Email is one of the most competitive marketing channels out there. In the email marketing space, almost everything has been thoroughly tried, tested, and repackaged time and time again to sell, sell, sell! So how do you achieve something that will break through the inbox clutter?
Alexandra Marin is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Code Crew, an Email Marketing firm founded in Oakland, CA. Their specialty is delivering data-driven results to clients from any industry. At CodeCrew, Alexandra has found that the key to winning your audience over is all about following your heart.
Ignore the Noise
As AI emerges from the virtual shadows with promises of making everything easier by generating high-quality, targeted content, the battle of the inbox is getting more and more interesting.
Picture yourself as a brand trying to make it in this crazily competitive environment. By resorting to the same marketing methods your feisty competitors are already using, you can’t expect your subscribers to pick YOU from the noisy, loud, and overly excited crowd.
Perhaps it’s time to take a deep breath, block out the noise, and remove yourself from the whirlwind of confusion. Close your eyes and allow yourself to receive the answer you seek. Now that everything has been silenced and your breathing is relaxed, what do you hear? The sound of your heart beating. And that’s exactly the answer you’ve been looking for. It’s what your email marketing has been missing all along.
If you want to convince your audience that your services or products are what they really need, then you must put your heart into your messaging. Telling your brand’s story in every email campaign you send will make each touch subscribers receive both unique and authentic.
Design With Your Heart
So, you’re probably wondering how in the world you’re supposed to do this. Well, it’s honestly pretty simple. Think of email marketing as a way to establish a relationship between you and your audience. You have to make an impression and put your best self out there while staying true to your core values.
Designing with heart means taking the time and putting in the effort to identify and understand your customers’ real needs. Then making sure that the content is presented in a way that becomes instantly identifiable to customers, allowing your brand to truly stand out from the crowd.
In today’s overly crowded environment, the only way to create a strong brand identity is to run in the opposite direction of templatised designs, and move towards layouts that are truly unique and self-expressing in their visual representation.
Work with a designer or an agency that is willing to take the time to learn who you are and find the ideal creative solution to communicate your individuality to your audience. You’ll never truly connect with your subscribers with soulless templates or, as they’re known in design, clones. No matter how interesting something is, the moment you start repeating it, it loses all its impact.
Rather opt for the more complex (but ultimately more rewarding) path and design every layout from scratch. Aim to send high-quality creatives that give life to catchy, personalised content in order to get your audience to engage.
Basic Tenets of Design
Follow these tried-and-tested design basics to unlock your email’s true potential and connect with your subscribers:
Want them to click that Call-to-Action?
Slap your CTA on a hero image that’s so visually delicious it’s impossible to refuse.
Want them to keep scrolling?
Invest in a professional photo shoot to ensure that your products or services look sharper than a double-edged sword.
Want them to take you seriously?
Consider working with a design team that loves making the best of whatever assets they have at hand. Be cautious of those who take shortcuts!
Want to make the dream work?
Put some TLC into your teamwork. Putting love into your business means putting love into every part of the process – from design and copywriting all the way through to coding. Building a long-standing bond with your team and your audience will take notice.
Want a long-term relationship?
Keep the level of creativity and diversity up, and never compromise the quality of what you put out there. Designs should stay fresh and fun to browse. Catchy, beautiful creative layouts play a vital role in keeping conversion rates high. They also highlight important content, ensuring that your subscribers never miss a good deal.
Creativity Comes From Within
You already have everything you need to create breathtaking emails. Just remember to block out the noise, open yourself up to inspiration, and follow your heart. Authenticity is key to creativity which, in turn, is paramount in effective email marketing.
