Posted by Need a simple way to streamline email marketing content production? Tired of having your marketing team start from scratch every time they need to prep an email campaign?
Then you need to embrace the power of email marketing templates.
By creating an email template for each email campaign type, your team can eliminate redundant work and focus on conveying your brand’s core message instead.
However, creating an effective email template takes clear intention and strategy.
And that’s where we come in.
In this article, we’re pulling back the curtain on seven mistakes to avoid when creating templates for email campaigns.
Ready to learn more?
Let’s take a look.
1. Not using email marketing tools
It’s tempting to write email templates from scratch. But why work harder when there’s a more efficient and data-driven option?
Enter Email marketing platforms.
Email marketing apps are crucial because they come ready with responsive email templates you can easily edit. You can also use this cloud-based software to create your own email templates from scratch. For example, if you’re involved in cold email marketing, specialized tools designed for this purpose can be invaluable. These cold email marketing tools offer features like personalized outreach and follow-up sequences, which are particularly effective for engaging with potential customers who may not be familiar with your brand.
But that’s not all email marketing tools help with.
Other benefits of email marketing tools include the ability to:
- Automate promotional email campaigns so you can market your business in your sleep
- Segment your audiences so you can personalize your messaging approach for each group
- Get access to key marketing insights and analytics so you can continuously improve your email campaigns and scale your Facebook ads.
- Perform email deliverability checkups so you can improve email open rates and prevent triggering spam filters
Explore these strategies to optimize your email marketing efforts and consider incorporating some creative email campaign ideas to capture your audience’s attention and drive results.
2. Not setting business goals
It’s impossible to create tailored email templates without having clear business objectives in mind.
So think about it …
Why do you need to use email marketing? What are your sales goals? What does email marketing success look like for your specific business?
For instance, are you looking to start a refer-a-friend campaign to get more eyes on your new line of power tools? Would you like to increase sales appointments with bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFu) leads? Do you need an ongoing communication tool to help nurture cold coaching leads to conversion?
Get clear on your business goals and describe how running email campaigns can help you reach them.
Then, note how you’d like to integrate templates into your email marketing strategy.
For instance:
“We’d like to use email templates to help personalize our email content for each audience segment to improve open rates and clickthroughs. With templates in hand, we hope to avoid sending misaligned content to any individual segment.”
And speaking of personalizing your content …
3. Not considering your buyer personas when strategizing email campaigns or email content
Successful email marketing campaigns are grounded in personalization. But without a clear audience picture in mind, you can’t hyper-personalize your content.
That’s why it’s key to build tailored buyer personas before strategizing email campaigns or email content.
When building your buyer personas, be sure to:
- Include a summary at the top of each one that describes your overall target audience and corresponding audience segments
- Create at least one buyer persona for each audience segment — in the above image, you’ll notice three audience groups: Content marketers, support teams, and tech hobbyists
- Outline their top pain points and how your brand can solve them better than the competition
- Note their ideal messaging preferences
- Suggest tailored offers according to their needs, preferences, and buying habits
- Specify their top content preferences, i.e., specific email content types and topics to cover
4. Not personalizing your email templates for various email marketing campaigns
Just like every audience segment has its own individual needs, so does every campaign type.
To get ahead of the game, carve out time to solidify your email marketing campaign types and the exact templates you’ll need for each. Take the help of an email newsletter software to create and send those emails.
Consider using the framework “type of email campaign + X email template” to plan your template options.
Here’s an example:
Email Campaign Templates Overview:
- Cart abandonment email campaign ▶️ Re-engagement email template
- Building social proof email campaign ▶️ Testimonial request email template
- Sales email campaign ▶️ Promotional email template
- Customer loyalty campaign ▶️ VIP rewards and membership email template
- Company news and updates email campaign ▶️ Email newsletter template
- Value-driven content email campaign ▶️ Educational content email template
- Holiday offers email campaign ▶️ Seasonal email template
- Birthday email campaign ▶️ Birthday gift email template
- Transactional email campaign ▶️ Transactional email template
- With a separate template for each transaction type — for instance, password resets, recent purchases, and form submissions
5. Not having personalized email signature templates with additional calls to action
An email template without an engaging outro and relevant calls to action (CTAs) is a campaign with missed sales potential.
