How to Use Your Email to Boost Your Productivity

Email services are a powerful tool - both as a means of instant communication and as a marketing strategy. Assuming that everyone knows how beneficial email marketing campaigns can be, let’s move on to how to actually make them successful.

First off, boosting your brand’s email engagement portends not quantity but quality. It’s better to send less offers, but more well-devised than a multitude of unsegmented and non-targeted emails.

Emails must be competitive at all times, which means that keeping an eye on the competition is a must. The easiest way to do this is by subscribing to competitors’ newsletters. Note that only successful and inspiring brands serving the same audiences need to be considered.

Insights

Insights should be the base of every email marketing strategy. Getting to know your target group is the first obvious step. This goes far beyond demographics, location and gender. It should also include an analysis on browsing and purchase history, along with any additional feedback.

Speaking of which, contrary to popular belief, asking customers for direct feedback is a good idea, albeit many marketers shun it for no sustainable reason. Keep in mind that your customers also want your brand to remain successful, as this is convenient for them in multiple ways.

For one thing, if they’re satisfied with your services, products and customer support, they won’t feel the need to look for similar offers elsewhere. Why look for alternatives for a winning combination?

Targeting implies knowing your target audience, no more and no less. Learn their age, gender, location, buying power and keep an eye on purchasing history. When you know all these bits of information and digital trends, you’ll be able to personalize your offer more efficiently, which will boost your sales for sure.

As for segmentation, again, insights are the key. Certainly, not everyone will be interested in the same product or offer. Use demographics, purchase history to be able to come up with a personalized offer.

Optimizing Email Campaigns

In order for your brand to even get the chance to become reliable, it will need to grab customers’ attention and stay at the top of their minds.

This is a technical issue in the beginning, as you’ll need to ensure that your messages:

1. Reach customers inboxes rather than their spam folder
2. Are optimized for mobile devices
3. Are relevant and consistent
4. Arrive at the right time
5. Are being sent at the right frequency
6. Feature stellar and clear subject lines no longer than 41 characters

It’s a lot to think about, we’re aware, but each of these factors is crucial for success.

First things first, though - optimization for mobile devices. Namely, the majority of recipients access incoming messages on the go. If you’re just starting out, use templates to assist you until you’ve come up with your own, unique combination.

Don’t forget to test-send your messages. Check them on multiple devices and OSs, particularly the most popular ones (Gmail and iPhone). Pay particular attention to emojis (if you’re using them) because they are being displayed differently on different devices (and sometimes aren’t being displayed at all).

As mentioned above, subject lines should not exceed 41 characters, as you don’t want them to be cut.

Email Elements

Targeting and personalization are tremendously important when it comes to the overall success of email marketing campaigns. There are only two rules here:

1. Send only the offers recipients are likely to be interested in
2. Send personalized messages rather than general ones

Next, email composition should be spotless, starting with the subject line. Emails absolutely must be literate, concise, clear and feature a couple of elements, as follows:

1. A CTA
2. An unsubscribe button
3. Contact info

Keeping in mind email optimization, think carefully about the images you want (or don’t want to include). Image-heavy emails are never a good idea and the text font should be user-friendly and large enough for mobile readers.

Pay particular attention to the CTA, as it needs to stand out from the rest of the message body. Usually, marketers use a button of different color so that it contrasts the text. A good CTA should clearly state what will happen when the recipient clicks on the button. Hence, avoid random and unspecific text such as "Click Here."

Is There More to Email Productivity?

There are always multiple aspects to look at when considering email productivity. Most importantly, communication is crucial.

Even in the medium has changed, marketing has in its essence, remained the same over time. Getting to know people and their preferences better is essential for every marketing campaign’s engagement and performance, so don’t shy away from asking for feedback.

Also, encourage communication on your social media profiles. Cross-market your offer and ask people for their opinion. As a rule, they’re more inclined to post comments than to reply to emails, so use the opportunity!

Angela Ash is an expert writer, editor and marketer, with a unique voice and expert knowledge. She focuses on topics related to remote work, freelancing, entrepreneurship and more.