Some individuals hear “marketing with email,” and they automatically think of spam; they then reject the idea before trying it. You should work toward creating email campaigns which the customer not only enjoys looking at, but will also act upon. Continue on for some great marketing strategies you can try out today.
Make all emails as personal as you possible. As with other types of marketing, customers will be more likely to purchase items from you if you add a personal touch. As an example, include the reason why they are getting emails from your business in your marketing materials you send to them.
The first commandment of marketing via email is to never send unsolicited messages. Your emails could be flagged as spam if they are sent to customers that didn’t want to receive them. This not only harms your reputation, but certain ISPs could put a block on your IP address when a large amount of people complain about the unsolicited marketing messages you are sending to them.
Target your audience. Why would your readers want to sign up for your email list? Once you have the answer, use it to your advantage. Always include some sort of subscribe link in the body of your email. This will make it easier for your readers to refer the link along to other people. Your subscriber base will grow by itself.
Email only the people on your list. Mailing recipients who are unfamiliar with you or your product may come across as spam. This will have them thinking if they know who you are or even care about what you are selling. They will just send your email to their spam folder, and it will be a huge waste of your time.
Every customer on your email list should be someone who clearly opted in to your email marketing campaign. If you don’t, complaints that you are spamming people will increase, and that may cause you to lose customers.
To get your consumers excited when it comes to receiving emails, give them special discounts or promotions through the newsletters that you send. These types of emails will provide your customers real value and encourage them to tell their friends about your company. In fact, a referral program is a great way to grow both your email base and your customer base.
Be sure you proofread your emails before you send them. Correct any emails or newsletter problems you may have. Before you ever hit “send,” test your email layout to ensure your satisfaction with the way it looks. Test links that you include in your email to be sure they are working.
Try using different techniques when you are e-mail marketing. Books on the subject may be available in libraries and online. Locally, you may even find seminars or workshops to help you work on your campaign, so consider contacting business groups near you for more information.
It is good to ask individuals who want to get your emails to opt-in twice. It may seem like overkill, but by doing this, you can be sure that a person wants to receive your emails and that will make it harder for your email provider to get into trouble.
Marketing with email can be made more effective by giving your customers options. Allow your subscribers to choose the number of messages they would like to receive and how often, as well as what information they want to disclose. The more choices customers have, the more they will see the business relationship as equal and mutually beneficial.
Avoid major email promotions around holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is because people are usually out of their office and not next to their computers, so they won’t notice your emails. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, obviously. For example, emails advertising a holiday sale or a Black Friday campaign will attract attention at almost any time.
You must be persistent where it counts. However, persistent you are with your marketing campaign, it needs to be geared towards the right people in order to be successful. If you’re persistent with people that aren’t interested, they will just get annoyed and that’s a waste of time.
Having a visible link where the person can unsubscribe is a bright idea. You want to make sure you provide the unsubscribe link and make it easily available for the customer to find. It is important that users feel like they are not committed to your emails.
Remember that more and more people are reading their email with a mobile device, like a smartphone. These devices have lower resolutions compared to computer monitors, giving you less space to use. Test your emails out so that you know they’re legible on mobile screens.
Get an object lesson in how not to run an email campaign by deliberately burying yourself in spam. Get a free email address, post this address all over the Internet, and watch how much spam you receive. Educate yourself on how these spammers are incorrectly using email marketing and go your own way. Make yourself stand out from spam to improve your reputation.
The emails you send out should entice your customers. Give them a little extra encouragement to give you their business. You could give them free shipping if they follow the link in the newsletter and buy more than $50 worth of your products.
A lot of your customers will be opening your emails on their smartphones or mobile devices. These mobile devices have lower screen resolution than traditional computer screens and provide much smaller screen size. Learn the constraints that come with such small displays, and make sure that your emails are readable on phone-sized screens.
You may consider altering your format for special emails. If you always send out emails formatted in HTML, throw in a text only message to get your readers’ attention. If you write it well, you can create a nice emotional connection between your company and the newsletter readers.
A very crucial, yet obvious, part of successful email marketing is making certain there are no mistakes in your subscribers email addresses. Don’t waste your time by looking for address or by getting back invalid emails. This is just a time waster.
