A great email campaign can bring you an improved reputation, increased profits and the attainment of your goals. All it takes to achieve this is knowing the tips and tricks in this article and a little bit of hard work. Read on to find some advice to help you get started.
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.
Only send emails to people that you know. Mailing recipients who are unfamiliar with you or your product may come across as spam. If you show up as a stranger in their inboxes, they will have no idea if they want to hear what you have to say. Your emails will not even be opened. Do not waste your time emailing people you do not know.
Only make one clear message for each email you send. You don’t want bored customers or ones who are overwhelmed by too much content from your newsletter. Focus on a single message within your email and write a short copy which entices your customer to click through to read more. In the end, your customers will be thankful for being given the information in a concise and organized manner.
When you are having your customers provide their email address to you during the sign-up process. Make sure that you have the clear disclaimer visible that you will be undertaking email marketing campaigns. Try to give the consumer an indication of how often you intend to make use of their addresses so that they are not unaware.
Always get customer permission before you begin contacting via email marketing. Unwanted emails are normally seen as spam and they will be deleted. You could also violate your ISP’s policies by sending mass emails to consumers who do not want to receive them.
Not only should you provide your subscribers with an easy way to unsubscribe, but also you should ensure that it goes into effect immediately. Receiving emails from you after they have unsubscribed will give recipients a negative impression about you, harming any future relationships with them. Process requests to unsubscribe right away.
Do not take up permanent residence in your readers inboxes. Remember that they email for a number a reasons, from work to family. You are probably sharing that space with other marketers. Send out messages often enough to stay on their mental radar, but more than once a week is probably going to annoy them and backfire.
One very obvious, but very important tip pertaining to e-mail marketing is to make sure that all of your e-mail addresses are correct! You shouldn’t be wasting time tracking down addresses and sending out more emails once you receive tons of messages that have bounced back due to invalid addresses. It is simply a waste of time.
Build your own custom templates. Avoid just sending out generic emails, be creative with them. Try to get your messages to reflect aspects of your business’s branding, such as color palettes and fonts. If you include any images, make sure you include a link to a plain text version so that those with images disabled can read your messages.
Try using a personal tone in your email campaign. You will get a much better response from your customers. Messages that are sent from a President, CEO or other prominent figure of a company will leave a strong impression on customers.
Set up some expectations for your recipients when they sign up for your email campaign. Once they sign up, they should receive an immediate confirmation email that highlights what they can receive from signing up. This can help you build great customers relationships and help you avoid complaints from the recipients not being aware of what they were receiving.
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.
Take the time to send a message to your subscribers on their birthdays. Add a field to your subscription form for customers to enter their birthday, and use this information to send an automated greeting when their special day rolls around. This can make customers feel appreciated, especially if your greeting has a coupon included with it.
Use plain text. Plain text emails will be received as more personable and HTML can be more difficult for some people to read. Some email readers may even prevent the delivery of HTML, depending on user settings. Plain, simple text will always be easy to read and very well received.
Make your emails focus on your audience, not yourself. Your customers are the ones that make your campaign a hit or a failure Be a great resource to them and try to do what you can to include feedback from them. This can be with polls, comments, etc. Getting them engaged may help you build beneficial relationships for your business’s future.
With the knowledge, you’ve gained here under your belt; you should be ready to tackle the wonderful world of email marketing. The sooner you get to work, the easier it will be to meet your goals, so start drafting your plan while you have these tips fresh in your mind.
