The Secret to Creating Compelling Email Campaigns

One of my responsibilities as a digital marketing specialist is email marketing — turning a marketing message into a compelling email that people will not only open, but take action on, whether it’s a click thru or a phone call.

One of the most important parts of email marketing is creating a subject line that will entice customers to open the email.  No matter how great the body of an email is, if customers don’t open it,  it’s a waste.

This past week, I was preparing an email and looked back at results for past emails. There was no magic formula as to what day or time created the most open (although there were a slight increase in open rate on Mondays), but I did notice that industry hot topics included in the email subject line netted higher open and click thru rates.

It makes sense logically, but it had never dawned on me.  Just as I would perform keyword research for SEO or Google AdWords campaigns, the same can be done for email subject lines and email content in general.  Determining how keywords are trending is the best way to get into the minds of your potential customers.

I use tools such as Google Keyword Tool, Google Insights, and the auto-complete functionality on various search engines.  For keyword research beginners, I highly recommend auto-complete  — it’s easy to use and the auto-complete suggestions are based off of the most popular searches.

For instance, if you’re selling boating supplies, you may be interested in understanding the hot topic in boating.  Type boating into Google, and see what pops up.

In this instance, boating safety, boating terms, boating knots are just a few of the key terms people are searching for.  Why not create an email campaign around boating safety for the summer season which plugs some of the boating items that you sell that promote boating safety?  Use “boating safety” somewhere in the subject line and you’re sure to see results.

Utilizing keyword research to it’s fullest extent is one of the best ways for small companies to easily create great email marketing campaigns!