This week I spent some quality time training with our email marketing partner, Constant Contact. While I already knew most of these best practices, there were some great simple tips I’d love to share. After all, it’s the little things you do with your marketing that can make a huge impact!
1. Use 1-2 fonts | 3-4 colors MAX
Less is more. Simple and clean is in. Distracting bright colors and fonts difficult to read are out. Use the same font and pull colors from your website or logo to keep everything uniform if you can.
2. Include text in your header
A whopping 83% of images show up in users inboxes as blocked images. That being said, images are still important to include due to branding reasons, but Constant Contact highly recommends that you also include text with your company’s name.
3. Consider who the email is coming from in your company
There are 2 key reasons why the recipient chooses to open up an email. One of them is WHO is sending the email. Choose wisely. For example, if you are responsible for creating and sending out your company’s newsletter but new to the company, you may want to choose to select your CEO or other well known person representing your company’s brand. 60% of email is opened because of the who!
4. Subject line is key
The second key reason an email gets opened is directly related to the subject line. Did the title of this blog post catch your attention? I used a couple of tips as a matter of fact…I included an odd number AND a call to action ‘read this before you hit send’. Avoid the following: ALL CAPS, symbols $$#%, words like credit card, weight loss, sex or viagra. Your emails can get caught up in the spam or junk email if you do.
5. Try including video
Videos are the most clicked on content today! If you have video, use it! If you are using an email management solution like Constant Contact, it’s so easy to insert into your email newsletter. Just make sure it’s no longer than 2.5 minutes. (If you don’t have video yet I recommend connecting with Tony Smith at FRF Productions)
Do you have more tips that have worked in your email marketing efforts? Please share!
P.S. I have 2 awesome ‘secret’ tools to share exclusively with the first 3 people who leave a comment for me on this blog post OR send me a tweet to @michellefalling and include #secrettool in the message 
About Michelle Falling
Good ideas in this post – I’m interested in the “secret tools” as well.
Thank you, Kyle. I’ll send you a personal email note with links to the tools! Happy Friday!
Secret Tools!
And thank you for the great tips.
Tools on their way! You’re welcome, Melissa.
We sometimes prepare email blasts that are tall and need scrolling. For these we like to get the bulk of the message/offer in the top portion to avoid scrolling for the info. Thanks for your tips.
Great reminder, Troy, the most important part of our messaging should reside on top. You’re welcome and thanks for commenting!