How to ensure you achieve the best results with your email marketing campaign - Lina Berndtsson, Marketing Expert at SmartFocus

Sometimes we try to fit too much in. Several factors play a role, but it is essential to not overlook the content and call to action in messages.

So what are the best options to ensure you get a good conversion rate from your emails? Keep it simple and implement easy and appealing call to action points to drive click-throughs.

Get all elements of your email to work together – great content, good subject lines and clear call to actions, that combined will increase your opens and clicks.

Make sure your call to action works. Here are a few pointers on effective call to action points:

Use a good combination and balance of both images and text in your emails

Make it fairly simple and you can use persuasive ‘action’ words to get the consumer further towards your landing page/website

Call to action words are important to think about to drive your clicks. Useful examples; Order yours here, Download now, Buy now, Sign up today, Compare prices here, Get your free trial now

Make the call to action stand out, making it an obvious and easy choice

Do not use too many links, instead make the ones you have clear. You don’t want a messy and confusing email for the customer, which might drive them away

Use a sense of urgency. To engage with the client and also get a speedy reaction - time sensitive actions can be a fun and good idea. Including countdown timers or time specific voucher codes are a great way of realising this. Develop the idea to use something specific to your brand. You can use various designs such as a countdown clock to a certain event, promotion etc.

Increase brand awareness. Build up further awareness of your brand with your customers - create a ‘we’ feeling which increases engagement and loyalty.

Make it fun and exciting so the customer can’t resist to engage. Making a video, sending a special message to a friend are also options that will help spread your brand awareness to new potential customers.

Burberry partnered with Google to spread their word across the globe. It was an email experience powered by smartphones that allowed people to send ’sealed’ virtual kisses to friends and loved ones. You had to kiss your smartphone’s screen – the image was then emailed including your own personalised message.

You could easily open it on any device and its super sharp brand awareness encouraged sharing on social and with friends and family.

Give something away and % off promotions. Promotions can lead to more click-throughs and further involvement/purchasing activity from the customer. This tactic can be especially useful for reactivation campaigns.

Collect more information about your customer. Use promotions as different steps of filling out a profile – rewarding the customer along the way.

Adding these elements to your email marketing strategy will boost your email effectiveness this Christmas and well into the New Year without requiring a large investment in money or time.

Lina Berndtsson is a marketing expert at SmartFocus. SmartFocus is an innovator in messaging and communications, enabling the world’s largest brands – including Nestlé, Mercedes-Benz and House of Fraser – to understand and connect more closely with today’s connected consumers; whether that be via web, mobile, email or social channels. Through The Message Cloud solution, SmartFocus genuinely listens to and learns from customers using patented algorithms and unique location-based marketing tools. Using The Message Cloud, SmartFocus customers have the rich data, intelligence and the tools for contextually unique engagements, through any digital channel. http://www.smartfocus.com/