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15 Tricks to Build 2019’s Best Marketing Campaign
The new year is the perfect time to readjust your marketing tactics to develop the best email marketing campaign possible for your brand. But what can you do to create the best marketing campaigns of all time? Consider incorporating new technology along with your tried and true tactics.
Remember, your goal should always be to deliver the most relevant and useful content to your subscribers. That’s how you keep subscribers happy while seeing even better results for your brands and organizations.
In this post, we’ll go over some useful tips and tricks you can bring with you in the new year along with successful marketing campaign examples to use as inspiration.
Build the best marketing campaign in 2019
This year’s best marketing campaigns will stay on top of current trends while sticking with classic tactics that have proven to deliver results. AI is great, for example, but it can’t do all the work for you.
The tips below include some of our favorite strategies that we’ve found actually work. Test out different tips to create the best marketing campaign for your specific brand and audience.
1. Find the right email service provider
Using a reputable email service provider is crucial for sending emails from a high-quality IP address. This will help ensure that you don’t get flagged by spam filters. Plus, the right email service provider can help you with customizable templates that render well across different mobile devices and various email clients while staying on top of emerging technology.
This email from MeUndies was sent using a reputable email service provider. You can tell because it includes a physical mailing address and valid unsubscribe link to comply with international anti-spam laws.
Image Source: Really Good Emails
2. Prioritize mobile design and experience
According to our own research, over half of all emails are opened on a mobile device. Marketers should expect this number to increase even more throughout 2019 and beyond.
If you aren’t formatting your emails to render across multiple types of devices then they aren’t even worth sending.
Run tests and use email service providers that offer mobile-friendly templates in order to ensure that you aren’t losing valuable conversions. After all, the more people open your emails on a mobile device, the more who will also click through to your website and expect to covert on their mobile device as well.
3. Personalize every email you send
With so much technology and data at your fingertips, there’s really no reason to send generic emails to your subscribers. Not only do personalized emails improve your open and click-through rates, but personalization supports engagement and customer retention.
This email from Uber uses both the subscriber’s name and data the company has collected about her to create a super-relevant email.
Image Source: Really Good Emails
4. Incorporate artificial intelligence into your marketing strategy
Speaking of personalized emails, artificial intelligence (AI) can segment your audience to send the most personalized emails possible with technology like nuanced behavior tracking. Sending relevant emails by segmenting your audience can boost your revenue by a staggering 760%.
This email from Pizza Hut takes advantage of user data to present the subscriber with an email that’s specific to them. Using information from their previous orders, Pizza Hut offers them a coupon for their customer’s favorite meal.
Image Source: Campaign Monitor
5. Stay on top of international anti-spam laws and spam filters
Email marketer seem to remain locked in a constant battle with spam filters: Every time you develop new tactics to avoid triggering them, and email clients like Google change their algorithms and you have to begin the process all over again.
But the effort is worth it, both to ensure your emails remain at the top of your subscriber’s inbox, but also to ensure you follow best practices in order to build trust with your customers. Additionally, marketers must maintain proper practices in order to comply with international anti-spam laws as they continue to change.
6. Dabble in interactive emails
Interactive emails don’t need to be overwhelming. Incorporating a few into your broader email marketing strategy could be key for creating your best email campaign yet. While interactive emails encourage engagement and build excitement around product launches, they might be too much flair for a simple announcement.
Instead of designing every single email to be interactive, choose only those messages that deserve more fanfare in order to keep your emails from becoming overwhelming to your subscribers. Variety is the spice of life, after all.
This email from Pret A Manger takes advantage of an interactive format to inform subscribers about their seasonal delights. It just begs to be clicked and the high-quality graphic helps too.
7. But don’t forget plain-text emails
Though interactive emails add excitement to your subscriber’s inboxes, not every message needs more pizazz. Often, the message speaks for itself and in those cases, plain-text emails perform better than their HTML-rich counterparts.
You should also consider which format—interactive or plain-text—appeals to which of your segments. While your younger and more tech-savvy subscribers will probably prefer a more interactive experience, your older subscribers might not.
The trick, as always, is to test your emails and listen to the data you gain. When your subscribers exhibit a clear preference, incorporate these results into your email marketing. But remember, what worked well for one type of email might not work best for another.
