Email marketing is a tool that every business owner should utilize to build brand awareness, customer loyalty, and lead generation. But it isn’t as simple as launching a campaign every month and hoping for the best, and there certainly isn’t a one size fits all approach to developing a strategy that actually gets more customers in the door. Your product is unique, your customer base is unique and your email campaigns must be tailored to reflect the distinctiveness that is your brand and audience. It is important for business owners to develop and test every tool that they have at their disposal so that the strategy they use can be refined to reflect changes in technology and consumer culture. Email marketing is a tool with measurable results and in this day and age, it is imperative for business owners to regularly test their strategy to ensure that they are keeping up with their competitors. The key to getting the most out of email marketing is first understanding each element that makes up a single campaign, testing those elements regularly, and applying the information yielded to build an effective strategy.

1. MARKETING
BEST PRACTICES
EMAIL

2. Email marketing is a tool that every business owner should
utilize to build brand awareness, customer loyalty, and lead
generation. But it isn’t as simple as launching a campaign every
month and hoping for the best, and there certainly isn’t a one size
fits all approach to developing a strategy that actually gets more
customers in the door.
Your product is unique, your customer base is unique and your email campaigns must be
tailored to reflect the distinctiveness that is your brand and audience. It is important for
business owners to develop and test every tool that they have at their disposal so that the
strategy they use can be refined to reflect changes in technology and consumer culture.
Email marketing is a tool with measurable results and in this day and age, it is imperative
for business owners to regularly test their strategy to ensure that they are keeping
up with their competitors. The key to getting the most out of email marketing is first
understanding each element that makes up a single campaign, testing those elements
regularly, and applying the information yielded to build an effective strategy.
Source: Litmus.com
Why should business owners
invest so much of their time
in developing an effective
email strategy? The short
answer is, it works. The
numbers don’t lie.
72%prefer companies
to communicate
with them via email.
23%purposely leave their online
transactions pending in an
attempt to take advantage of any
coupons they can obtain from
retailers before closing the sale.
25.1%of all transactions carried-out on
Black Friday were driven by email
marketing in 2015.

3. As a productive person in 2016, you probably receive a ton of emails every day. Few
people have the time (or care enough) to open every email they receive. There might
have even been an instance in which you were so swamped that you ignored an email
from your own mother.
SUBJECT LINES
In this day and age, it is imperative
that your subject line is able to
captivate the recipient while
maintaining brevity. If the person
receiving your email feels as though
their time is being wasted from the
get-go, why would they bother to
explore your message further?
A high open rate is indicative
of a successful email marketing
campaign, but more importantly,
it is the benchmark of a business
owner that understands their
customer base.
Picture yourself sifting through
a bunch of personal emails on a
Monday following a week-long
vacation. You haven’t bothered to
check your Gmail account because
you were busy soaking in the sun
and sipping on margaritas without a
care in the world.
Now it’s Monday. You’re back at
work putting out several fires that
have occurred during your getaway,
you’re trying to muster up the
courage to take a look at your bank
account and you finally have found
a moment for a bite to eat. As you
sift through your emails on your
5-minute lunch break, are you going
to find the time for an email with
a subject line like, “FREE, FREE,
TOTALLY FREE!!!!” The answer is,
presumably, a resounding “no way
in hell.”

4. So what could catch your eye on a day like this? Here are a few subject lines that we think broke
the mold and could yield a highly coveted open from a hypothetical sad-sack such as yourself:
Don’t Open This Email
– Manicube
You’re Missing
Out on Points
– JetBlue
Let’s go back to exasperated, hypothetical you on that foreboding Monday afternoon.
This subject line is ambiguously titillating and is likely to make you stop sobbing into your
sandwich and say, “Wait, what?” This subject line also works because it tells us not to do
something. As humans, we have an innate impulse to defy a vague, inexplicable order. The
success of this subject line hinges on the wager that most people will see it, pause, and say
“I’ll open whatever email I want, Manicube. Don’t tell me how to live my life”.
What Can You Afford?
– Zillow This subject line is effective because it stimulates the recipients’ emotions.
It holds up a mirror to the person who finds it in their inbox and immediately
puts them on the defensive. It also evokes a feeling of urgency. “What can I
afford?” they may ask themselves, puzzled and intrigued. This subject line is
a great example of inciting interest without giving too much away.
Humans are inherently self-interested. Your subject line should function as a promise
that is delivered by the message of your broadcast. A subject line that implies the
recipient is missing out on something is likely to illicit a feeling that justice has been
miscarried and more importantly, prompts an involuntary urge within them to act
now to ensure that they receive what they deserve.

