This is a guest post written by Alex Slichnyi.

Some businesses have got their email marketing all worked out. They can send an email to the target audience safely knowing they will succeed in encouraging people to take the desired call to action; be that visiting their company website, making a purchase or simply reading the email and spreading awareness.

For other businesses, however, it is not uncommon for their emails to sit unopened in a potential customer’s inbox or find their way straight into the trash folder.

So, what is the difference between a good and a bad marketing email?

The most recent email marketing optimization hacks, with case studies to accompany them, outline what makes a successful email marketing campaign in order to see your coaching business emails get opened and convert visitors into paying clients.

Subject line

When it comes to the subject line of an email, you should keep it short. Generally, short, catchy, personalized subject lines work best. However, you should never bait users with any inaccurate information or false promises as this will lead to a fall in customer trust. 

‘From’ name

You should always make sure that the ‘from’ name of the email is similar to the email address that the email was sent from, and you shouldn’t use a no-reply email address as this has been shown to decrease the response rate.

Personalization

Use email personalization whenever you can by using the individual’s name or the company name, but make sure that you don’t use any inaccurate information, as this is likely to reduce the open rate of the email altogether.

Call to action

You should try to use actionable words in the majority of your marketing emails, such as ‘download now’ and ‘buy now,’ as these can prompt clients to take the desired action. However, you need to make sure you are not too wordy. You may also want to refrain from using the word 'free' in your copy, as this can set off alarm bells. Instead, opt for words like complimentary.

Images

On average, emails that have three images or less and around 20 lines of text will result in the highest click-through rate (CTR), but you should try not to make the image file too large, as this could result in email deliverability issues.

These are just a few of the dos and don’ts that can be found in the information provided by 99 firms. There is no denying that creating the perfect marketing email can be both time consuming and difficult, but by following the hacks you should have a better idea about what will be successful and what may not be.

About Alex Slichnyi

Alex Slichnyi, community manager at 99firms.com, is an avid learner of all things IT. He is a savvy SEO specialist who loves traveling because it allows him to experience hands-on the many facets of life. This hands-on approach can be seen in his work, which is meticulously crafted with daring vision by an open, yet methodical mind that likes to probe, test and improve. Communicating and learning are Alex's core values that drive him forward.