When it comes to email marketing, you want to be sure to keep the content relevant and interesting to your audience to keep them listening to your message, encourage them to buy and reduce unsubscribes. Keeping your emails engaging can feel like a never-ending task of thinking up new ideas to include. There are some tools, though, that can help with that task. The other side of campaigns is reporting – you need an easy way to measure what’s working and what isn’t so you can drive sales higher. So, here’s a list of recommendations for our four best email marketing tools that will help you keep content fresh and engaging and some to help you work out which are working best for you!
Video – whilst email marketing platforms don’t typically support embedded videos, there’s no arguing that video is king for keeping viewers viewing! There are so many video software packages available, but some of them can be complicated to use or come with limited functionality and are expensive to unlock the really useful features.
That’s why we like Wondershare’s Filmora. It’s an AI-driven editing suite that allows you to add captions, signs and effects (like hearts or snow) and music. You can write a prompt, and Filmora will bring it to life. Skip the free version because of the watermark overlay, but the paid plans are very affordable, starting at around £41 for the year (including VAT). For extra effects and plug-in packages, you can buy on a monthly subscription. It’s not as sophisticated as some editing tools, such as VR or Multicam, but if you’re new to video editing, it’s out favourite. Create your video, upload it to a hosting channel such as Vimeo or YouTube, and add the link with a thumbnail to your email campaign.
Ideas for video content:
- Introduce a new product
- Highlight a service
- Meet the team sessions
- Customer reviews
- Showcase applications for a product
Photos – don’t worry about paying for photos; plenty of images are free to use, even for commercial purposes. We particularly like Unsplash for its Meme photos, but Pexels and Pixabay are also worth a look and offer video. Pixabay allows you to search by image format (photos, illustrations, vector) and offers sound effects, music and GIFs all in one place.
Email-Heatmaps – don’t wade through reams of numbers! Easily see which call-to-actions have generated the most interest with a heat map that overlays your campaign. Genius! Literally, the CTAs with the fewest clicks will be bluer (cold), and the ones people are most interested in are redder (hotter). Once you see the CTAs that are working best, you can do more of them. Email-Heatmaps is easy and safe to use as it connects to your email marketing platform, not your email list. It integrates with most of the popular tools, including Klaviyo, MailChimp, Moosend, Active Campaign, iContact, Benchmark, and Get Response. This tool is used by many well-known brands, including BBC Maestro, IshFish, Newsflare, and Budd and Tusting. All of them love how easy it has made their campaign reporting!
LinkShortener.io – now, this tool is a game-changer! Link shorteners are excellent tools for reducing the character count on URLs and customising links for brand reinforcement. And – they’re trackable! However, this tool offers so much more! In addition to shortened, customised links, LinkShortener.io also offers shortened, trackable links for email addresses and telephone numbers. Until now, it’s not been possible to measure how many calls or emails have been generated through an email campaign, but now, you can! Included in LinkShortener.io is a QR code generator – another brilliant way of getting more engagement with your audience! And, of course, QR codes are trackable, too!
The key to keeping email interesting is to mix up content, including video, images, GIFs, memes, and QR codes. It’ll keep your audience coming back for more!
… email marketing that delivers!
Shaun Reynolds has been specialising in email marketing since 2005 and, in February 2019, launched Email-Postman. Since then, we’ve helped over 100 clients across a range of industries build successful email marketing campaigns across various platforms. To get help with your email marketing, you can arrange a free call-back today by clicking here!
