Get to the point. That’s not even the first lesson, but I’ll demonstrate it just the same.
1. CTA’s & Headlines Are More Important Than Images
At the North Shore Winter Club, I include three articles in the weekly email roundups. I link to the posts in the headline, the image and then a third time with a prominent CTA button.
Without exception, the Call To Action drives the most traffic back to the main site. The copy is tight everywhere else, the CTA itself is short, and it’s easy for people to follow the instructions.
So, like you’ve been taught, put your focus into writing good headlines first. Headlines are everything. And then bring them home with a bright CTA button.
2. Position The Best Articles Last or First
I prefer putting the strong articles at the end of the roundup. If your audience is motivated then they’ll read until the end no matter what and they’ll be enticed by the most powerful article.
The North Shore Winter Club audience is certainly motivated to read their weekly email marketing campaign:
- Average Weekly Roundup open rate: 50.4% (compared with 12.6% in the industry)
- Weekly Roundup click rate: 13.9% (compared with 1.5% in the industry)
If your audience isn’t as motivated or engaged, then try putting the hot articles at the beginning. Testing is your friend!
3. Find a Consistent Delivery Schedule
With this particular client, the Weekly Roundup has been going out for 38 weeks as of this Friday. I experimented with different delivery schedules for the first month or so and landed on Friday mornings at 5am. The roundup is there when people wake up and it’s to the point now where it’s expected. It’s familiar. The performance of the roundup is huge between 6am and 10am, so people are reading it right away.
4. Book Ahead of Time, But Stay Current
I like to finish and schedule email campaigns three weeks in advance to them being sent out. I do this for a couple reasons.
- I can go back to the ‘published product’ later to make changes if I change my mind about something.
- Writing something that resonates three weeks ahead of time ensures that the content is timeless.
- Deadlines creep up, man.
- If I get hit by a bus then thy email marketing campaign shall survive.
The new mailchimp interface makes it easy to see what you have scheduled and what you still need to work on.
The problem with this booking well ahead of time is if you’re including current deals or promotions in your email marketing campaign. If you are, the simply leave a section open to add these at a later time.
5. I Don’t Know Nothin’ Yet
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that I have a lot more to learn. For me, writing is its most fascinating when one does so with an open mind. There’s hardly any room with this particular roundup, so the copy that does fit needs to be short and to-the-point. I still haven’t mastered this art, and I probably never will. I’m still too vague in my short descriptions of the articles or in my opening block of copy.
That’s ok though, hopefully my creativity in my copy is making up for my shortcomings. The audience is there and they’re appreciative of the product, but that took time and a lot of work. In the meantime, I’m happy with what I’ve learned about successful email marketing campaigns and I’m pumped to learn more.
How bout you? What have you learned about email marketing?
photo credit: samford letterboxes, 28-05-2013 (6) via photopin (license)
