Marrying your Emails & Landing Pages

When you are trying to get a user to respond to a call to action, it is important that both your email and your landing page help the process go as easily as possible. The following are three suggestions that will help enhance the union between your emails and corresponding landing pages:

1. Pick ONE call to action – Have you ever received an email that was asking you to do more than one thing? Sign up for this offer, join our social media channels, buy a product, get our newsletter, read user stories, gain more information…the list could go on and on. Users may get overwhelmed by all the different actions they’re asked to take and then end results could be losing potential signups or business. Extra call to actions can distract users try sending a mailing with one decisive and strong call to action instead.

2.Connecting information – Typically you want your email to be short and sweet. Give only enough information so that the user understands the core value of what you are offering in an attempt to redirect user to the landing page where they can obtain a more detailed description. Use the email to pull the user in with interesting snippets and give them cause to search for more information.

3.Target audience – The same rules apply to emailing as to landing pages. The more personal the better the possibility of conversions. Trying to make a standard email and landing page to reach different demographics can be difficult – you must know your audience in order to communicate well with each group. For example, if you’re an insurance company your information may read differently for your agents and for your customers. Same rules and regulations apply but the language and perks highlighted will be different for each. Segment and reach your audience accordingly.

Although the email is the first thing a user might see, the landing page may be the last before the point of purchase – Both should work together as a team.

Please feel free to contact us here at KobeMail with any of your email questions!

Back to School: Email Layout Basics

Remember when you first learned the basic of writing a school essay?  The rule of thumb taught to all young students, “you must have a beginning, middle and an end,” can be applied to the concept of email writing as well. Check out the below segmentation:

Beginning - The start of an email will be considered the Subject Line and Headline. As we were taught, this is the part that introduces the middle and end and should capture attention. To make the most use of this space, build a mutual relationship where the subject line and opening of the email support each other in a clear and concise way.  The first two sentences, or content above the fold line, should capture the essence of the mailing.

Middle - This is where the meat of your email lies, between the top of the mailing and some content below the fold. Give information that supports the beginning of your email to back up the value of the service or product you are trying sell. It is important to maintain user interest here in an attempt to make them take action.

 

End – This is where your call to action (CTA) should reside. Without being pushy, you must lead the user to act on the intended offer by clicking and being redirected to a landing page. Draw users’ attention using buttons, prominent text, or even clever CTA’s like a See How it Works.

 

Following the simple formula above will allow you to maintain clean and clear emails that help to increase traffic and help to ensure positive data results. 

Take the Time to Schedule Properly

Reaching a vast market, which spans across multiple time zones, can be a difficult task. The following is some information regarding how to best target recipients in and outside the country in the most effective manner to get the best possible results. Please keep in mind the below is in reference to senders who maintain location variables within their database for each user so that segmentation is possible.

First consider what time users are most likely to read your email. While you can’t generalize and say users all check their email at a certain time you can take into consideration the demographics of your list along with generally accepted industry knowledge.

The general recommendation is to send emails early morning mid week to obtain the best data results. Scheduling a campaign for 11am EST for New Yorkers will put the email in mailboxes at 8am PST in California – which generally accommodates both parties reasonably.

KobeMail is located in New York but we service clients all across the US and must constantly consider time differences while working with our clients to ensure their email campaigns have proper reach and return. We even work with clients outside the US who in turn mail out to clients across the globe. This is where scheduling gets tricky. You must have a comprehensive understanding of multiple outside factors that could affect the outcome of your send in regards to time. A few examples are below:

- When individuals generally take lunch breaks
- Holiday celebrations that aren’t celebrated everywhere
- Typical vacation/travel time

Understanding where your users are coming from and consideration of multiple location variables is very important. Collecting location data during the signup process and utilizing that data during scheduling can have a positive impact on your relationship with recipients and their willingness to take action.

Getting Back to the Basics

What fundamental elements of your emails you have tested lately?

In earlier blogs we have discussed the importance of testing subject lines in an attempt to increase opens on your email campaign. Subject line testing is a primary element that most email marketers know to utilize in an attempt to establish headers they know will peak user interest.

Now let’s delve further – Once you’ve gotten the user to open does that mean they will engage, scroll down, and click through? Not necessarily. The secondary element to focus on, that is just as important as subject lines, is content. How would you know what content users will like? Well, there is no ONE answer to this question. As long as the content is concise, easily understandable, andcaters to your users then you have a higher possibility of gaining their interest. In order to find out what works for you, testing and analysis are continuously necessary.

