A carefully crafted email marketing campaign can build a large and loyal customer base. The trick is to know what your customers want and how to deliver it. This article was designed to help you create an email marketing campaign that will be effective for your business and will be pleasing to your customer.
Before using email marketing, create a test email and send it to a friend or family member. Your loved one can see how the email looks and give you feedback. This way, if any changes need to be made, you can do it before sending the emails out to customers.
Ask your customers for feedback on your emails. Since your customers are the most important part of your campaign, it is important to know if they are pleased with the emails they receive from you. You could ask them to fill out a short survey with a few questions on what they like and what they dislike.
Try following up an email to your customers with a notice that tells them not to procrastinate. Insert a suggestion that tells them to purchase now onto the reply. The ending could tell them not to miss this incredible opportunity by waiting. Instead, they should act now to reap the full benefits.
Use A/B testing to see which emails are successful and which ones aren’t. Choose an email and split the mailing list in half, sending each half an email with a different subject line. This provides a simple way of seeing which subject lines garner higher open rates and which ones were simply ignored in subscribers’ inboxes.
If you have images or graphics, put them on the left side of the email message. Make sure that your call to action element is always on this side. Research has documented that this location produces almost double the number of clicks to your product, service or website than placing these elements anywhere else does.
When developing your email, consider how large the preview pane is in most email reading software. If your email is well beyond the size of this preview pane, it is wise to edit it immediately. Many people read their emails solely in this preview pane. Information that is outside of the scope of the pain may never be seen at all by your reader.
Email marketing marches on, and the good old newsletter has become largely obsolete. Instead of sending around a general circular for all of your subscribers, expend the effort to tailor emails to the interests of their particular recipients. There are many robust programs and services that can help you do this automatically.
Collecting and analyzing statistics is as important to the success of an email marketing campaign as it is to a business website. Invest in software that allows you to track the effectiveness of every email, from what percentage of your emails are actually opened to how many result in unsubscriptions.
It is significantly more effective to build your own e-mail list for e-mail marketing than to purchase a list, or acquire the services of a marketing company that has their own lists. The reason for this is that everyone who submits their e-mail address to be a part of your list is interested in the services or products that you have to offer. These people are far more likely to be receptive to your e-mail.
Always make sure customers have a clear and concise way to opt out of emails at any time. They signed up with you because they wanted more information, and if at any time they wish to stop receiving that information, they should be able to opt out. It is only fair.
Personalize the messages you send in your email campaigns. This will make it more likely that customers will read each message without growing bored of the same old content. Your customers will be a lot more impressed if an important person, such as your president or another high-ranking executive, sends the message.
Write your email marketing campaign content for human beings, not software. If the text is authentically intended for human reading, you do not need to worry about spam filters eating your messages alive. Do not get cute or overly creative with your vocabulary in an attempt to avoid spam filtration.
Getting permission to send emails is not difficult to get. You can use discounts, coupons, special offers and even flyers given out in trade shows to get customers interested enough to receive your emails. They can sign up on your website among other methods. By being friendly and offering a good incentive to sign up, customers may even give you access to personal information and their personal preferences.
Research shows that there are three emails that are the most important. The first offers an introduction and invitation to sign up and give permission to receive further communication. The second presents the customer with specific expectations such as coupons, discount offers or newsletters. The third email would deliver those expectations in the form of the discounts and other incentives.
Solicit feedback in your emails. Ask a thought-provoking question and ask your readers to respond. This will engage those on your list, and they will feel like they are having a more personal experience than they otherwise would. You will also glean valuable feedback that you can use to adjust your emails if needed.
It has already been noted that the key to a successful email marketing campaign is to know what your customer wants and what your business needs. An effective marketing plan is not just luck; it has to be carefully crafted. Use the information in this article to help you design an email marketing plan that works for everyone.