5. What these examples have in common is that they are unique, and they reflect their
creators’ extensive knowledge of the consumer’s psyche. We are insecure, defiant,
curious, and passionate and hate feeling like we are not in the proverbial loop, or
being short-changed.
It is your job as a business owner to play on those universal characteristics and use
it your advantage.

6. It is easy to allow the content of your email campaign become
the predominant concern during the design process after
all, as long as customers see that your offer will be of some
benefit to them, who has time to worry about the colors and
fonts that are used? Just get the point of the broadcast across
to your customers and you are on Easy Street, right?
Wrong! Your email campaign should be aesthetically
appealing and draw customers in with your choice of colors,
images and fonts. Emails that look outdated or are flat-out
ugly will cause recipients to question the legitimacy of the
offer and your business as a whole. Your customers are
constantly inundated with advertisements from billion dollar
companies that can afford to pay the best designers to create
top-of-the-line visual content. You want the recipients of your
emails to consider your business one of the top dogs, and it all
starts with your design!
An email that is carefully designed and strategically arranged
will get your point across and as a bonus, suggest to the
recipient that your business is all about professionalism.
There are a number of important factors to consider regarding
the design of your email marketing campaign, but there are
some basic guidelines that can be followed when it comes to
color, font choice and the images that you choose.
DESIGN

7. Digital marketing is about creating brand recognition. In an
ideal world, customers would see an email from your business
in their inbox and say to themselves, “Yes! I love that place – I
am going there right now to give them my money!”
Unfortunately, we live in the real world, and customers are
always skeptical of an offer, sale or discount. This “What’s the
catch?” mentality is what makes branding and consistency
so important when it comes to digital marketing. While it is
hard to become trusted enough that customers immediately
suspend their disbelief when they receive an email from your
business, strategic design can make you more familiar in their
eyes and keep your brand fresh in their brains. This is where
color comes into play.
When choosing the right colors to use for a broadcast, you
must consider your own branding. You want the primary
colors that are being used to reflect the colors that are
immediately associated with your business. This may seem
like a no-brainer, but it is easy to allow details, such as an up-
coming holiday or the offer itself, to muddy the waters of your
branded design.
We aren’t saying that different colors should never be used –
you should have fun with your designs and use colors to your
advantage so that your email pops! But it is important that
there is an element of brand consistency in every broadcast so
that customers recognize your business from the jump.
Another good rule of thumb is to keep it simple when it comes
to your color scheme. Although all of the colors of the rainbow
are beautiful, try to stick to three or four colors at the most.
Don’t allow your color scheme to overshadow the content of
your email!
COLOR

8. This example exemplifies the use of color to
promote Sysco’s brand while still using vibrant
images to draw the recipient’s attention.
Notice the separation between sections that are
predominantly blue and green and the sections
that feature a multitude of colors. This allows for
an interesting, eye-catching broadcast that isn’t
saturated with too much color.

9. The use of color-branding in this
example is much more subtle than
the previous example, but it still
follows a similar formula.
The colors in the logo are
represented minimally at the top,
but then in the “Daily Events”
section (the section we are most
likely to notice last) the colors
are revisited. This is effective
because instead of merely listing
the events, the colors remind the
recipient of the brand.

