Tips for Effective Email Marketing

Whether you’re an author, publisher or anyone else, good old email still works to get your message out. You just can’t send it the same old way.

9 out of 10 people read email, while just 6 in 10 hang out on social media. Chances are 1 in 5 a reader will act on an email message, as opposed to 1 in 100 on Facebook and a scant 0.3% on Twitter.

That’s according to interactive marketing expert Jessica Best. The folks at Digital Book World asked her to speak at their recent conference on discoverability and marketing because, in today’s world, email is needed for both.

Jessica says you can’t just send out “one big email” any more. You need to target like a laser beam, using the recipient’s first name if possible. Also, as she told The Durable Human, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Mini animations called “animated GIFs” are a great way to grab eyeballs. For Helzberg Diamonds, sales exploded when they sent out an email with an animated GIF of the recipient’s name swinging from a charm bracelet.

But the glitz will be for naught if the recipient can’t open your email. Design your message to display on any device, whether desk top or smart phone. Jessica says keep it “short and skimmable,” with a mix of images and text. The words in your message may be nothing more than just a brief “teaser” linking to the full content on your site or blog.

Using Mail Chimp or some other email service provider can tell you such things as who opens your email, what subject lines work better, and which links have the highest click-through rate.

For much more on email marketing, check out Jessica’s blog and these sessions at the upcoming Digital Book World Conference + Expo:

• Tuesday, January 15: Pre-Conference Workshop: Driving Discoverability, Engagement & Sales in Publishing
• Thursday, January 17: Going Direct: Best Practices for Direct-to-Consumer Sales and Marketing