We’re all about keywords … until it comes to email marketing. Yet, did you know that keywords and hashtags are just as powerful in your email campaign as they are in your website content and social posts?

Now, this really only works if you’re posting your email campaigns to your website. Yet, even if you aren’t, you’re not sure if someone else plans to. The same approach here is to think online. Imagine every single email campaign is going to hit the web even if you’re not putting it up there yourself. I know I’ve pulled passages from email campaigns and quoted them in articles or shared them socially, giving credit back to the source. A keyword or a hashtag will spread your message and keep its longevity beyond just the “send” button.

Here’s how you do it:

Keywords in Subject Lines

Even though the subject line may never hit the web, people use their email platform’s search tool the same way they’d use a Google search. This is even more important if your readers have a Gmail. Most email marketing campaigns will fall into the black hole that is the “promotions” tab. Most of us don’t even look at that tab or bother filtering through it – unless we’re looking for something specific, in which case we just do a search. So if your email campaign has keywords, hashtags and even phrases that help make it more identifiable in a search, it goes a long way in helping make sure someone finally gets to that campaign. Keep in mind that this is going to affect analytics. Not everyone reads the campaign the same day, week, or even month that it’s been read. If you have the time, it’s worth it to run a before and after test on campaigns to see how much the open-rates went up over the course of a month or even a quarter. This gives you more accurate data on how your campaigns are doing.

Hashtags as Bait

Hashtags work the same ways as keywords except they’re more popularly used and have an easier time drawing in a following or creating buzz. First and foremost, your company should have its own hashtag that gets used in every single email campaign. This is a subliminal way to keep reminding your audience of who you want to be talked about on social media. If you introduce the hashtag, people will use it. The same goes for email marketing campaigns. Each campaign should have a hashtag. The hashtag will be for either the main campaign or the key stories in the campaign. Keep in mind this works best if you haven’t stuffed a newsletter with too many stories that distract the reader. Keep it simple. Don’t have more than three things you’re telling a reader at any one point. Then introduce the hashtag for each. Because as people social share, they will most likely use that hashtag to increase their own visibility. And you can do the same. You can do the same as you social share your email campaign that’s now published to your website.