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Creating and running a successful email marketing campaign can be difficult—as difficult as finding an enjoyable first date.

And the two have even more in common.

Applying the following four simple dating rules to email campaigns will improve your marketing—and likely your chances of establishing great customer relationships, too.

1. Don't jump to conclusions

First-date tip: Misunderstandings happen, especially when you are still trying to get to know each other. Open communication and asking for confirmation on your assumptions will provide clarity and avoid quarrels.

Applied to email: Repeat tests from time to time to confirm results.

Why:

  1. The way customers engage with email is constantly changing. For example, customers are opening their emails on mobile now, and so an email design that performed well last year might not any more because of how it renders on mobile.
  2. New customers on your list might not behave the same way as previous ones. As you acquire new names, you may end up with a completely new list that prefers receiving emails on Saturdays, whereas a year earlier your list preferred Monday emails.
  3. When making important decisions, you should confirm results. There could be errors in segmentation or reporting that give you incorrect results. Sometimes you will find your results are not statistically significant and additional data is needed to make a final decision.

Words of caution: It is important that you have a large enough list to test. If your list is too small, your test results will not be reliable.

2. Look beyond the obvious

First-date tip: Don't judge a book by its cover. When you meet someone new, get to know him or her better. Talk to them and their friends. Take a note of their gestures and body language; these may tell you what words never will.

Applied to email: If your open rates are struggling, a faulty subject line is the usually the first guess. However, there could be other factors that influence whether your customer saw your email: delivery rate, inbox placement, From name...

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Four First-Date Tips... Applied to Email Marketing

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Sweta Govani

Sweta Govani is a digital marketer in New York City. Passionate about mission-driven work, she is a volunteer marketing chair for Net Impact NYC. She enjoys exploring vegetarian food, innovative technology, and places around the world.

Twitter: @SwetaGovani

LinkedIn: Sweta Govani