Expert Tips to Boost Your Email Marketing Success
Michelle Stewart
Marketing Strategist | Multi-Platform Media | Partnerships & Sponsorships | Paid & Organic Social Media | Influencer Campaigns | Nonprofit | Marketing Funnel | Writer | "Stay Curious. Learn Continuously. Innovate."
Social Media Marketing Podcast: Email Marketing Tactics That Work 📧
Intent on diving deeper into social media and digital marketing, I've been tuning into an excellent podcast hosted by Social Media Examiner founder Michael Stelzner.
Recently, Mike’s Social Media Marketing podcast featured email marketing expert Jay Schwedelson, President/CEO of Outcome Media [Division of Worldata Group] who busted myths, discussed trends, and shared analytics from decades of email marketing experience.
As a partner with media companies such as Main Line Today and Today Media, I work with advertisers that often need assistance with email campaigns – from creative design and copywriting to analytics – so this topic is particularly interesting to me.
Jay’s insights in this episode, especially on crafting compelling subject lines, were eye-opening and challenged some common assumptions about email marketing success. Here are some key 🔑 takeaways:
Subject Lines Matter:
Be Deliberate: If your email doesn’t get opened, the rest doesn’t matter.
Move past blanket rules around spam trigger words, 🏄🏾♂️ emojis 💡, CAPITALIZATION, and other elements that supposedly hurt deliverability.
Several perceived “spammy” tactics can actually lift engagement, like using the word “Free,” 📧 emojis, exclamation points, and question marks in subject lines.
People scan email subject lines in a millisecond… do something to make yours stand out, such as starting with a number (7 ways to…), or putting {brackets} around a key word.
Personalize. Not a person’s name, but using words like “Just for ___” (new homeowners, cat people, moms of teens).
Test your subject lines for free at SubjectLine.com (which was founded by Jay... cool backstory).
Promotions Tab is Okay:
It’s okay if your email goes to the Promotions tab.
The Promotions tab is actually part of the inbox, 🧰 not the junk folder, and landing there can boost performance.
Only 15–20% of Gmail users even enable tabbed inbox categories; of those who do, around 50% check the Promotions tab daily.
(Any comments on this? I personally do not check my Promotions tab unless I’m freeing up space).
Other Considerations Addressed:
⏰ Day and time are important, and vary by audience.
Open rates aren’t really how many people actually open your email, but they are important for testing.
When you try something new and get more unsubscribes, it’s not a bad thing. It means you got more opens.
Make your call-to-action button speak to the reader. For example, try “Count Me In!” instead of “Buy Now!”
Some of this is excerpted directly from the podcast notes. Full podcast notes at SocialMediaExaminer.com/605.