Email Promotions – Keep it Simple Stupid

Remember the saying, keep it simple, stupid? Some people might find it offensive, but I don’t. That saying can apply to a lot of areas in your business, but most importantly to your email promotions. When you send an email which offers four or five different deals or discounts, you are going to overwhelm your customers. No one is going to spend the time reading through all of that text. And, there is really compelling research which says the more choices you give someone, the less likely they are to make a decision.

That’s why you need to keep your email promotions simple and here’s how to do it.

Pick One Promotion

You read that correctly. You only get one product or service to promote so choose wisely. Why only one? Because when your customer opens your email and sees 20% off of this service and 10% off for referring a friend and 9.5% off of that product, they are going to become overwhelmed to the point where they will just delete your email. It’s like kids on Christmas morning, when they see all of the presents under the tree they freak out and don’t know where to start, so you have to hand them gifts to open one-by-one. Treat your customers the same way. Give them one promotion at a time.

Use an Eye-Catching Graphic

While I would like to think that everyone is glued to the content I create for our clients’ email campaigns, they’re not. Emails are all about the visual. Text can only do so much, but there’s a trick. Create buttons with calls to action to get your customers to click through your email. You can also create large graphics that include pictures, text and a call to action to save you time and valuable space in your email. But, you want to make sure you keep the graphic consistent with whatever you post on social media, on your website and on print materials. The more your customers see the same image popping up, the more they will associate that image with your business. Remember that whole bit about keeping it simple? Don’t over-think your graphics. Make sure your message is clear and visible and you’ll be good to go.

Research Your Audience

Who receives your email promotion is kind of important. You want to make sure your email lands in the right inboxes so all of your hard work doesn’t go to waste. Your email isn’t for everyone and that’s OK! Learn how to customize your emails in this blog post. But be realistic about who your customers are, not who you want them to be. Sure everyone wants to reach millennials because they have the most influence on social media, but if they aren’t spending money at your business, don’t bother. Make sure your promotions are targeting your tried and true customers and you’ll reap the rewards.

Email promotions are a great thing if you keep them simple. Stop trying to cram six promotions into one email! It’s unnecessary and is a disservice to your business. All you have to remember is to keep it simple, stupid.