Your email marketing strategy may likely be your most productive effort. Chances are there is room for improvement. A few tweaks can generate an even better return on investment and let’s face it, there’s not much that’s better for building relationships and generating sales than email marketing. Let’s take a look at three ways to beef up your email marketing strategy.

1. Align it With Your Editorial Calendar

Do you have an editorial calendar? It’s a plan and schedule for your content. An editorial calendar outlines the topic for every blog post, article, report, or other content piece. It also identifies the goal for the piece and when it’s going to be published. Ideally, your email marketing strategy is aligned with your content.

Take a look at your editorial calendar and create a complimentary email marketing plan. For example, if you’re blogging about how to get more sleep next week then your email message might include a list of products that support good sleep.

2. Use a Template and Create a Consistent Look and Feel

If you currently use or have a template for your email messages, great. Then it’s time to refresh that template. Update the header, add interest or usefulness to the buttons and links. Look for ways you can enhance the reader experience.

If you do not presently have a template for your email messages, consider creating one. Your email messages should ideally reflect your brand. Your readers also want to know what to expect. If you provide a consistent format, they’ll feel more invested in the material. Additionally, when you do send the occasional broadcast message for special announcements then it’ll grab their attention because it looks different from your normal newsletter.

3. Split Test Headlines And Your Calls To Action

If you’re not split testing then you’re missing out on a valuable aspect of email marketing. Learning what headlines have a higher open rate helps you improve your open rates. And discovering the types of calls to action that motivate clicks helps you improve your conversions, sales and profits. Split testing doesn’t have to be complicated. You can simply divide your email list in half and send one email message to each half. The two halves will receive different headlines. The headline with the best open rate wins.

Finally, consider investing in an autoresponder that provides the ability to send messages based on actions. For example, you can send a follow up message to all of the people who click on a link in your newsletter. Follow up messages tend to have good performance numbers and they help you learn more about your prospects.

Email marketing is a worthy investment in terms of both time and money. Test and track your activities so you can optimize both.