Are you looking for a simple way to market to your customers? If so, then look no further than email marketing. Email marketing is a technique that uses emails strategically sent to people with the intent of promoting businesses or products to them. In the following article you will find a few tips that will help you start using email marketing.
Always get permission! Unsolicited email is not welcome, and in certain cases, can get your ISP blocked. When contacting someone, always include a newsletter or an offer – this way the customer has the chance to agree to receive your messages. The last thing you want is to be branded a spammer.
Minimize traditional email marketing activities during the holidays. Customers are preoccupied with family and friends, and are less likely to be paying attention to business email. Your odds of ending up in the spam box are considerably higher, which could have longer term implications for your bottom line. The major exception to this would be a business directly related to the holiday activities. Otherwise, give yourself a break and enjoy some downtime yourself. Business will be back on track in a day or two.
Offer a coupon to customers who sign up for your marketing email list. Put a form on your website where customers can sign up and set the form to email automatically new customers a coupon when they submit the form. This encourages customers to agree to allow you to send them marketing materials so that you won’t be accused of sending out spam.
When sending a email as part of your marketing campaign, do not use a casual font. You want customers to take your product or business seriously, and they probably will not do that with an uncommon font. Pick out a font that is well known, such as Times Roman Numeral, Arial or Verdana.
Before sending out emails to your subscribers, try to let them know what you will be sending them and how often they can expect to hear from you. This way, they know when to expect your email and they can prevent it from getting automatically sent to their spam folder.
Be sure you get a subscriber’s permission before emailing. Businesses that are taken seriously do not send out mass mailings via email. It could become bad enough that people decide not to buy from you at all and completely detach themselves from your company.
Teach yourself what not to do by scoping out some spam. Make an extra email account and sign up at various places online. Take a look at how much spam immediately floods your inbox. Note what is done wrong in those emails, and avoid making those mistakes in your email campaigns. Making sure that your emails differ significantly from those of spammers makes your brand seem more credible.
Use feedback, that is both active and passive, to improve your marketing campaigns. Readers should be asked to provide suggestions and opinions when offering active feedback. Passive feedback can be much more subtle, and may even be undetectable by your readers. Utilize software programs or tools to evaluate what links are used most frequently.
Try to make it as easy as possible for customers to unsubscribe from your emails. By not making it simple, they will feel like you are being too pushy and may be turned off from your product or business. Give them the option to opt out from some of your emails or all of them.
Consider following up with a rumor that a sale is about to end. Insert a statement that tells your clients to subscribe immediately so that they can take advantage of this sale. The closing of the email could tell them not to miss out on this incredible opportunity and to act now.
Keep mobile users in mind when choosing the size of your message. You might be composing your emails on a monitor that has four or even five times the available pixels that a smartphone user has. Send your messages small or scalable so that everyone can read them easily and quickly.
Include Alt tags for any images you send with your emails. Alt tags will substitute for images that aren’t allowed or just won’t load. Make sure the tag descriptions give an accurate description of the visual image. This helps the reader get some use from the content, even if they can’t see the image. Use alt tags for your links, as well.
You can enhance your email marketing by choosing to include social networking sites, such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Customers will then be able to share with others and put their stamp of approval on your campaign or special offers, increasing exposure and the number of people signing up with you.
Do not depend on images too much. Images can enhance the look of an email; however, the information in your message should be readable, even if the images are not displayed. Many clients will disable images from new email senders for security reasons. You need to ensure that your message will come across clearly whether they see the images or not.
Now that you have these tips to guide you, you should be able to use email marketing. Email marketing is simple and efficient, so you should be able to promote to your customers without a lot of hassles or wasted time. This technique will increase your overall productivity while satisfying your customers as well.
