Email Marketing For Printers: 17 Best Email Marketing Practices

Adding email campaigns to your marketing toolkit is an excellent way to create connections and get your message out to the masses.

To help you achieve the best results in your email marketing efforts, check out these 17 best email marketing practices:

Perfect Your Proofing

1. Send it to Yourself

Before you send an email to anyone in your audience, send yourself a copy and review thoroughly. According to Forbes.com, here are 5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Sending Any Email:

Why should I open this? (Compelling subject line)
Who are you? (Find common ground and establish rapport from there.)
What do you need? (Get to the point of your correspondence as quickly as you can.)
What’s in it for me? (What you want from your reader should benefit them just as much as it helps you.)
Will you appreciate it? (Show your gratitude and sincerity in your messaging.)

2. Check All Links (and Limit Them)

Have you ever received an email and then a few minutes later received another email with an apology that they sent the wrong link?

While mistakes will happen, make a checklist of items you always check before you hit send, making sure that checking that the links go to the correct destination is one of them.

One other important note when it comes to links: Remove any unnecessary links. As much as possible, eliminate excess options and make the only link your call-to-action link.

3. Grammar and Spelling Matters

If you don’t have an in-house proofreader or editor, invest in a solution that can quickly and easily do it for you:

Grammarly. Not only will it point out spelling and grammar mishaps, but it will also offer suggestions for all-around improved writing.
Hemingway Editor. This web app will help with clarity and simplicity, improving the overall readability of your content.

4. Use a Copywriting Formula

These simple copywriting formulas have a proven track record of success:

Copyblogger’s P.A.S.

Problem: Address the pain point your print buyer is facing. “Are you tired of wasting time with the hassles of ordering printing?”
Agitate: “You could ignore it, put up with it, or accept it…”
Solve: “Or, you could order printing a better way. Here’s how.”

Before, After, Bridge

Before: Here’s how frustrating ordering printing has been…
After: Imagine a new way where…
Bridge: Here’s how you get there…

5. Preview on Mobile

Those images might look great on a desktop, but they can completely destroy the credibility of your design on a mobile device. Remember:

About 3 in 5 consumers check their email on the go (mobile) and 75% of say they use their smartphones most often to check email. – Fluent “The Inbox report, Consumer perceptions of email” (2018) Mobile View

Grow Your List

“A small list that wants exactly what you’re offering is better than a bigger list that isn’t committed.”
– Ramsay Leimenstoll

6. Add Sign-up Forms to Social Media Sites

Make sure you have the invitation out there on your social media channels:

Facebook: On your business page, change the call-to-action button to “Sign Up” and connect it to your email sign-up landing page on your website.
Twitter: Add the link to sign up for your email newsletter in the bio section of your Twitter account.

7. Call-Out Boxes on Your Website

Put your email invitation front and center on your website.

Use the call-out boxes on your website, add a banner or a custom slider to your homepage, or consider adding it as a pop-up to your website.

(A word of caution here: People won’t hand over their information unless they’re sure they will receive something of value in return. Be sure to lay out exactly what they can expect from you if they give you their email.)

8. Run Specific Sign-up Promotions

Consider a direct mail postcard campaign with simple incentives, such as “Sign up for our email newsletter and receive $15.00 off your first order!” These types of campaigns work great when you have an extensive customer list with physical addresses but no emails.

➤➤ For more tips on increasing your email list, check out Episode 12 of the Sell More Printing with MI4P! webinar: 9 Ways to Grow Your Email List.

Avoid the Spam Filter

9. Check for Spam Trigger Words

You can avoid the spam filter by watching your language. Here’s how:

➤➤ For more tips on avoiding the spam filter, check out 23 Easy Tips to Spam-Proof Your Email.

Eliminate Any Reason to Unsubscribe

10. Add Value: Stop Talking About Yourself

If you’re struggling to get your email messages read, ditch the promotions that talk about you, and instead create and send content that’s solely for the benefit of the reader. For example:

Wrong Way: “We just got nominated for Printer of the Year and want to celebrate! Place your order now and save!” – This is all about your business, not how it benefits your print buyer.
Right Way: “Are your sales feeling a bit sluggish? Check out these seven tips on how you can boost your sales with direct mail marketing.” – This type of email content grows the relationship and begins to equate your brand with valuable content, or in other words, more opened emails.

