Hardwood Floors February/March 2019

Email Marketing (Continued)

talking to a friend. But don’t be overly friendly or you may alienate them. Include a call to action, but don’t demand an immediate response. 8. Think mobile. According to the Litmus State of Email Report, 54 percent of all emails are opened on a mobile device. So use a responsive platform – one that adjusts the message to accommodate screen size. Further, links should go to mobile-friendly webpages, and the pages should load quickly. example, consider running A/B (or split) tests to compare the effectiveness of different subject lines, messages, offers, promotions, or calls to action. Beyond answering a one-off question, A/B testing can improve your email marketing in the long run as you continue to learn what works. 10. Let them say goodbye. Every email should give the recipient the option to unsubscribe or receive emails less frequently. This is a quick overview of email marketing and best practices. Succeeding with email marketing requires attention to all aspects of campaign planning, execution, and analysis. Marketers must also understand strategy, content, design, testing, metrics, and even the legal aspects of the CAN-SPAMAct of 2003, which sets the rules for commercial email. See the article on page 34 for more details on the CAN-SPAMAct. The more you research and practice email marketing, the more you’ll find there is to know. That’s why you need to start with a marketing goal and strategy. It’s not a question of what you can do with email marketing; it’s a question of what you should do. Katrina Olson is a marketing consultant, trainer, writer, and principal of Katrina Olson Marketing + Training. Reach her at katrina@katrinaolson.com. 9. Test, modify, and repeat. For

the chart below as a starting point, experiment with different days and times to see what works best for you. 6. Get to the point. Microsoft Canada Advertising surveyed 2,000 people about their use of mobile technology, websites, and online games and found the average attention span to be eight seconds. Readers make decisions quickly about what interests them, so emails must capture attention quickly.

4. Make the connection immediately. In the subject line, hint at the email’s content and then follow up in the first sentence, so readers know what to expect. If they’re interested, they’ll keep reading. If not, it doesn’t matter. Regardless, you’ve delivered the message. 5. Time it appropriately. CoSchedule reviewed 14 different research studies and found that Tuesdays, Thursdays, andWednesdays are the best days to send emails, in that order. The best times are 10 a.m., 8 p.m., 2 p.m., and 6 a.m. Using

7. Write like you speak. Be

conversational and clear. Don’t be too promotional; write as if you’re

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