A little over a year ago I wrote  Emails are Here to Stay. To this day, email marketing is still relevant and an integral part of marketing. However, what has changed is the level of competition we face. Where we have to remember that the customer is receiving possibly hundreds of emails a day. Understanding that we have to stick out from the crowd, which means taking our time to review everything from the subject line to the to customers we send it to! 

No longer is it best practice (which I cannot imagine it ever was) to send the entire database the same email? Especially given that the content was not relevant to the customer. For example, while I shopped at a retailer over 2 years ago, I am still getting sales emails. Only the email is for women's clothing, which is incredibly irrelevant, and ended up with my opting out as they never sent anything regarding their men's brands. 

The same philosophy applies when marketing with the auto arena. Wherein, if you sell pre-owned vehicles (as I am sure you do) sending them OEM parts coupons for NON-OEM customers regarding service is not relevant. And the age-old cheap/free oil change is not going to work either. Where great, they came in (non-OEM which does not count for retention) but it cost the dealer money on what otherwise could have been a cash customer! 

That being said, here are some best practices when it comes to emailing the customer! 

• Tuesday’s & Thursday remain two of the best days to send an email campaign. 
• The subject line should not be more than 30-40 characters! Anything longer than that can not only be cut off within their mobile platform, BUT more importantly, no one is reading all of that text! Lastly, make it stick out. 
• Do not send the same message to the entire database! Break it down into groups! OEM (within warranty), OEM (out of warranty customer pay), NON-OEM, & lastly your OEM retention customers, who will lap over with the two main OEM groups. Where the OEM will offer that “x” amount of customers sold within the last year have to have 2 visits to meet their retention standards. 
• Have strong call to actions. But not too many. You want the customer to have a clear map of what to do! One of them being a “click-to-call” option. Allowing the customer to call directly

Bottom Line: take a minute to look at what you're sending! Make sure everything is correct. Looking at the email as is if you were the customer. 

What has been one of your most successful subject lines?