Test and test again.
8. Don’t get discouraged
When it comes to email marketing—much like any kind of marketing—some things will work and others won’t.
Just because the latest trends resulted in the best marketing campaigns of all time for other companies doesn’t mean it will work for your subscribers.
Instead, keep adapting and diversify your marketing strategy in order to stay ahead of any potential problems.
9. Invest in high-quality graphics
These days, with the amount of competition in people’s inboxes and the proliferation of photo editing apps, stock photos simply won’t cut it anymore. Invest in high-quality graphics that render well on mobile devices to impress your subscribers. Your images should look good and reflect your company’s branding, even in email.
This email from UNICEF contains high-quality unique graphics of real humans to encourage a personal connection with their subscribers.
10. Analyze your results
You’d be foolish not to track the success of your email campaigns—or lack thereof—and then use what you learn to your advantage. Analyze your metrics to see what content, calls to action, and copy resonates with your audience. When you know what works for your audience, then you know how you can improve, adding more of the content that leads to conversions.
Don’t limit yourself to open-rates: Look at metrics such as click-through rates, unsubscribes, bounces, inactive subscribers, and actual purchases.
Track your data across multiple platforms through software like Google Analytics to get a thorough understanding of what happens in your emails after you hit send.
11. Set up trigger-based automatic emails
Automated trigger-based emails allow you to develop a relationship with your subscribers without a ton of effort on your part. Welcome messages and thank yous go a long way when you want to stand out from other brands and foster a personal connection with your customers and fans.
Welcome emails like this one from Craftsman are easy to automate but excellent for engaging and building a relationship with your subscribers. To top it off, not only is it personalized, this emails also asks the subscriber to set up their preferences right away. That way, Craftsman doesn’t have to wonder if they’re delivering emails with the right content or the right frequency; the company already knows.
Image Source: Really Good Emails
12. Focus on subscriber retention
Speaking of standing out, focusing on retaining customers (and re-engaging dormant subscribers) can significantly improve the trust and loyalty you see from your subscribers. According to Adobe, a massive 40% of e-commerce revenue is generated by only 8% of repeat customers.
This means if you don’t send emails with the purpose of remaining top of mind with your customers and building a relationship with them, you could be losing out on almost half of your potential revenue.
Consider rewarding customers for their loyalty, saying thank you, and asking for feedback in order to foster your relationship with your customers.
13. Emphasize quality over quantity
Throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks won’t cut it if you want to develop the best marketing campaign.
Instead, focus on sending out fewer high-quality emails that are super personalized to resonate with your subscribers. In fact, most people say they unsubscribe because they receive too many emails from a company or emails that are irrelevant to them.
You’re a guest in your subscribers’ inboxes, so be courteous and don’t abuse your welcome.
14. Switch up your tone
Email is a personal medium so why don’t more marketers use a conversational tone with their subscribers?
Along with personalizing your emails, adopt a tone that speaks to them as if you’re having a conversation with a friend. No one wants to feel like someone is trying to sell them something, but having a conversation is another story. Email works best as a dialogue where you speak to your subscriber, not a monologue where you speak at them.
This email from the Red Cross uses a conversational tone to develop a connection with their subscribers.
Image Source: Campaign Monitor
15. Incorporate social media and other digital platforms into your email marketing strategy
Too often people ask if some new platform will hurt email marketing when in reality, these platforms build off one another and can work in tandem. In fact, most email service providers offer ways to integrate other platforms into your email marketing campaigns.
Try an embedded YouTube video and track what happens with your opens, click-through rates, and your conversions. Encourage your subscribers to reach out and connect with your company through social media.
The best marketing campaigns of all time are dynamic. They merge different pieces of your general marketing strategy. Email marketing—and indeed any of your marketing efforts—don’t need to be isolated.
Wrap up
Creating 2019’s best email marketing campaign is all about incorporating new and old tactics that sync with your brand and subscribers. Often times, the best marketing campaign must use different methods of reaching out to different segments of your subscribers.
Browse successful marketing campaigns examples and run A/B tests to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Remember, what works for one campaign might not translate to the next, even among the same segments.
Using new technology, you can send the best marketing campaigns when you hyper-target your message to resonate with your audience.
