Our second event of the year—Litmus Live Boston—just wrapped. With three days of hands-on workshops, inspiring sessions, and hanging out with fellow email geeks, we’re exhausted but inspired. We walked away with heads full of ideas for how to make our emails even better.
Couldn’t make it to Litmus Live Boston? Don’t worry. Here’s a recap of our top three takeaways.
1. Focus, focus, focus.
We all have a lot on our plates. Which means that far too often, we try to multitask to fit everything in—especially when it comes to competing goals and CTAs in our email campaigns. But truth is: The secret to successful campaigns is a laser-focus. Think about the one goal you want to achieve with each email, and then have every element of your email—from visuals to copy to calls-to-action—work towards that goal.
"The worst call-to-action is too many call-to-actions." #LitmusLive pic.twitter.com/hc3CplqoTY
— Litmus (@litmusapp) September 18, 2018
The "one breath test": Read your email. If you run out of breath before reaching the first CTA, then shorten that text. ~AJ Jacob, UN Foundation #LitmusLive
— Chad S. White (@chadswhite) September 18, 2018
Effective writing is not about length, it's about precision. Great talk by Tom Tate @tnrt #litmuslive
— Ricardo Santos (@ricardoST) September 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/brittbrouse/status/1042065761592860672
2. Empathy is key to a successful marketing program
Successful email marketing is all about creating long-lasting connections between your subscribers and your brand—and this can only work if you understand the feelings, needs, and pain points of your audience. Put yourself in your subscribers’ shoes and understand not only their goals, but also their limitations. It will make you a better marketer, and your emails more successful.
See people, not just subscribers. Empathy is the key to a successful email marketing program. @logansandrock & @jamiebradley #LitmusLive pic.twitter.com/jXaLjSARrK
— Litmus (@litmusapp) September 19, 2018
Consent. Respect. Inclusion. 💌#LitmusLive @logansandrock @jamiebradley
— Melanie Kinney (@melaniebeth_) September 19, 2018
An email that doesn’t work for screen readers or in colorblind mode, etc should fail your QA just as quickly as it would if it weren’t working in Gmail. #litmuslive
— heyitstowler.bsky.social🇵🇸 (@HeyitsTowler) September 19, 2018
Stats regarding seniors in the digital space. Need to start developing empathy for an aging audience. #litmuslive pic.twitter.com/zCZC263GOx
— Den Aviary, an Inte Q Company (@denaviary) September 18, 2018
Optimizing for clicks, opens, and conversions isn't enough, says @MrDrewPrice #LitmusLive pic.twitter.com/E4s3BXXVKL
— Litmus (@litmusapp) September 18, 2018
3. The best way to move your emails to the next level? Learn from others.
Whether you’re an email beginner or a true coding wizard—there’s always room to make your emails better. Subscribe to the brands you love, take the time to analyze what makes their emails great, and then adapt those techniques to your own email marketing program.
Looking at other people’s code is one of the best ways to level up your #emailgeek skills. @bendjang #LitmusLive pic.twitter.com/6XilJuoiWG
— Litmus (@litmusapp) September 19, 2018
When learning from other people's email code toss on some borders so you can see what is happening before you even look at the code in scope. @bendjang #litmuslive pic.twitter.com/j0vzNBr4WW
— Kiere (kear-ee) aka Freya (@KiereKat) September 19, 2018
Best tools to learn from other emails:
– @litmusapp Scope for raw source extraction
– @litmusapp Builder for iterative Previews testing
– DevTools (Chrome or Firefox best) for inspection
– @reallygoodemail for inspiration + code#LitmusLive— Kevin Mandeville (@KevinMandeville) September 19, 2018
Creepin' on emails (like the crazy ones Kevin makes) taught me almost everything I know about email development. Subscribing to a ton of stuff lets you see how other people are building things and can end up being your best resource #LitmusLive https://t.co/sEzHl39rI2
— alex kelly (@alexkellysays) September 19, 2018
Loved following #LitmusLive on Twitter? It’s even better in person!
Join hundreds of email professionals for real-world advice, best practices, and hands-on takeaways you can put into action immediately. A limited amount of tickets are still available for Litmus Live San Francisco in November.
Get your Litmus Live ticket →
Bettina Specht is the Product Marketing Lead at Beefree.