Get Better Results with E-mail Marketing

By Chris Damico

You may already do e-mail marketing, and you may have seen results. Maybe it’s been higher traffic to your website, an increase in lead forms, or even direct phone calls as a result of one of your targeted promotional e-mails. But in an increasing mobile world in which shoppers like to find what they’re looking for on their smartphones, how do you target these on-the-go customers?

According to Adestra, 61 percent of all e-mail opens occur on a mobile device – meaning if your e-mails aren’t mobile-friendly, you may lose out on reaching more than half of your target audience. Yet, surprisingly, most businesses remain with a one-size-fits-all e-mail mindset, and fail to accommodate the people who open e-mails on mobile devices.

How will you adapt to potential buyers who consume e-mail content on mobile? If you say you won’t, you may be forfeiting the business of your growing mobile audience. So, before sending your next marketing e-mail, ensure it is mobile-friendly, and review these best practices to capture the attention of every potential customer.

Bigger is better

To make sure your e-mail is noticed, opened and easily readable, your headline font size should be set to 22 points or larger, and the body copy font size should be 14 points or larger. Never send an e-mail with a font size lower than these recommendations, as it may cause a device to automatically increase your font size and completely reformat the design of your e-mail.

Get to the point

Depending on what mobile device is being used, you may only have 27 to 30 characters to utilize in the subject line. That’s why you want to load the most compelling content first, in as few characters as possible. Often times, this is even more important than the content itself, as it grabs the reader’s attention and encourages them to click through.

In some cases, the pre-header text – the brief summary located under the subject line – is granted more room than the subject line based on how the device is being held. Take this as an opportunity to convey the importance of the e-mail as quickly as possible.

Make it easy to read

There is nothing worse than opening an intriguing e-mail only to find it difficult to read on your smartphone with long-winded paragraphs and irrelevant images.

Reading mobile e-mails is often done while engaging in other activities such as eating, conversing or watching television. You need to make it easy for your prospective buyer to easily read and scan your content. Avoid writing long paragraphs; instead, use headers, bullets or numbers and short paragraphs to visually space out your content for easy consumption.

Display a clear call to action

Your mobile call to action (CTA) is the most critical element of your entire e-mail campaign. Taking action is what you want your prospect to do, so make it easy and obvious for them.

Now, once you have created your CTA, place it “above the fold” and as close to the top of the e-mail as possible. Never make a prospect scroll through your content to find your CTA, because odds are, they won’t.

Most mobile CTAs are of the click-to-call variety – consider utilizing these as often as possible to immediately convert a prospect into a lead. It’s much easier for a mobile prospect to call in than it is to fill out a form.

As a reminder, here are some helpful additional e-mail marketing tips and tricks to follow:

Increase revenue by segmentation

• Collect e-mails from your current customers and leads
• Segment (divide) your list by:

– Type of customer

– What they’re interested in

– What they’ve bought in the past

Stay out of the spam folder

• Don’t get in the bad habit of sending your contacts long, generic e-mails – you’ll soon end up in the “spam” folder, never to be seen again!
• Instead, send personalized messages about relevant content (achieved through segmenting your list).

Avoid the dreaded “unsubscribe”

• Don’t continually blow up your contacts’ inboxes with e-mail after e-mail! This is the formula for an “unsubscribe.”
• Only send contacts relevant, important information

– Newsletters

– Upcoming sales/promotions

– Follow-up automation based on interests

• Limit e-mails to two to four times per month

– Open rate is highest when companies send two e-mails per month

Creating mobile-optimized e-mails isn’t the end of the reader’s journey. Once they’ve engaged with you through e-mail, provide them with a mobile-friendly website experience to browse the products and services you offer.

Chris Damico serves as marketing manager at ARI Network Services. He’s helped hundreds of dealers across the country with their digital marketing, including the content and search engine optimization (SEO) of their websites, social media presence, and advertising and e-mail marketing campaigns. He’s dedicated to the mission of helping dealers improve their operations through the implementation of ever-evolving best practices paired with ARI’s suite of award-winning data-driven software tools and marketing services that help dealers “Sell More Stuff!” online and in-store. ARI removes the complexity of selling and servicing new and used inventory, parts, garments and accessories for customers in the outdoor power equipment, powersports, marine, RV, automotive tire and wheel, and white goods industries. More than 23,500 equipment dealers, 195 distributors and 140 manufacturers worldwide leverage ARI’s website (www.arinet.com) and eCatalog platforms to “Sell More Stuff!”