10. Choosing the correct font is another
pivotal aspect of email design that is often
overlooked. The legibility of your message
is of the importance! Choosing a font is
about finding the perfect balance between
readability, emphasis when appropriate, and
reinforcing brand recognition.
Using too many fonts will distract and
inhibit the message of the email from being
understood. If your customers are distracted
by your font choices, it is unlikely that they
will take the time to savor the meat and
potatoes of your email campaign. Your main
goal is to get the reader to focus on the
content in front of them.
It is best to limit your font to two different
styles, creating an aesthetic hierarchy. This
allows recipients to quickly glance at the
email and understand the main point of the
marketing material.
The first font style should be considered your
headline font. Its purpose is to get the main
point across to the email recipient. Phrases
like, Buy one, get one free, and 50% off, will
be written using the headline font. This text
will exist to get the recipient’s attention and
urge them to investigate your broadcast
further. Headlines will typically be larger,
bolder, and relatively more emphasized. The
font you choose for your headline should
also be easy to read. Your customer is not
going to take any extra time than they see fit
to decipher your message.
The second font style will be your body,
or complimentary font. This font style will
be used to include any details that are
secondary. The idea is that the recipient will
immediately notice the primary message and
understand the layout of the email based
on the arrangement of the information. The
way blocks of text are arranged in an email is
referred to as readability.
Remember that contrast is your friend!
Utilizing space and different font styles is
a good way to ensure that your message
is being conveyed clearly in an efficient
manner. If a customer understands your
message, they’re more likely to pay attention
to your brand.
FONT

11. SERIF VS. SANS SERIF
Serif fonts are those which have lines added
to the edges of letters. Times New Roman is
an example of a serif font.A
Sans serif fonts are those that do not have
lines added to the edges of letters. Calibri is
an example of a sans serif font.A
Sans serif fonts translate better on the web due to the fact that the text is being viewed on a computer monitor
which only has a screen resolution of 100 dots per inch. Sans serif fonts are easier to read on a computer because
they translate better in small sizes than serif fonts.
For the most part, it is best to stick to using sans serif fonts for email campaigns, especially for headline text.

12. This use of alternating texts with different
weights is effective in this broadcast because
our eyes are immediately directed to the
phrase “save money.” There is less weight on
the phrase “with these specials” and then we
naturally look at the coupons below.
The various services that are offered are
displayed in a much smaller font. Even though
these menial details are displayed at the very
top of the broadcast, this designer’s font
choices dictate where our eyes are drawn.

13. The use of font in this email is effective
because the first thing you see is, “Pick a
Cord. Any Cord.” This grabs your attention.
The use of contrast with the smaller,
italicized “See what’s new in corduroy,” and
bringing back the more commanding font for
the call to action is an effective use of space
and emphasis in smart places.
The arrangement of the different font choices
in this broadcast is effective because we are
naturally drawn to the main message of the email
– “Give Blood.” We then notice the supplementary
message of, “Do something amazing today.”
This works because we immediately understand
the point of the broadcast, and recipients that
are interested will more than likely add to this
campaign’s click through rate.

14. One of the more rewarding aspects of
designing an email campaign is seeking
out the perfect image to accompany
your content. A good image for an email
marketing campaign has the ability to
compliment the text and entice the
recipient. When you include an image
in an email marketing campaign, you
should do so in an attempt to bring your
content to life, and you should be careful
not to allow an image to detract from
your message.
The perfect image is often illusive, and
it is sometimes even harder to use the
image correctly when it is identified.
Whatever image you choose, you should
try to remember the value of simplicity.
One focal point that embodies the
message you are trying to convey will
suffice.
The placement of an image within an
email can make or break your campaign
as a whole. For instance, you never want
a single image to take up the entire top
half of the email. It should be seamlessly
blended with your logo and the main
selling point of your email campaign. You
want the image to be tied to your brand
and supplement the call to action.
IMAGES

15. Images have the ability evoke emotion in the
recipient and are an important part of email
marketing today. The right image doesn’t just
strengthen your content; it can define your brand.
A timeless marketing-practice is the use of human
beings to sell a product. We like to be able to
identify with what we are seeing. We like to say,
“Hey, that guy’s just like me! Strikingly handsome,
strong, intelligent and he likes…Folger’s Coffee…I
love Folger’s Coffee!” Using people to market your
product humanizes your business.
However, there is an art to including people in your
broadcasts. The goal is to guide the recipient’s eye
to your message. An effective practice is arranging
the image so that the person included in your email
is facing the offer. Again, the idea is to guide the
recipients’ eyes – not distract.

