After what feels like the 100 Year April we’ve finally made it to May. Unfortunately, what should have been the most epic convergence of Cinco De Mayo and Taco Tuesday ended up landing in the midst of quarantines and bans on large groups. However, we’re still celebrating this day by providing you the recipe to a crowd-pleasing email campaign — essentially the 5-Layer Dip of your own digital marketing fiesta.
First, a quick recap of why email should be the staple of any marketing mix. No, it’s not as sexy as Instagram influencers or as cutting edge as TikTok ads but it has lasted the test of time and that’s because it’s incredibly effective! For many companies, this medium has a better ROI than any of their other channels. HubSpot reported that on average, every $1 spent on email marketing generates $38 in revenue. Can you imagine!? It’s like spending a buck and getting 38 delicious tacos in return – total no brainer.
It also continues to work through ups and downs because people USE email! Again, HubSpot found that 99% of consumers check their emails EVERY DAY – sometimes many many many times a day. This fact makes email even more important now since your customers aren’t walking past your door or driving past your billboard. They are, however, relying on digital channels to be their gateway to the world.
Alright, enough convincing you that email is still a workhorse, let’s get into the recipe to make your next email send a success.
Layer 1 – Know and Segment Your List.
Every recipe depends on a strong base to prevent you from serving up swill. For email, this means having a solid list. Ideally, you know more about your email subscribers than just their email addresses. No, you shouldn’t know their hopes and dreams but you hopefully know their name, whether they bought from you before and what they bought. You also may know which location they frequent or even their birthday. Knowing this info and being able to subdivide your list into segments can be really powerful! You can make sure that your offer gets in front of the appropriate people and that you don’t annoy those on your list who won’t appreciate it. Think about it in terms of salsa heat – if you know that someone is into chasing their chips & dip with a gallon of ice-cold milk then serve them the ghost pepper-laced salsa. Then leave the pico de gallo for those that don’t eat Tums for dessert.
Layer 2 – Make Your Content Scannable/Easily Digestible.
People have a little more time on their hands these days, but that doesn’t mean they want to be emailed the entirety of War And Peace. Create content that is easy to read by leveraging headers, highlighting text, and using bullet points and short sentences to get your message across as quickly as possible. If you have a lot to say on a topic, give a little intro in the email then encourage users to click through to your website to read more. We’re going for the content equivalent of a tequila shot, not a 24oz Corona here.
And serve them nothing but the good stuff! Make sure your content is worth reading by providing helpful insights, best practices, and useful information so your customer continues to open your emails.
Layer 3 – Subject Lines DO Matter.
You created engaging and exciting content tailor-made for your email segment – but it can be all for naught if your subject line doesn’t get them to open your email! People’s inboxes are full, and you only have a quick second to catch their attention. Keep the subject line short but descriptive – Campaign Monitor recommends 5 words or less! Experiment with personalization or emojis to help your message resonate. And then don’t forget about the preview text – this can really help support your subject line and provide more context.
We also highly recommend writing a few subject lines and testing them. Most email services make it easy to run A/B tests and this helps give you some actual data on what works for your audience.
Layer 4 – Proof. Then Proof Again.
Like our tequila, we want our emails to be 110 proof. Nothing is worse than working hard on an email to then have broken link, grammatical mistake, or confusing messaging — except maybe scrambling to send a follow-up “oops we’re sorry” email. If you’re the writer, email developer, and sender we HIGHLY recommend that you ask someone who hasn’t been involved in creating the email to proof it for you. Have your proofer read every word and click on EVERYTHING. It’s really easy to forget to update something like a photo link, especially if you used an old email as a template. It’s always worth taking a few extra minutes to make sure what’s going out is the best representation of your brand.
Layer 5 – Tag It and Track It.
Back at the beginning, we told you the average ROI for emails was 3800% — how did those companies know that? Because they tracked their emails! The key to tracking is actually tagging your email links with UTM parameters, or a code added to a URL that provides Google Analytics click source details. This may sound scary and hard, but for many email providers like MailChimp and CampaignMonitor, they have the ability to do this baked into their program. Once an email is tagged, you’ll be able to see traffic and conversions generated by your email. You can then leverage this data to see what email promotions or content really drive the results you need.
With these 5 tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating great email marketing campaigns but if you need more guidance, we’re here to help! Contact us today.
Oh, and if this post made you hungry for 5-Layer Dip, here’s a quick recipe from Allrecipes!
- 1 ½ cups refried beans
- 1 ¾ cups guacamole
- 1 ½ cups sour cream
- 1 (8 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese
- 2 tomatoes, diced
Directions
- Heat refried beans in a microwave-safe bowl in a microwave oven until hot, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes. Spread beans onto the bottom of a serving platter; refrigerate until the beans are cooled completely, about 10 minutes.
- Spread guacamole in a layer atop the beans. Spread sour cream atop the guacamole. Sprinkle cheese over the sour cream; top with tomatoes.
- Cover platter with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
- Serve with tortilla chips.
And happy Cinco de Mayo!