Email marketing means more than just sending out mass emails to everyone who has ever bought something from your business. A properly conducted email marketing campaign can be complicated to put together, but if you know what you are doing, the rewards can be great. Read on to find out how to do so.
When following up to your customers via email, you could try following up with some kind of reminder. For example, you could add a “visit today” button onto your ad. In addition, the closing of the postscript could inform your customers to make sure they do not disregard the CTO.
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.
Ensure that your audience is targeted correctly. When you have some readers, try getting them to get their friends to sign up. Be sure to consistently include a link to subscribe in any email you send; hopefully, recipients will forward it to their friends that may be interested in the things that you offer. This can help you grow your readers organically.
Your email marketing campaign will be more effective if you make it easy for customers to unsubscribe. This may seem paradoxical, but people will tend to trust you more if you make them feel as if they are in control. Post the unsubscribe link in an obvious place so they can find it easily.
Use your email marketing to get your customers more involved with other promotion portals. For example, always give readers several ways to learn more about what every email is discussing. End every email with your contact information and web address, encourage them to share special promotions through Facebook “Like” buttons or direct them to a video that shows them how best to use a new product.
Avoid using exclamation marks as crutches in your emails. If you want to express a sense of urgency or importance, use the structure of your sentence and the words you choose to to make that impact. Overusing this form of punctuation can turn potential customers off and make your message seem insincere.
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.
Prior to adding any person on your email listing, always ask for their permission. If you send unsolicited messages, at best recipients will unsubscribe or trash them, and at worst, they will report them as spam. If your email provider receives enough complaints, they could even drop you for violating their spam policies.
Make it easy to unsubscribe. Make the unsubscribe link clearly visible in your email, allowing someone to stop getting email marketing. This way you are less likely to get reported for sending spam. Also, if someone has unsubscribed, don’t make the mistake of continuing to send them email: that is likely to cause them to complain.
On the subscription form in your email, tell your potential subscribers what types of content you will send and how often they can expect it. Inform your subscribers about the kinds of emails that will be sent, along with the frequency of the emails. Your subscribers should not be surprised then by the emails you send.
Do not send out rough drafts of your content. Write out what you want to say, and then cut the word count in half and rewrite to fit within your new limit. This generates messages that get to the point. Readers want to spend no more than three paragraphs of time reading your message, and maybe not even that.
Balance when you send emails. Sending them too frequently can come across as spam and may cause you to lose readers. Not emailing frequent enough can make the recipients feel like they’ve wasted time signing up for emails that they’re not getting enough of. Remember your goals and audience so you can pick a happy medium for your campaign’s frequency.
Being reported for emailing spam is harmful to any business. Therefore, every company should safeguard it’s reputation by having a two-step opt-in procedure that requires a confirmation. Providing an opt-in option on your website will make subscribers confirm their interest in receiving emails from you. There should be a “yes, confirm my subscription” and a “No, I don’t want to subscribe” link in your validation email. Not only will your customers be thankful for the added security, but this shows that what you sent out was not spam.
The emails you send out as part of your marketing campaign should start out with a welcoming, personalized tone. Include the name of the recipient in the subject line and the opening of the message. This will make your customers feel more receptive to your message and be more likely to patronize your business.
There is nothing wrong with composing your marketing emails in HTML, but you may find it rewarding to give it a break from time to time. A simple message composed in plain text will be taken as a little more intimate and a little less formal by your subscribers. If you exercise moderation, sending plain text emails can encourage loyalty and draw your readers closer to you.
Running a great email marketing campaign can seem like a daunting prospect, but do not let your fears prevent you from getting started. As you have seen, it does not have to be a onerous chore. If you remember the advice you have read in the preceding article, you should be able to put together a highly effective campaign.
