The most important component of any digital marketing mix is email. Even in today’s world with all kinds of different communication channels, email is still the easiest way to reach your audience. Surveys show that 85 percent of the world and 91 percent of people in the US have an email and those people are checking their inboxes on a daily basis. The fact of the matter is that email marketing is the workhorse of digital marketing. In terms of return on investment, email beats social media by a landslide. That being said, not every email campaign is a success. Seeing a worthwhile return takes a fair amount of work and some know-how. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach for gaining new customers or better engaging existing ones via email, there are several simple steps you can take to optimize your chances of success. We thought we’d share a little bit of our email campaign knowledge with these 10 components for a killer email campaign.  We’ve outlined every component in the gallery above. If you’d like to see every component put together, we’ve provided a sample email crafted by our designers at the bottom of the page.

1) The Preheader

Preheader text is one of the most neglected components of an email, yet it is also one of the most important. Your email preheader will be the first thing your viewers see when they open your email. It is also what they see in their inbox after reading the subject line. Keep your preheader text short, but make it interesting enough to where readers are enticed to open your email and continue reading more.

2) The Logo

It’s essential for viewers to be able to immediately recognize who the email is from. Your logo doesn’t have to be front and center in your design, but you should make sure that it is easily visible.

3) Quick Contact

It probably goes without saying that you should always include your contact information in every email. Incorporate your phone number into your design via text or link so that readers can simply click to call you.

4) Catchy Header

Your header is your big opportunity to make an impression. Use your creative powers to come up with something bold and impactful. Also, make sure your header is in text format so that you don’t have to worry about image visibility.

5) Call To Action

The call to action is the most important component of your email. Getting your readers to click your CTA is the ultimate goal of your email campaign. Your Call To Action should be colored so that it is differentiated from all of the other content. The objective is to get the users eyes to natural move towards the CTA. The text you decide to place within your CTA button also makes a difference. Avoid “Click Here”, “Submit”, and “Send” at all costs! These prompts are too commanding and bossy. Instead try to craft benefit-oriented calls to action. Good examples of benefit-oriented language include, “Start Saving Now” and “Grow My Traffic”. These CTAs give users a reason to click. For best results, you should also ensure that your call to action is created in html format.

6) Text/Image Ratio

A large percentage of email users don’t have their inboxes set to automatically download images. In fact, studies have revealed that the number of email users who read emails with images turned off is approximately 43%.  If close to half of your viewers are opening your emails without seeing your images, then it’s important to create enough text so that those readers still have content to digest. Utilize your text to give viewers a reason to turn their images on!

7) Personalization

Tailor your emails to your readers and your conversion rates will rise. You’re going to want to customize your content with information that is directly related to each viewer’s preferences.

8) Opt-Out Link

Failing to include an opt-out link in your email would incredibly cruel. Your readers should be left with the option to opt-out of future emails if they wish to.

9) Campaign Tests

Notice that we say tests rather than test. Simply running an email test for one email messaging service won’t cut it. You’re going to want to test your campaign across multiple email messaging services to ensure that your campaign can be viewed properly with every provider.

10) Mobile-Friendly                       

Mobile phones have become a staple in our lives. It comes as no surprise that 66% of all emails sent are opened via mobile device. It is vital that you optimize your email campaigns for every device your readers may be using.

As long as you include all of these components into your campaign design you are sure to find success. Maybe you don’t feel like crafting an email marketing campaign by yourself? That’s okay! That’s what we hear for. Contact us to learn more about what we can do for you and your brand. Be sure to check out some of our other blog posts for additional digital marketing tips, hints, tricks, and discussions.