Many an online business has been made, or broken, by a single email marketing campaign. If you do it right it can go viral, driving massive traffic to your website. If you do it wrong, on the other hand, it can sink your company. Read this article in full to find tips and techniques to teach you how to do it in a way that benefits your company.
Always seek permission before sending marketing emails to potential customers. Sending unsolicited emails will quickly have you labeled a spammer. Getting permission to send your messages doesn’t have to be hard; offer something valuable to your customers in exchange for the ability to email them, such as a discount, coupon, or other sign-up incentive.
Only send messages to those you know and those who have signed up. Emailing people who don’t know your nor your products can seem like spam. People will not recognize your brand and will not trust you at all. This can lead them to just toss your email, which just wasted your time.
Maximize the results of your email marketing by encouraging your readers to respond to every email. Always read and reply to these emails immediately. Building a personal relationship with each of your readers is the best way to convert them into loyal customers. This is also a good way to get more specific feedback on the success of your efforts.
Try engaging the customer using the subject line of the email. Your email must grab your reader’s attention the minute it lands inside of their inbox, otherwise it may go into their trash. If you have a weak or uninteresting subject line, that is exactly what will happen. So try spicing up your subject line with some creativity.
Develop content that is interesting and informative to your customer base. The message should be engaging, and not filled with dry, boring content. The recipients are more likely to read it all the way through if it is not too long. As they see that your content is relevant, your reputation will grow.
Educate yourself on what you should not do by checking out actual spam messages. Get a free email address, post your new email address in various places on the Internet, and it won’t be long before your inbox is jammed with spam. Look at the negative aspects of each email and consider how it could have been done better. You need to be different than the spammers!
Pay attention to the demographics within your subscriber base. See what content and links intrigued a particular segment of your audience, and then follow up with a new email to that subgroup. The boost in your response rate from peeling away the top layer will really surprise you, but in a delightful way.
Include in every email calls to action. You have to tell your customers exactly what you want them to do. If you use links, include instructions on what to do with them. Consider including your call to action at both the bottom and top of your email for ease of use.
Do not send too much information in one email. Customers will get frustrated and overwhelmed if there is an overabundance of information in a single email. Instead, put a sufficient amount of information in a series of emails and be sure that each one contains a few paragraphs. This will keep their attention.
Follow up with your clients with an option for them to affiliate with you. Include a command on your email that tells them they can join instantly by clicking on the below link. The ending postscript could inform them to not be late on this incredible opportunity for affiliation with your company.
While extra graphics and other things that can easily be blocked by filters are unnecessary and detrimental to your campaign, your company logo does need to be included in order to make things’ consistent, familiar, and professional when you are in contact with prospective customers. Failure to do this will harm your email marketing campaign immensely.
When designing your opt-in form, do not pre-check boxes by default. Leaving boxes unchecked ensures that customers are actively engaged in the opt-in process, which makes them more likely to sign up only for the content they truly want to receive. This saves your customers from the hassle of unchecking boxes that don’t interest them, and it boosts your trustworthiness.
Offer incentives. People might be hesitant to give their consent to receive e-mails. Try offering some sort of incentive as a bonus for receiving e-mails from you. Offer coupons or exclusive promo codes. Make sure that there is content in these e-mails that they will find both worthwhile and useful.
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.
One good tip to developing your emails is to use humor. From the opening line all the way through your content, a little comedy can really attract readers. Everybody loves a good laugh and a funny or amusing email when used appropriately can catch the reader’s attention and make them want to read more.
It is important to tie your email marketing efforts together with whatever other marketing strategies you employ. Email recipients may also be interested in special offers delivered by post, mobile marketing, or social-networking tie-ins. You should introduce this subject with delicacy. It is best to proceed only after an email subscriber has demonstrated some interest and loyalty.
When you know what to do, creating an email marketing campaign will be easy, effective and profitable. You’ll better your online reputation while building profits, and the initial investment of both time and money is small. There is no better way to grow your business, so start creating your campaign today!
