic.

6. Tame the deliverability dragon

Once your content and subject line are on point, you need to ensure that your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes so that they can work their magic on your subscribers. This is why you need to focus on deliverability. Start by choosing a reputable email service provider (ESP) that has top-notch deliverability rates.

Additionally, always use double opt-in to confirm your subscribers’ intent and eliminate the risk of spam complaints. Regularly monitor your email performance and take swift actions to address any challenges related to deliverability. 

7. Design your emails to captivate visually

When speaking of email marketing, visual enchantment is key. Design your emails in a way that transports your subscribers to a world of awe and fancy. At the same time it is important to use graphics that align with the email’s tone and colors that are consistent with your brand’s defined palette. 

Remember to make your designs mobile-friendly so that they can have an equal impact on all users, irrespective of the devices, clients or environments through which they are accessing your emails.

This email from Fishwife is nothing short of a design masterclass.

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8. Test the waters and make amendments 

Regular and consistent testing and changes are paramount while running email marketing campaigns. Make it a point to conduct A/B testing to compare the various elements such as CTAs, email designs, subject lines, and even email sending time. 

This will help you uncover a horde of actionable insights which you can duly implement in your campaigns going forward. However, make sure to test one thing at a time for accurate measurement.

9. Wave the victory flag through automation

Automation is the ultimate weapon that saves precious time and boosts engagement simultaneously. Set up automated email sequences triggered by specific actions or behaviors of your subscribers, such as welcome emails, post-purchase follow-ups, abandoned cart reminders, milestone emails, and the like.

Leverage automation to nurture leads throughout the customer journey, providing relevant content at each stage. 

10. Measure the success of your campaign

Lastly, it is crucial to regularly monitor and analyze how your campaign is performing. You can track key metrics like open rates, CTRs, conversion rates, unsubscribe rates, and the like to unearth critical insights about your campaign’s performance, thereby identifying the areas that need your immediate attention.  

Furthermore, you can analyze the data to better understand subscribers’ preferences, behaviors, and engagement patterns. Such details hold the key to refining your future campaigns and improving your email marketing strategy. 

Calling it a wrap! 

As you sit down to design and develop your future campaigns, know that the core of email marketing success lies in building real relationships with your audience. The relationships can then be nurtured by adding a personal touch and  by always seeking out ways to surprise and delight your subscribers. 

We hope the insights shared above help you take your email campaigns to the next level!