by Andy Coffaro

PropertyMinderMarketing

You’ve got your email list of leads. Some are folks you’ve sold to in the past while others you met standing in line for your morning Starbucks.

No matter how you attain it, a lead is a lead is a lead.

One of the best marketing strategies to stay top of mind with your leads and increase the odds of doing business with them is through email newsletters.

But are you sure you’re employing the best strategies before sending them out?

If not, here’s how.

Test Your Email Subject Lines

Perhaps one of the more enjoyable aspects of sending out email newsletters is figuring out what resonates with your readers. What compels them to engage with your content? What are the powerful words you can string together that causes them to take a desired action?

It all starts with your email subject lines. Think about it: If your email is never opened, all the marketing strategies in the world won’t matter.

It may take some experimenting to figure out what works. Maybe your audience enjoys humor and wit, or perhaps they want subject lines featuring data points. There’s no perfect way to write an email subject line so experiment and find out.

Here are some creative examples from the men’s digital lifestyle brand, The Thrillist. They are short, to the point, and make you wonder what’s waiting inside the email.

Pizza ice cream? How could you not open that? And notice they used all caps for “PIZZA” so the word stands out even more.

Take chances and be creative.

Same Time, Same Day

People are creatures of habit: wake up in the morning, brush teeth, make coffee, turn on the news, check Facebook, etc. Half the time they aren’t even conscious of what they’re doing.

When possible, send your email newsletter around the same time on the same day. You will condition your audience to expect to hear from you.

80/20 Rule

We talked about this before for social media, but it applies here as well: 80% of the content in your email newsletter should be just engaging, entertaining, and enlightening information.

Save the other 20% for content meant to drive sales, which could include calls to action that send readers to your website.

Be Fun and Casual

Speak in a friendly tone. Use contractions (e.g. “aren’t” instead of “are not”). Write in short choppy sentences. Use bullet points. Embed a video you hosted on YouTube.

Again, be creative, but most importantly of all, write to your audience the way you would chat with them casually in public. You will still come off as an authority so long as the content you present is accurate, relevant, and actionable.

Unsubscribe Link

Always provide an unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email newsletter.

Don’t take it personally if people unsubscribe. There are those that simply don’t want email newsletters no matter how solid they might be.

And make it a one-click action. Don’t force people to enter their name and email address to unsubscribe. That’s an easy way to leave a poor impression.

By taking advantage of these simple email newsletter tips, you should see open rates go up, unsubscribes go down, and your leads transform from lukewarm to sizzling-hot.

More marketing advice can be found on our featured Tip Of The Week Archive webpages.