16. The fact is, the bells and whistles of your marketing campaign are useless without a compelling message. If your broadcasts
are devoid of well-written content, you will begin to notice your number of opens diminish along with your contact list.
It is important to keep in mind who you are writing for – your customers! This may seem like an obvious, benign, or even
irrelevant reminder, but writing good email copy hinges on this way of thinking. A good rule of thumb is to write in the second
person as much as possible. Making references to the customer and alluding to what they are going to get by acknowledging
your broadcast is key. Which sounds better to you?
COPY
EXAMPLE 1
“Our chili can wash away the Winter Blues! Moving
Targets Chili is made with only the finest ingredients
that we hand prepare on-site daily. Now until the end
of February, enjoy a bowl for just $2.99!”
EXAMPLE 2
“Warm up this winter with our Chili! You can save
$3.00 on a bowl of Chili now until the end of February!
We know you care about quality, which is why our chili
is made with only the finest ingredients.”
How to write for email: At this point, you may be thinking to yourself,
“Alright, alright we get it. The goal is to draw the recipient’s attention to
your message. Are you ever going to talk about the freaking message!?!”
Example 1 is hell-bent on talking up the brand,
while Example 2 focuses on the customer.
Example 2 demonstrates to the recipient why the
broadcast should be of interest to them, while
Example 1 assumes an air of, “We’re the best. You
should already know that.” By writing directly
to the recipient, you are appealing to his/her
self-interested tendencies. You are telling them,
“Here is what we want to give you,” rather than
“Here is what we have.”

17. Brevity is also an important aspect of copywriting for an
email marketing campaign. The main message of your
broadcast should be conveyed quickly and smoothly.
Business owners are often tempted to try and cram an entire
novel into their broadcast; after all, we need to convey the
whole message, right?
Most people will merely skim an email in search of an
important point to determine whether or not they need to
take action. The main message of your broadcast should
actually be a summary of what your customer is going to
receive. Of course it is important to include details, but
the goal is to pique the recipient’s interest enough so that
they feel compelled to explore your message further. This is
where links are your friends! If there are a lot of stipulations
that need to be noted in your message, provide a link to your
landing page with relevant information included. If you can
direct a sizable amount of your customers to the website for
more information, your copy was effective!

18. CALL TO ACTION
WARNING: The following paragraph may or may not (it
does) contain a trite marketing cliché. Possible side effects
include intense eye-rolling and vomiting. Just humor us for
crying out loud!
Sending an email marketing campaign can be looked at as
fishing. The ocean in which you are trying to catch a juicy
flounder represents your customer database and the big,
juicy fish swimming around represent your customers! So
far, we tied the hook (created a compelling subject line),
baited the line (developed a strong design), cast the line
(composed effective copy and successfully conveyed a
message that the recipient understands), and got a bite
(customers are opening our campaign). Congratulations –
the flounder, stripers, and cod are clamoring for what is on
the end of your fishing pole! Now, all we need to do is reel-
in our customer and reap the benefits of our successful
campaign. This is where our call-to-action comes into play!
Pedestrian metaphors aside, including an easily
identifiable call-to-action is a simple, yet pivotal step
that can make your email marketing campaign infinitely
stronger. You don’t want to successfully gain the
recipient’s attention to the point that they understand
your message, only to leave them sitting there puzzled,
wondering “Yeah, I get that…but so what? What now?”