11. Find Your Goldilocks Email Length

What is the right length of an email?

Shorter is better. According to Business Insider, emails that hit between 75 and 100 words had the best response with a 51% click-through rate. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

Avoid the scroll. If your recipient has to scroll to read the whole email, it’s too long.
Start = email. Finish = your website. For best results in getting your email read and getting your print buyers to click to your website, start your message in an email hitting the 75-100 word mark. Then, include a “Read More” link that directs them to your website to read the rest of your message.

12. Put Away Your Email Bazooka

The quickest way to get people to unsubscribe from your email list is to overwhelm them with emails.

Stick to one or two emails a week at most and develop a rhythm or cadence your audience learns to expect. And remember here, your mission is value-oriented content, such as tips, how-tos, inspiration, and more. Use the content in the Ideas Collection, White Papers, or blogs for consistent, quality content.

“Quality over quantity – Emails may be cost-efficient, but it’s no excuse to not produce quality content to give to a targeted audience.”
– Benjamin Murray

13. Eliminate the Sleaze and Operate with Integrity

This should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: Skip the sleazy email marketing tactics like trying to bury the unsubscribe link.

Instead, operate with integrity by honoring the requests of your subscribers. Remember, you want readers who are actually interested in what you have to say. Trying to force people to remain on your list or adding them to your list without their permission isn’t in anyone’s best interest.

Get Your Emails Opened

“On average, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline copy, but only 2 out 10 will read the rest.”
– Brian Clark

14. Create a Great Subject Line

Here are some excellent tools and resources for creating impossible-to-ignore headlines:

Title-Generator.com (https://www.title-generator.com/) – Simply type in your keyword, and it will generate 700 title ideas. They’re usually the same every time with your keyword inserted in a specific place, but it will help you get the ideas flowing.
SubjectLine.com (https://www.subjectline.com/)– This one will score your subject line based on specific criteria. It will judge or score it by length, amount of punctuation, keywords, etc. This one is great to avoid the spam filter, but it can also feel limiting, and you have to come up with your initial ideas.
Reference books – Two books we love are “Words That Sell” and “Phrases That Sell.” If you’re looking for a great resource to live on your desk and refer to often, these are it!
Your own website! – If you’re a subscriber to the white papers from Marketing Ideas For Printers, you have a white paper on your website right now called “Quick Guide to Killer Headlines” that has some helpful tips to offer.

15. Personalize When Possible

All marketing content is meant to create a connection with your audience.

That connection is harder to create if you’re sending generic, impersonal, or irrelevant emails. As much as possible, personalize your emails to show your print buyers that they’re not just a number.

Add their first and last name or other specific data to emails, such as company name, a previously ordered item, etc.
Send relevant content. For example, if your print buyer just opened a small business, send your white paper, “The Ultimate Print Guide for Running a Small Business.” Or, to everyone who ordered postcards in the last year, send an email with “10 Follow-Up Tips for Postcard Marketing.”

“Personalisation – it is not about first/last name. It’s about relevant content.”
– Dan Jak

Don’t Forget the Follow-Up

16. Schedule Campaign Follow-Up Calls

Email creates a reason to call your print buyers, nurture those relationships, and ask if there’s anything you can do to help make their print marketing easier.

This is also an excellent opportunity to reach out and ask if they’d like to schedule a demo to see how Private Label Websites or the Reorder Forms Library could save them time and money when ordering their printing.

17. Clean up Your List Periodically

Over time, your email list will change depending on the interests of your audience, their location, job positions, and more.

Ensure you’re providing value to the right people by periodically cleaning up your list. Every once in a while, send an email to your list with text similar to:

It’s our mission here at Acme Printing USA to make sure that the content we’re putting out is relevant to those receiving it. We wanted to make sure that you’re still interested in receiving the newsletter and remaining on our email list. Let us know by clicking below.

>Yes, I’m still interested. Keep me on the list!

> No, I’m no longer interested. Please remove me from your list.