With so many digital opportunities for E-Commerce, such as fresh social networks and the continuing shift to mobile, it can be tempting to stick with our existing email marketing campaign approaches. However, failing to keep your email marketing campaigns fresh can leave your brand at risk of missing out on major increased engagement and revenue opportunities.

It’s time for a fresh look at your e-marketing! Here’s where to start:

1. Include interactivity in your email campaigns

Due to a series of advancements in HTML and CSS, true, complex, email interactivity is now very much within your grasp. It’s now possible to incorporate dynamic elements such as live Twitter feeds, broadened navigation, and add-to-basket functionality within your messages! Whereas in the past, emails were originally used by us marketeers to drive traffic to our websites, it’s now possible to take action within the emails themselves, saving your customers time and making them more likely to convert, whether they are signing up or re-purchasing products.

2. Use tasteful and subtle movements

Incorporating movement into your emails is a highly effective way to stand out from other brands! By integrating tasteful and subtle movements into emails, such as live backgrounds or slight motion animated GIFs, brands can grab the recipient’s attention and get their message noticed. Modern dynamic visuals like cinemagraphs, which give the illusion that the viewer is watching an animation, can increase engagement even further.

Check some great examples out here!

3. Use ADVANCED personalisation

Whilst basic email personalisation can make the recipient feel somewhat special, like including their name in the subject line, it isn’t exactly transformative/ However, incorporating more advanced email personalisation based on the recipients behaviour could make radical changes to your sign-ups and sales. Research shows that messages that are triggered by the recipients actions, such as encouraging the return to abandoned shopping baskets, and messages that include rich content, consistently have higher open and action rates.

4. Use fresh visuals

A lot of brands have become heavily reliant on stock imagery, which is consequently making our inboxes look very repetitive. Stock images are undoubtedly more often than not significantly cheaper than paying for your own photography and illustrations, but whilst generic images will save you money in the short-term, they instantly discredit your brand if your customer remembers seeing them before. If you want to stand out from your competitors, it is worth investing in authentic imagery and illustration that tells the story of your band. If this is not financially feasible for your brand, then at least try to attract attention by choosing unusual and eccentric stock visuals.

5. Keep your content short and sweet

As a marketer, your first instinct when it comes to email copy is probably to go deep and complex, in order to cover all details of your products, services and news on offer. However, research shows that the most effective emails tend to include very little text (between 50-125 words long). Of course, the ideal length, complexity and tone of emails will vary by types of industry, or whether the email is B2B or B2C for example. Sometimes, it is necessary to include more words or perhaps inspire different emotions. However it seems to be that the general rule is to keep email campaigns short and sweet to boost effectiveness.

6. Incorporate a variety of design modules

When it comes to the visual design of email campaigns, brands either tend to use the same templates over and over again, or they construct the campaign completely from scratch each and every time! Modular design provides a middle ground between these two approaches. Many platforms have now added options which allow marketers to produce a variety of design modules that can be fitted together to create fresh campaigns. This is extremely advantageous as it allows brands to remain consistent by retaining the same overall aesthetic, whilst also being able to easily adapt their templates for different types of marketing messages.

7. Say goodbye to scheduled messages

Over the years, in order to save both money and time, it has become quite common for brands to have a set schedule for their email marketing. However, many marketers are now starting to realise that less can be more. The volume of emails that consumers receive continues to increase, and research shows that brands who email less frequently have higher open and action rates, and encourage more engagement and less un-subscribers. We’re definitely not saying that you should completely kill off your monthly e-news. However, it’s worth looking into just how keenly these messages are contributing to your bottom line. If they do not serve a purpose, then brands should consider shifting to irregular timed campaigns which are instead triggered by specific events.

8. Respect your customers

The 8th and final tip which is crucial to your brands email marketing success is respect. This will probably come as no surprise to you, but this is becoming more important than ever before. With people receiving more and more emails in their inbox everyday, they are becoming increasingly concerned about how their personal data is being handled. Which in turn means that they are becoming even more hesitant about allowing brands to send them messages. In order to keep consumers subscribing to your list and reading your content, make sure that your main focus is respect. Most importantly, do not sign your subscribers up to anything which they have not agreed to, and do not present them with irrelevant content. Whilst in the short term, you might notice a slight decline in some metrics, this approach will provide you with email marketing success in the long term!

Need some further assistance on building a successful email marketing campaign strategy?! Our experts are here to help! Get in touch today. Happy emailing!