19. This is an example of an effective call-to-
action. The button provided is large, the
verbiage is concise, and it is a clear message
to the recipient that action is required.
When creating a call-to-action, it is best
to avoid generalizations. For instance, a
less effective choice of words would be
something like, “More Details,” or “Learn
More.” The call-to-action should be a short,
yet definitive statement to the customer.
In Nursery School, the rule was always,
“Don’t boss others around. Don’t tell
people what to do.” Creating a call-to-
action requires the opposite. Be sure to
boss people around and tell them what to
do when implementing a call-to-action.
The call-to-action should act as a brief
instruction that directs your recipient to
the right place.

20. CLICK THROUGH RATES
The click through rate of an email campaign is a
calculation of the percentage of recipients who
received a broadcast that actually bit (there’s that
ground breaking fishing analogy again!) on your call to
action and clicked on a link.
The same way that a high open rate is indicative
of a strong subject line, a high click through rate
demonstrates that a particular campaign has efficient
copy writing and a strong call-to-action. Examining your
click through rate allows you to audit your campaigns
because it provides you with a concrete figure regarding
the number of subscribers that find your marketing
content to be useful.
As an email marketer, it is important to scrutinize
readily available statistics, because it is often the most
accurate appraisal of what works, and what doesn’t.

21. AUTORESPONDERS
Why it’s important for customers to opt in
With regard to the debate between digital marketing
experts about the merits of social media marketing vs. email
marketing, the former has been lauded as the proverbial
“Golden Child” for several years. However, there is something
inherently intimate about an individual’s personal email
account that just doesn’t seem to apply equally to their social
media accounts.
To subscribe to a business’s email list is a major declaration
of trust and allegiance. In the eyes of your run-of-the-mill
customer, it is his or her way of saying, “I’ve used or consumed
your product(s) at least once. I didn’t absolutely hate it the
one or more times I used or consumed your product(s). I will
allow you to occasionally bother me, the most important
person in the world, via email. I, the most important person
in the world, can’t promise that I won’t completely forget
that I subscribed to your email list a month after doing so and
become inconsolable when I receive exactly what I signed up
for in my inbox.”
All kidding and pent-up animosity aside, it really is a vote
of confidence in a business’s product when a customer
subscribes to receive emails from that business. This is why
email marketing experts choose to set up autoresponders.

22. Aside from the fact that
autoresponders save email
marketers a ton of time (could
you imagine sending a “thanks for
subscribing” email manually every
time a new customer signed up?),
autoresponders show the customer
gratitude for their decision to sign
up for your email list and often
reward them for that decision.
It is also a warm introduction to
your brand that will familiarize
your customer early-on in your
relationship.
Autoresponders are pre-scheduled
emails that are sent automatically
when a particular action or trigger
is performed by a user involving his
or her email address. Your customer
should receive an autoresponder like
this one shortly after they sign up for
your email list.

23. Giving subscribers the opportunity to opt in
perpetuates a feeling of trust in your business and
legitimizes your email marketing to them. It’s your
way of saying, “Thanks for signing up! We only want
to send emails to people who want to receive them,
so confirm your subscription.”
Many businesses like to include an offer when they
gain a new subscriber to appreciation for signing up.
This email is a good example of this tactic.

24. LANDING PAGES
Landing pages can be extremely useful when they are implemented
effectively. Landing pages allow you to showcase your products,
draw customers to your website, and provide customers with a
more comprehensive explanation of your email copy.
Landing pages are useful, for example, if you are promoting a
particular event that requires a reservation.

25. The use of this landing page is effective because it is short and
sweet and it directly refers to the call-to-action. The email
recipient has clicked on the text that says, “Make a reservation!”
Unless the recipient is redirected to a page that unequivocally
corresponds with the call-to-action, they are unlikely to stick
around and search for the necessary form to make a reservation
for the dinner.
For instance, if the link redirected to the restaurant’s homepage
instead of the reservation page, the average user would feel as
though they needed to go the extra mile to actually make the
reservation. More than likely, this would result in a significantly
lower conversion rate for this offer. A simple landing page that
caters to a short attention span and lack of patience is key.
The Email
The Landing Page

26. TESTING
Email marketing is such an amazing tool for
businesses to utilize for a number of reasons.
One of the main reasons, however, is the
fact that multiple aspects of your marketing
strategy can be tested, allowing you to make
adjustments based on reliable data.

