Meet Jimmy Harrison of Harrison Workplace Furnishings. Jimmy is one of our digital marketing clients. His emails have an average email open rate of 75%. That’s really high. To put it into perspective, the average email open rate across all industries is 21.33% [Source: MailChimp].
As much as we’d love to take full credit for those results, we must give Jimmy the props he deserves. Jimmy’s unyielding dedication to these 4 email marketing best practices has been a huge part of his email marketing success.
Here’s what he does [and what we recommend you do too]:
1. Email List management
When you initially set up your email marketing account, you uploaded a contact list. However, over time, people change jobs, companies hire new personnel, and your email list becomes outdated. If you’ve neglected to actively update your list, it likely contains incorrect addresses.
Jimmy ensures his contact list stays up to date by consistently updating his contact list. And we highly recommend you do the same.
Don’t fret; updating your list doesn’t require logging into your email account. If you’re a Dandelion Marketing client, simply send us any contacts that need updating, addition, or removal, and we’ll handle the rest.
2. Grow your list
Every interaction with a potential customer is an opportunity to grow your email list. The easiest way? Ask them to sign up.
While manually uploading contact info is an option, encouraging clients to sign up via your form encourages better inbox placement and higher open rates. During presentations or interactions, convey that staying informed about the latest product launches and company news is as simple as joining your email list. Make sure to guide them through the sign-up process. Consider incorporating a QR code into presentations to quickly access your sign-up form.
Bonus tip: Some organizations, like universities, have strict email filters. For contacts within such institutions, suggest signing up with personal email addresses.
(Need help finding your sign-up form? If you are a dandelion marketing client, you can find your sign-up form in your Instagram bio.)
3. Talk about your newsletter
When Jimmy gets together with a client, you’ll often hear him asking “Hey, did you read my recent newsletter?” He KNOWS his emails are a great resource, and his enthusiasm is clear to his customers.
Regularly discussing the latest newsletter during client interactions builds anticipation and highlights the value your emails provide. Make your enthusiasm infectious, and watch your open rates soar.
Contract furniture reps: make this a part of your presentations. Open one of your recent emails during your presentation to show them all the great info they’ll find in your monthly newsletter.
4. Add a hook
You’ll often find a giveaway hidden at the end of a Harrison Workplace Furnishings email. It’s a fun way of rewarding customers who read his newsletter and gives people incentive to click on every edition that hits their inbox. In other words, it’s a hook.
There are several ways you can add engaging hooks to your emails. Another client adds a Song of the Month at the end of each email to let their customers know what songs have been inspiring them that month!
Here are some other fun ideas for email hooks:
- Meme of the Month: add a humorous image at the end of your emails to reward your readers.
- Industry news: Share an interesting piece of news that is relevant to your industry (Contract Furniture Reps: This is a great way to show off recent projects in your area).
- Polls: Ask your readers a question and instruct them to click a link to answer. Depending on their answer, the link will lead to a fun GIF that shows your reaction! Like this:
Have you ever included a poll in your email?
(Go ahead and click both options to see what happens.)
YES!
Nope.
Get Started Today
dandelion marketing clients: Wanna start incorporating fun hooks in your email? Reach out and we can discuss what works best for your strategy. Not a dandelion marketing client? We’d love to help you grow your business through digital marketing.
