Email marketing has been done almost as long as the Internet has been around. While many programs and spam detectors get rid of unwanted messages delivered to people’s inbox, when email marketing is done right, it is helpful to both the deliverer and receiver. Keep reading for some effective ways to help other people, while helping your own company.
Don’t flood subscribers with emails pleading with them to buy something. [REMOVE] This will make you look like you are spamming them, which will in turn affect your business. Your customers understand that you’re a company and therefore you have to sell your product, but they will respect you more if you do so in a professional way. They will be thankful for this and may even purchase something from you.
All emails should be proofread before they are sent out. Correct any emails or newsletter problems you may have. Prior to sending a message, test your email layout so that you know everything will be readable. Test any links within the context of your email, so that you know they work.
if you run out of ideas for your email marketing campaign, try allowing your customers to assist you. Do things like write down questions that you receive from customers. Then when you go to send the next email, you have a topic. Make sure to include the customer’s name for credit too.
Data mine your email list and bucket your audience into various segments based off of any profiling data you have. This will allow you to be more strategic with your messaging and effectively increase your chances of higher open and click through rates. Even if you don’t have profiling, look to geo-targeting. Various regions respond differently to different types of messaging.
In order to banish all concerns about spam and ensure that no one on your subscriber list is there by mistake, consider employing a double opt-in strategy. Your first message should require some sort of additional action, like replying or clicking on a link, to make certain that the reader wants to receive further emails.
Make sure your emails are consistent with any branding you have done. You should be including your company colors, logos and anything else unique to your business in your emails. Customers should be able to recognize your emails when they arrive in their in-boxes so that they are not automatically deleted.
Try following up with a product review when sending a follow-up email to your clients. You could insert a link onto your email that informs them to enroll by clicking on this link. The ending P.S. on the message could urge them to take advantage of this opportunity that you are providing them.
It’s important that you build your brand when sending emails to your mailing list. For this reason, try designing a template that incorporates your logo, special fonts, or colors that are on all of your business collateral. This will cause your readers to instantly recognize your company.
Put real consideration into where you place links in your marketing newsletters. For example, you don’t want to send readers away from your email before you give them their call to action. You also don’t want to put your priority links at the end of an email where they may be overlooked.
One way to keep your email readers engaged is to ask them questions. These should not be rhetorical questions, either. Provide a feedback channel they can use to send you answers. You could ask for direct replies via email, or send your readers to your social networking pages. However you arrange it, asking for two-way communication is a great way to cultivate loyalty in your subscribers.
Try to keep your email subject lines short. Try keeping them around 60 characters or so. Depending on the nature of your business, you may be able to get away with a longer one as long as you put your most important information first. That said, it’s better for the average consumer to keep it short, sweet, and to the point.
Be persistent. Studies show that it takes a minimum of 7 to 8 impressions before your advertisements will take effect on a potential customer, and it could take many more. You need to touch base with your customers at least once every few weeks, and assume they will not buy your product or even click your links for several iterations of messages.
Plan out your emails in advance. Take into account that you are human, and that you will make mistakes when creating an email. With this realization in mind, allow enough time to review, revise and edit your emails before sending them out to your subscribers. This can help you avoid many mistakes in your emails.
Take advantage of special holidays and events to push your email marketing efforts. Plan for these opportunities well in advance. Most holidays and memorial days are beneficial to retailers in some way, so create targeted email strategies to take advantage of Christmas, Mother’s Day, Halloween, and other appropriate occasions. Make sure you keep some interesting content to generate sales in between holidays.
Be sure to include an easily-completed unsubscribe link in all of your marketing emails. Customers who are unhappy with your emails or who no longer wish to receive them can do more damage to your reputation than you might think. Reducing the size of your email list through unsubscribing is better than angering customers who no longer want your mailings.
When done properly, a client won’t even realize they are being marketed. Subscribers actually enjoy reading messages which provide them with a useful service or a little entertainment. This does much more than just promote your brand. This marketing method translates into loyal customers who are glad to spend money on whatever you have to offer. Use the information you have learned in this article, and you will be running a successful email marketing campaign in no time.