Email Clients
Ask for at least a customer’s first name at the time that they opt-in to your list. This will allow you to include their name in your marketing emails, giving the mailings a personal, friendly touch. This will help your messages stand out from all of the spam messages that your subscribers may be used to receiving.
Make the mail preview feature of many email clients work for you. A preheader is simply the first line from your email’s body text, and it’s placed in a prominent location. A variety of email clients, including Gmail, place this preheader immediately after the subject, making this a great method for grabbing the attention of your readers.
Your email marketing messages must get the reader to pay attention. This might take a few tries to get it right. Make sure to evaluate what is working, and what is not. If it’s not working, change it. Even when you find something that is working for you, be testing out new strategies and techniques that you learn about online or from somewhere else.
Personalize your marketing emails. You can go far beyond simply inserting a recipient’s name into a standardized message. Use all of the things you know about your readers. Segment your subscriber list by interest or buying behavior, and create messages that are likely to appeal to that group of people.
If your company has developed a branding practice prior to the start of your email marketing program, then keep your future emails consistent with that established branding. Design new correspondence to match the color tones you have been using. Also, make sure your logo is prominently displayed on all outgoing messages. Your audience will recognize your brand and learn to trust it in case you have not already established a good brand image.
Proving a sign up list is a great way to find potential customers to send emails to. This can be anywhere on your site, as long as there is an easily located place where your subscribers may go to update their preferences.
Try keeping subject lines around 60 characters. Lots of email clients will just shorten subjects that are greater than this length. Some others can’t display beyond this length. Regardless of this, your customers will not need that many characters to decide whether or not to read or delete your message.
Make sure your emails will grab your customers attention. This may take you some time and some experimentation. If it doesn’t work, get rid of it. Try a variety of techniques until you find those that work best for your business.
If your clients have a birthday registered, send them a celebration note. Create a celebratory email message to be sent on the big day. Messages should be warm and cheerful, and when possible, offer a coupon or discount on services.
One tip for beginning email marketers is to proofread your email submissions before you send them. Emails can be written quickly and neglecting to proofread happens often. It’s just email, correct? Not true! You need to treat your email marketing with all the same professionalism and attention to detail that you use in other media.
If you are planning to follow-up with prospects, you need to consider adding an endorsement in the follow-up email. Add a statement within the message which would inform them of any benefits they could expect right now. End your email with a call to action, enticing them to click through your link and make a purchase.
Brand Identity
Be certain that your messages include more content than just hard sales and calls to action. These mailings should come as a newsletter that includes information about your business along with industry information. If your messages are nothing more than sales pitches, you will irritate the recipients and prompt requests to unsubscribe from the list. So, even though your emails are created to sell product, be sure they include valuable, interesting information to keep readers interested.
If your company already has a strong brand identity, be sure to leverage that brand identity in your e-mail marketing campaign. Design new correspondence to match the color tones you have been using. Also, make sure your logo is prominently displayed on all outgoing messages. If your prior business and marketing efforts have built you a trustworthy reputation, feel free to make use of it by tying your new email to your recognizable brand.
Choose the times you send out your emails based on when your customers are most likely to read them. Of course, newsletters with a business focus should be mailed out toward the middle of the work week. Leisure related emails should be sent on weekends.
Try to use Alt tags if the emails you send have images. These tags replace images that will not load or that are blocked from loading. You want to make sure that you add a relevant description to the tags that you add, this way whoever is viewing the email can know what the purpose is of that image. Make sure you include tags in your links.
Don’t add subscribers to your email marketing list without their permission. If you send email without consent you will come off as a spammer, and create a bad impression of your brand. Your reputation could be ruined and you may even get blacklisted and have your emails blocked by their ISP.
In addition to using what you’ve just read, think of your audience in order to be effective at marketing via email. What are they hoping to see? Or, what they will like to read. How can you get those thoughts converted into sales? Apply what you’ve learned here, and start building your business.
Catch your reader’s attention with an interesting or entertaining subject line. A boring subject line will ensure that your email never gets opened. If you email appears dull or has a subject line that is suspect, it is likely to get deleted without ever being read.