Plain and simple: Your audience needs direction if you want them to take calculated action.
The solution?
Use a “smart” and creative email signature template to end your emails and encourage your recipient to do something, such as visit your website, head to a landing page with a special offer, or follow you on social media.
When creating an email signature template for your campaigns, it’s common to use the default simple, generic text-based signature. However having a professionally designed signature, complete with graphics and relevant URLs, can enhance your brand image, boost conversions, and leave a lasting impression. Your email signature should include all your contact information with a brand image. Its better for your background to be white so remove the background from the image to make it transparent so your contact information is the main focus.
Need inspiration? Here are two examples of creative and smart email signatures with CTAs and URLs:
Humorous and punny email signature outro example with a “call us” CTA
Seasonal and creative email signature outro example with a Valentine’s Day sale CTA
6. Not A/B testing email templates before going live
If you’ve avoided the mistakes above, then you’ve put in a lot of work to strategize your email templates. But in order to produce options that have the highest chance of success, you’ll need to test them before going live.
To pinpoint which templates produce higher conversion rates, use email marketing software to conduct A/B tests, otherwise known as “split-testing”. This automated process can help you save time testing and uncovering which variables your audience appeals to most.
When finalizing your templates, choose the ones with the best open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. And chuck the ones with the highest bounce rates and unsubscribe rates.
7. Not applying data-driven insights to improve your campaigns and templates over time
A/B testing is highly effective, but since audience needs and pain points evolve over time, you’ll need to monitor insights and analytics consistently — and then make data-driven improvements to your email marketing strategies, email campaigns, and subsequent email templates.
By monitoring insights, you can uncover:
- Which templates resonate best with your audience
- How many engaged email subscribers do you have versus inactive subscribers
- Which email subject lines lead to high open rates
- The call-to-action buttons with the best click-through rates
- Which sales and marketing emails have the best conversion rates
- Which special offers receive the best conversion rates
*Pro-Tip: If you’re brand new to email marketing or planning on robustly scaling your email marketing approach, don’t overlook the expertise that email marketing agencies can bring to the table.
With their specialized knowledge, email marketing agencies can help you avoid common email marketing pitfalls, create calculated scaling strategies, and (best of all) help you up-level your personalization efforts.
They can then use the insights in other marketing activities. For example, email marketing campaign results can help you define what to focus on in social media moderation. Additionally, they can use the insights to adjust their marketing budgets. So, if certain campaigns are not generating results, they can reallocate their funds to focus on more effective strategies.
TL;DR: By understanding the delicate balance required in crafting emails that resonate with readers, email marketing experts can help you refine your templates, beat overwhelm, and stay focused on achieving your goals.
Wrap up
And there you go! Today we covered seven mistakes to avoid when writing an email template for your email campaigns.
For good measure, here’s a quick recap of the mistakes we covered today:
1. Not using email marketing tools
2. Not setting business goals
3. Not considering your buyer personas when strategizing email content
4. Not personalizing your email templates for various email marketing campaigns
5. Not having personalized email signature templates with additional calls to action
6. Not A/B testing email templates before going live
7. Not applying data-driven insights to improve your campaigns and templates over time
Now, it’s your turn: Be sure to bookmark this article and share it with your marketing team! Then, carve out time in your schedule to create your email templates. Remember to use responsive layouts and edit your templates for each campaign type. And if you need help, don’t forget to reach out to an expert for support.
That’s it, for now, email marketers.
Here’s to your success!
PS: Need a simple way to generate more leads for your email campaigns? Don’t skip out on the power of social media. By using gated content downloads and other lead magnets, you can use social media to generate qualified opt-ins without paying for ads. To streamline the process, try a social media manager like Crowdfire. With Crowdfire, you can schedule content and manage all of your social accounts from one place. Take it for a free test drive today. ☑️