27. A/B Testing is an effective method for testing
your online marketing strategies because it
allows you to test separate elements of particular
campaigns, identify the most effective strategies,
and combine them. You can test images, calls-to-
action, subject lines, design style, landing pages,
and even the format of your broadcast.
Suppose for instance, you wanted to test one
subject line against another. The first subject line
might be, “Product A on Sale!” while the other
is “Discounts on Product A.” Tracking the open
rate each subject line yields will determine which
subject line is more effective.
Analyzing your statistics is the first step in
determining what elements of your marketing
efforts should be tested. For instance, if you
happen to notice that click through rates are
down, the most logical conclusion would be an
A/B test for your call-to-action.
A/B TESTING

28. Based on research conducted by emailmonday.com in
2015, 15 to 70% of email opens will be recorded from a
tablet or smartphone.
This changing of the guard dictates that email
marketers must adjust and be prepared to design
email campaigns so that they are viewable on all
platforms. This adjustment can be referred to as
responsive design.
Responsive design uses media queries to ensure
that size adjustments are made to images, text,
and other elements of your broadcast accordingly
so that your message gets across to the recipient
the way that it is intended to appear.
This change effects the way campaigns are
designed. For example, before the integration of
mobile email, marketers only needed to account
for the design on a desktop platform. As long as
the images and fonts were proportionate on a
desktop, customers would have no problem viewing
their campaign. Now, font and image size must respond
to several different email platforms and different sizes
of smartphones and tablets.
TESTING RESPONSIVE DESIGN
One of the most important aspects of testing you will conduct is ensuring
that your broadcasts are translating on a mobile or tablet platform.

29. We suggest that email marketers test their
campaigns using one of the many email
testing services available for free online.
Most of these services typically provide the
user with an image of how their broadcast
will appear on nearly every desktop email
application, but how the email will appear
on smartphones and tablets as well.

30. Social media has been instrumental in the growth of email
marketing and has been a catalyst in business owners’
ability to grow their email database faster than ever before.
If you are a business owner that sends email marketing
campaigns and are not taking advantage of social media
advertising to yield new subscribers, you are missing out!
The future is now!
Particularly, Facebook offers a Custom Audience feature
which allows business owners to reach a much larger group
of potential subscribers. The way this feature functions
is simple: a business owner simply uploads a spreadsheet
containing their contact database. The business owner then
tailors their own Facebook-generated custom audience by
incorporating stipulating characteristics such as interests,
age, and location. Facebook will then be able to create a
“lookalike” audience that shares characteristics with your
existing database.
Once this process is complete, the business owner will
create a Facebook ad to target these lookalike leads. The ad
will provide them with a link that directs them to a landing
page where the new potential customer may subscribe to
the business’s email list.
List-building tools such as the custom audience feature
in Facebook is a new step in integrating email and social
media marketing to work together. The merger of these two
marketing platforms is an invaluable innovation that every
smart business over should attempt to take advantage of.
Your database is never big enough, so you should use any
tool at your disposal to bolster your contact list!
USING DATA FOR SOCIAL ADVERTISING

31. Effective email marketing can accomplish a number of
things for your business. It informs your customers and
demonstrates that you care about them, and it keeps your
brand fresh in their minds. Most importantly, it has the ability
to get more customers in the door and keep your business
booming! Creating a marketing strategy that works well for
your business is crucial in this day and age, and it is important
to ensure that you are appealing to the sensibilities of the
modern consumer.
A successful email campaign is a relatively cost-effective
resource that any business owner can use to grow their brand
and build loyalty amongst their customers. An effective email
campaign can also be the difference between 20 and 50
customers that decide to make a purchase!

32. Something else we can help you with?
Just ask, cheers@movingtargets.com
We love marketing, we do this every day.

33. Veteran Experience.
Modern Perspective.
movingtargets.com
800.926.2451