Email is such a staple of modern marketing, that it’s amazing to think there are companies that are relatively passive to the whole idea of it.

A strong email marketing campaign can be the single greatest lead generation opportunity your company takes this year; do that several times a year, and you’re golden.

As straightforward as email marketing might seem, there are a lot of ways to, well… screw it up. At best, your open rates will suffer; at worst, your efforts could entirely backfire and actually cost you customers.

In the above episode of Marketing Minute and this blog, we cover five things every company should do to step up their email marketing game and entice new and return viewers.

1. Set the Right Goals

Goal-setting is the first thing you should consider when creating or analyzing a new email campaign. Your campaign goals should inform the entire way your emails or built, what they include, what kind of actions they should evoke, and ultimately how your success is determined.

However, it’s important to set goals for each individual email in your campaign, as well as the campaign as a whole. This kind of core understanding and purpose should then direct how your emails are designed, written and distributed (segmentation, timelines, etc.).

2. Grab Attention With Concise, Powerful Language

In email marketing, and especially marketing efforts linked to inbound sales, creating immediate value is a must. Strong first impressions via email subject lines, and then driving next steps with short and actionable body content, is a large part of any successful email campaign.

At the heart of email content is the next step. No marketing emails are sent without some desired next action on behalf of the marketer. This is why creating clear value with your content – as quickly as possible – is the first thing you should consider when choosing developing email goals.

3. Focus on the Mobile Experience

Given the way that marketing – and, really, business as a whole – moves and operates today, you can’t ignore the mobile experience.

Marketing emails should look and behave the same on any device size, from any manufacturer or with any email client. It’s simply modern expectations.

This is why it’s important to test your next big campaign on different devices and with different email reader apps. You could create the most beautiful, engaging email ever for desktop email clients, but if that same email appears broken on smartphones, it’s as good as wasted.

4. Engage Readers With Visuals

In addition to including strong, actionable content in your emails, it’s helpful to diversify or break up content with relevant visual elements, whether that’s something as simple as an image of your products/team or as involved as a clickable video thumbnail.

This is where email templates and oversimplification can be a drawback; the key is to find the right balance between repeatable, efficient email marketing and engaging readers time and time again.

Visuals can also a big differentiator for sales emails. Consider having your company’s main sales team include personalized greetings, or a general video introduction from the team/team member within the email signature.

Personalization is critical in inbound sales, and putting a face to a name in email outreach can be a great opportunity for your team.

5. Prioritize Next Steps: Open Rates and Clickthrough Rates

The final tip comes into play when you're reviewing your email marketing campaigns post-launch. Decide which key performance indicator to focus on as the campaign relates to your goals (open rate or clickthrough rate, typically), and use this data to rinse and repeat with later campaigns.

Use segmentation to make sure your next campaign emails are reaching the right people, whether that's based on sales cycle stage, interest, reader history/activity or type of product/service they're looking for.

With this information, you should be able to immediately improve your campaigns and see better reader activity with you future email sends!