Every email you send should have a purpose.
Never send email just to check it off your to-do list.
When done right, email marketing can be more than 40% more effective than social media.
So how do you go about creating an email that makes an impact?
First you need to understand the four goals of every email. It’s important to understand that without each of these steps working
in tandem, you’ll never get them to the end goal.Think of it as a sequence of four triggers to move your viewer to the next stage.
Goal 1: Arrive in the inbox

Seems simple enough, but deliverability is a huge issue for company’s large and small. I’m working on another article about How to Increase Email Deliverability – I’ll link it here as soon as it’s published.
Here’s a quick overview:

1. Clean your list
   Remove unsubscribes, bounces, and clean out old emails that haven’t opened.
2. Test your email creative
   Use testing services like Email on Acid or Litmus
3. Avoid using spam words
   Here’s a list of 100 spam words you should avoid.

​We are bombarded with email daily. The average office worker receives 121 emails and sends around 40 per day.
You have three ways to affect the open rate:

1. From name
   You can test many different from names including: Different first and last name combos, First @ Company Name, Company Name, Blog or Product Name.
2. Subject line
   I love using this headline preferences survey to help me develop subject lines. My top tips: keep it short, use the word “you” in the first 3 words if possible, and don’t give away all the info, give them a reason to open.

1. Black Holes: Where you can’t see data and measure results.
2. Inefficiencies: Where things are taking far too long than they should.
3. Dropped balls: Where customers are complaining.
4. Small wins: Where you’re seeing success now.

Identifying what’s really going on in your organization

1. You have two audiences
   It’s important to note as you try to identify missed opportunities that you need to focus on two audiences: those outside your organization (customers and prospects) and those inside (employees).
2. Subscribe to everything
   Make yourself a prospect and a customer in every system. Create an email account to monitor all emails. Make sure you get all direct mail sent to your home. You should be on every list so that you can see what your customers are seeing.
3. Listen in
   You’ll never know what your customers are experiencing until you listen in. Listen to both sales and customer service calls on an ongoing basis. Remember, it is illegal to record calls unless you get permission. But you can set your phone system up so that you can listen in live without your team knowing. You’re not trying to catch them doing something they’re not supposed to do. Instead, you want to hear them as they naturally communicate without outside pressure from “the boss.”
4. Ask your team
   Your team is most likely aware of many issues. They may assume that it’s the status quo. That you’ve already thought of the issue and decided it wasn’t important. Encourage them to share ideas and take you step-by-step through their process.
5. Recreate reports
   Imagine you were a Venture Capital group trying to decipher what’s happening in your organization. Create a map of your reporting from beginning to end. Ask yourself: Where am I missing information? What questions would I be unable to answer someone from a VC firm?
6. Get feedback
   Survey your prospects and customers at different along the customer journey. Surveys can easily be built into your web experience. Click here to learn more about all that you can do with surveys. ​