10 Ways to Maximize your Email Results
1. Set up email deliverability
Every day, a good portion of our time at JangoMail is spent working with our customers on email deliverability and discussing the importance of factors that affect it.
Setting up email authentication for your sending domain is a relatively quick process that has an immediate impact on maximizing your email marketing results.
Email authentication consists of creating DNS records for your sending domain aka From Address.
When sending with JangoMail, you should set up the following DNS records for your From Address/sending domain:
- A SPF record that authorizes us to send emails on your behalf
- A DKIM record that prevents tampering of your emails during the send process
- A CNAME record that creates a tracking domain for open and click tracking purposes
- Once you have SPF and DKIM properly established for all sending, a DMARC record for ultimate security
We know DNS records can be intimidating!! Feel free to reach out to our Support Team and ask us to review your email authentication setup.
2. Don’t purchase email addresses
Purchased email addresses and lists are not opted in to your messages. This means you do not have permission to send to them. Sending unsolicited email can cause a lot of problems, including damage to your sending reputation.
Sending reputation is a very important aspect of your email deliverability, which is all about whether your message goes into the inbox, spam, not delivered or even blocked. Purchased email addresses usually contain a lot of invalid emails, emails that have high records of complaining and spam traps. Those types of email addresses are especially harmful for sending.
Purchased lists are like looking for a needle in a haystack or throwing darts while wearing a blindfold. Eventually you will land a conversion, but it comes at the cost of spending money, wasted time, and hurting your sending reputation.
3. Send relevant content
What does sending relevant content mean? It means sending emails that your audience wants to read. It’s information they need to know, it’s content that is important to them, and causes them to want to open and engage with your emails.
Relevant content attracts and retains customers. We understand it can be difficult to create and put out compelling content on a regular basis. Your effort to keep your content relevant to your audience is important to your overall email marketing health.
Remember – content that is useful, helpful, or gives recipients reasons to be signed up for your emails keeps them subscribed and reading!
4. Scrub and clean your lists regularly
When email addresses sign up for your lists or get added, it’s inevitable that typos, fake sign-ups, and eventual email address changes happen. When you send to invalid email addresses, it can negatively affect your email deliverability and sending reputation.
Keep a clean list by using scrubbing tools like JangoMail’s free built-in List Scrub, and periodically validate email addresses with our List Hygiene Service.
At least once a year, purge emails that never interact with your emails. If an email address never opens or clicks, they are either not interested or never see your emails anyways.
A regularly cleaned list gives you accurate results and statistics from your reports. If your lists have a lot of bloat with email addresses that are invalid or recipients that don’t care about your emails, you’re not getting an accurate picture of who opens and clicks.
5. Segment your lists
You shouldn’t treat your lists as one large audience – if you segment your list and cater to each group with relevant content – your subscribers will notice and be happier to open your emails.
Segmentation helps drive up open and click rates because you’re sending the right emails to the right people at the right time.
JangoMail does not limit the number of lists you host with us – so you have plenty of room to have separate lists if needed. We also offer the ability to filter your list based on fields in your list – so you can keep one large list and send to segments. JangoMail allows you to take it a step further and connect to your web database or utilize our extensive API to build lists.
6. Personalize your content
If you send generic emails to everyone on your list – your recipients will be less likely to feel any ties or relationship to your company’s communication. With no buy-in or compelling content that’s catered to them, they’re less likely to stay subscribed to your emails. Use data you have in your lists to customize your message’s content.
You can tell when places you like to shop have gotten to know you well!! They use the data they know about you and your past shopping history to segment the emails they personally send to you. This is personalization in email marketing. Products highlighted in the emails are catered to what you have purchased in the past and new products that you may like to buy. This personalized targeting piques your interest, keeps you engaged and helps lead you to more likely make a purchase.
7. Have a clear call to action
No one should open an email and be confused about its purpose and what next steps they should take.
Have one clear CTA (call-to-action). It’s not a good idea to include more than one CTA, which can be overwhelming and lead to inaction on the recipient’s part. Make your CTA simple and easy for the recipient to do.
Create buttons for your CTAs instead of links. They’re easier to see and recipients can see them at first glance. Call-to-actions should go above and beyond the generic “click here” with descriptions that convey value and compel the reader to take action.
When possible, always keep your CTA above the fold – meaning your recipient doesn’t have to scroll down in the email to see it.
8. Entice with great subject lines
Your subject line may be the only thing a recipient reads of your email. Subject lines are very important and are your first impression. If it isn’t enticing enough, they will glance over your subject and skip reading your email! How good is your email content and what’s inside – if recipients see your subject and decide not to open your message??
Subject lines should not be long. Wordy subject lines are not easy to read and usually ignored.
Over half of emails these days are opened on mobile devices. This means only a certain number of characters in your subject line will show on a mobile device. It’s best practice to aim for a short subject line.
Along with your subject line, don’t forget about preheader text. Preheader text is the small line of text that appears after your subject line in the email inbox. This “preview” text can be just as important as the subject line!
9. Use offers to get referrals and gain loyalty
Part of your marketing strategy should include a loyalty program. This is a great way to maximize your email marketing efforts.
A good loyalty program helps you build customer retention and gain referrals for more business. It also helps entice your customers to continue engaging with your brand.
Offering incentives for signing up for emails is a great place to start when you’re building your email lists.
Examples of ways to incorporate a loyalty program:
- VIP Offers
- Referral bonuses
- Reward points
- Updates on exclusive content
10. Use a mobile-friendly template
Mobile-friendly templates are universally viewable in various email clients and screen sizes. Responsive templates adjust to the size of the screen on which its being viewed. It’s best practice to use mobile-friendly or responsive email templates, as a large majority of emails are viewed on smartphones rather than a computer screen.
Take the ultimate step for your company’s branding and have at least one HTML template that is designed professionally and customized with your company’s logos, colors, look and feel.
We hope this list gives you some new ideas on ways to maximize your email marketing results. Great email marketing isn’t brain surgery, but it does require work and the use of established email marketing best practices.
If you have questions about how to put any of these tips into place, send the JangoMail Team an email!