Content checks lead us to highlight another important element – the call to action and its relative placement within the body. Placing a prominent call to action in the beginning of the email should help to increase response rates and untimely increase your bottom line results.

Conducting regular subject line testing and analyzing response action based on email content will help in understanding your users, catering to their wants, and increasing your data results.

Deliverability is a #1 Priority

Here at Kobemail, deliverabilty is our number one priority. Below are some elements of email messaging that can cause blocks on ISP’s and ultimately effect the outcome of your email marketing campaigns.

Technical sending problemsthat include, but are not limited to, incorrect message headers, errors in authentication records, and improperly set up domain name servers.

Excessive Bed Emails such as invalid email addresses and sending to individuals who have not opted in for your emails – It is important to cleanse your list regularly.

Numerous Spam Complaints which ultimately cause the ISP to stop allowing messages through for a specific period of time after which messages will be closely monitored to combat complaints.

Email Content – It is important to analyze and test the content of your emails to determine what elements may be causing your emails to be blocked. Below are some content issues that could lead to blocking:

- Vague subject lines
- Sexually explicit terms
- Mention of drugs, gambling, alcohol
- Strange and unqualified language in content.
- Repetitive text content
- Not having a 60/40 text to image ratio
- Presence of multiple phone numbers
- Marketing Terms (free offer, satisfaction guaranteed, etc)

If you find that your address has been blacklisted you can contact the ISP for which the block occurred to locate and resolve the issue. We’re always here at KobeMail to help with email marketing advice and deliverability assurance.

Happy Friday!

- The KobeMail Team

Content is King

I recently came across an interesting LinkedIn discussion claiming content was “King” when it comes to communication in social media. Here at Kobemail I’d say we not only have to agree with this article but have extended this theory to be correct for our industry as well, email marketing.

Here are some tips on how to have successful content within your email:

Audience – Understand who you are reaching and what they want to read about. Make sure that what you are writing about is of benefit and relevant to the user. Understand their culture and cater to their tone of language. If these are professional don’t write to them as if you were speaking to a group of high school students and visa versa; know your target audience.

Get personal - Including a user’s name in an email can give the recipient a sense of familiarity and recipients appreciate this type of personal approach. Don’t force a highly personal relationship but formulate your emails so that users feel as if you care about their needs. Implement a familiar tone and give your mailers a personality in an attempt to build strong and lasting relationships with your readers.

Engagement – In email marketing you have a very limited time to convince your readers that you have something to offer i.e., that you aren’t sending junk mail. Keep your content short and to the point. If you have a lengthy newsletter, you can always add links to shorten articles and drive traffic to a site where the rest of the content is displayed. It is also important to consider your fold line, above which is what the user sees when first opening and before scrolling down, and make sure to include some sort of call to action or attention grabbing content.

Hope these little tips help you to create and optimize engaging campaigns with the “king” of email marketing success – content.

- The KobeMail Team

Grow Your DB Organically

Bought a bad email list? Left with a small database of inactive recipients? Frustrated because the price doesn’t seem to be worth the payoff? You’re not alone. Purchasing email lists is a risky choice and is generally not recommended as the most valuable users are shown to be the ones who have opted-in to receive your mailings. These opted-in users are the ones most likely to generate conversation and help increase your bottom line. Before you go out and buy an email list you may be disappointed with consider the factors below.

Website – As this is the end location you are trying to drive traffic to its important to make sure that the signup process is as simple as possible. Keep in mind the below:

• Have signups to your mailings available in different pages within your website.
• Make sure to make it visible and encouraging for users to sign up.
• Consider offering some sort of coupon or promise exclusive promotions.
• Send a follow up email confirming their email address to confirm successful signup and let the user know what to expect next

Online Traffic Mediums – Not only are the users already in your list valuable as potential shoppers they should also be leveraged as a tool to increase other signups through word of mouth. Try this out:

• Allow all emails sent to have the option to share with a friend to promote more signups.
• Offer a reward for a certain amount of friends referred; this strategy can also be applied to all social media channels that can help promote signup.
• Have redirect links to your website from social media outlets or better yet allow users to sign up then and there.

Offline Medium – Any outside mediums you have access to should be used as another tool for promoting email list growth. Offering email signup at a physical store, event, customer service center or using direct marketing through mail can be very valuable when trying to grow your list.

If you feel that your list size is not as large as you like it to be, you can always resort to other online marketing strategies like SEO, SEM, affiliate advertising and banner ads. Be creative, spread the word and help others spread the word for you by making processes easy and outcomes beneficial.