Email Optimization for beginners: Laying out a foundation

Hey everyone, first off I would like to apologize for the long break I seem to have taken from writing. It was really not anticipated, keeping up with publishing content while working your ass off at a job isn’t really something we plan for. That said, I promise to do my best to make sure I have relevant and rich content published here every week. So help me God 🙂

Alright, now that that is out of the way, let’s dig into today’s topic: Email optimization.

For every marketer, this topic might well be an old one, but I’m sure there are a few people out there who are just beginning this journey to email optimization. So this post is to help out that particular set, and frankly everyone, to gain a better standing from the start of that journey.

Something you should know about email, its permission based marketing. People sign up on your email list, giving you permission to market directly to them, don’t take that for granted because you could be out of their mail box faster that you came in. But anyone willing to be sincere with you would affirm that there is a lot of potential in email marketing, however tough the playing field has become, there still is a great potential. So not going after it is leaving money on the table which I’m sure you wouldn’t like to do. And so for every marketer already into or just starting out in email marketing, here are a few of my findings

 

Have a specific goal

There is nothing worse than a misguided marketer. Practically working your way into confusion can be a daunting task, and no matter how you may see it, working without a set goal in mind is just that. This may be increasing open rates and click through rate as is with my current optimization, or it may be increasing conversion rate, generating traffic or leads, increasing product feedback… The list is endless.

But come what may, if you have no end goal in mind, you’re lost in the dark and would probably end up getting lost in the spam folder. Quick heads up here, it’s best that your goals be in line with that of your company as a whole. Don’t be the stray dog and go your way. You’re just one part of a big machine, be sure you are moving in the right direction and order.

 

Get some ideas

As is with every science, you need a lot of information on the set problem before attempting to solve it if not you’re bound to get lost from the start. You need to know what exactly it is you’re going into, you would need documentations of past optimization tests run by professionals.

Without this knowledge, you would be like the first caveman to discover fire, a few months before that event, completely lost and unaware of the potential that lies within. I have found www.marketing experiments.com to be of great value to me. Im sure it would be the same to you.

 

Create a test template

Nothing works better than having a roadmap to follow. And not having one works in just the opposite way. To properly carry out optimization tests, you must have laid out several elements of the mail you would like to test. For example, the call to action, button types and color, subject line formats, use of image or text… these things have to already be in your arsenal if not you would wake up on morning and realize you have no idea what you should be doing today.

Personally, having a spreadsheet for this has helped me and my team to accomplish more. I would have uploaded a sample for you to use, but it’s still really messy and needs some cleaning up, so once I get the spreadsheet up to standard, you would have a free copy right here on this post.

Prepare for the worst

I’m assuming you know that there are bound to be disappointments, both planned and unplanned. You should always have this at the back of your mind, it’ll keep you in check when things go wrong. After all that’s why we are testing right, to know what we’re doing wrong and what we’re doing right.

 

With these few things you are well on your way to a ton of fun, testing stuff is always fun. I’ll be releasing other posts to further detail this topic. But for now, I’ll say good bye.

Thanks for dropping by today, feel free to sign up to get these posts right in your mail box.

Have a nice day people, and if you need my help for anything, my contact details are right here.

 

P.S. Thanks to my friend Chiamaka for *reminding* me to publish this post, and many others.