Why Your Email Marketing Software Matters

Recently, after a nightmarish email marketing campaign went completely wrong, I was given the task of designing and testing email marketing programs for my employer. I was promoted to a senior marketing position in a company whose email marketing campaigns produce billions of dollars.

For those who don’t know a lot about email marketing, the trick of email marketing campaigns is to get the prospective customer to open the email. Most people get too much email these days and they’re selective about opening and reading emails. So I needed to find the right responsive email template fast, among other things.

Which email marketing software is the best?

I asked friends which email marketing programs they like and, without naming names, found two out of three were too complicated to use. Uploaded email lists got lost, emails were sent out with quirky subjects, or AB and split testing were far too complex.

My finalist email marketing services provider is (drum roll, please) GetResponse because: 1) the email marketing software is easy to use without watching videos or spending hours on the phone with customer service; 2) the autoresponder worked perfectly; and 3) there were no glitches.

New email marketing system

I’m now very popular in St. Louis due to a technology error of a popular email marketing system. One of my first post-promotion tasks involved using the company’s existing service to send an email to thousands of our St. Louis, Missouri customers. Although I tested two emails to confirm the most effective, the final email was sent with my name as the subject.  So I switched to GetResponse fast.

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A lot of people emailed about the subject line instead of our wonderful offer, and a few calls were received about how funny the email was! Except I wasn’t trying to send a funny email and my supervisor didn’t think the email marketing system error was funny at all. Fortunately, the service provider confirmed that the mistake was theirs, and they offered to compensate my employer for the mistake!

Email Marketing Tips

I realized some time ago that the trick to getting emails read is to target people who want to hear from us. So we only send emails to people who opt-in to receive these messages. Some of the ways to get people to click on a link once they’ve opened the email include:

Great images. The Internet is less about words and more about images. Don’t make the mistake of sending an all-text email.

Design matters. Well-designed HTML has greater eye appeal than plain text.

Gifts. It’s important to give the reader something in the email. For instance, a special discount or free gift motivates people to buy now.

Writing quality. Emails should be short and well-written. There should always be a call to action at the close of the email. Although images, design, and price matters, email recipients are turned off by mistakes in grammar, spelling, or…subject line.

Regular contact. People buy more when they hear from you. Schedule an email or newsletter campaign once a month. (But don’t email too often. There’s a fine line between contact and spam!) Always give respondents the ability to unsubscribe.

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Rasha

Rasha writes about family, parenting, and home décor for Unfinished Man. Drawing from her experiences raising her own kids, she provides tips on creating warm, welcoming spaces. Rasha also shares home staging expertise to help transform houses into magazine-worthy dream homes.

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