Marketing Email Best Practices: Anatomy of An Effective Blast Email

Email marketing using such platforms as Constant Contact, MailChimp & Brevo make it fast, easy & affordable to send out blast emails using technology that sends emails one at a time to your list, instead of in a group email format. When these email marketing platforms send out emails one at a time, it prevents your “sending” email address from being blacklisted as a spam email, and it helps with deliverability. Individual emails are more likely to get past a customer or prospect’s email spam filter. Group emails are spotted and flagged by the spam filters, and it’s a good bet that the email address you’re using to send group emails will be targeted and blocked.

The key point here is that you must use an email marketing platform to send out blast emails because of the way the technology is built to distribute emails one at a time, vs. a big group email.

Then the question becomes: “What are marketing email best practices & what content should I include in my marketing blast email?” This expert article covers the recommended content mix that should be included in your marketing blast emails to maximize interest from customers & prospects.

What Content Should Be Included To Make A Blast Email Effective?

If you’re going to deploy email marketing, then play to win and implement marketing email best practices when you do so. Here’s a look at recommended content that should be in a monthly blast email to customers & prospects:

Email Content Asset 1:
Promotion of your monthly blog

Every business and non-profit on the planet should be posting at least one, relevant, optimized blog about your product, service, or offerings. Once this blog is posted on your website with a featured image that is colorful and attention-grabbing, then you need to PROMOTE the blog content in your blast emails. The promotional content about this in your monthly blast email should include:

• Headline about the expert article
• Short, explanatory paragraph about the topic
• Short, bulleted list of learning points
• A link to the blog on the website

Note: This content is designed to drive traffic to your website and specifically the most recent monthly blog – and it requires action on the part of your readers, i.e., click through and read the article.

Email Marketing Content Asset 2:
Learning point content in the blast email

In addition to posting a promotion about the latest blog on your website, you should also include some interesting, relevant content in the blast email that does not require clicking through to the website. As customers & prospects get used to reading your blast emails, they will come to understand that there’s a blog to read that requires a click-through, and content they can read right in the email and learn something new. Examples of “learning point” content that should be covered briefly but in full in the blast email include:

• Did You Know? Information that’s relevant to your product, service, or offering (interesting statistics, a learning point about differentiating factors about your product or service, and more)
• Quotable Quotes involve finding an interesting quote that relates somehow to your product or service. Run the quote in BIG type, with a short listing of who said it. Quotable quotes can be interesting, funny, or fact-based.
• Product or Services Highlight: Only a percentage of people who open your email will click through to the website. So, take the opportunity to highlight one product or service in the blast email. Keep the product or services highlight short and sweet, and pair it with a bright, fun stock photo to add color and visual interest.
• Special Offers or Sales: A blast email is a super cost-effective way to highlight time-specific promotions, specials & sales.
• Community Service Announcements: People like to feel good about the companies from which they buy products or services, and/or nonprofits that are truly making a difference in the world. If you’ve done some kind of community service, list what you did, any results that could be quantified, and a photo of the community service.
• About section: At the bottom of the blast email, you should include an “About the Company” or “About the Nonprofit” section. This section would include your logo as the image and a description of who you are and what you do, plus a live link to your website.

Anatomy Of An Effective Blast Email: A Handy Content Outline To Follow

Here’s a recommended content outline of a blast email that follows marketing email best practices:

• Blast Email Content Element 1: Dateline (at the top of the email including month date year)
• Blast Email Content Element 2: Company logo
• Blast Email Content Element 3: Content highlights of what’s in the email
• Blast Email Content Element 4: Promo content about your latest blog
• Blast Email Content Element 5: Fun quote or learning point info (relevant to your product or service)
• Blast Email Content Element 6: Highlighted product or service
• Blast Email Content Element 7: Special Promotion, Discount, or Sale News
• Blast Email Content Element 8: About the company or non-profit

By blending information about interesting content that requires a click-through to the website with information readers can enjoy right in the blast email, you’ll have a nice balance of content that will, over time, help improve the open rates of your emails by customers & prospects. By following this recommended marketing email content outline, you’ll be on your way to practicing marketing email best practices that will make your email marketing program a success.

Need help with deploying email marketing for your business or nonprofit? Contact DeWinter Marketing & PR for email marketing assistance.

Need to learn more about which email marketing platform is best & the pros and cons of the various well-known email marketing platforms? Click or tap HERE to read our expert article: The Top Email Marketing Platforms & The Best Email Marketing Platform Of Them All

Just want to start a free trial or set up an account with Constant Contact, the email marketing platform we consider the best of them all? Here’s a handy LINK straight to Constant Contact.