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.
Keep in mind that the goal of email marketing should be to promote and sell your goods. Every email you send should bring your readers one step closer to making a purchase. Use your emails to tell people about new products, remind them of existing products, or offer a special deal or discount.
In order to banish all concerns about spam and ensure that no one on your subscriber list is there by mistake, consider employing a double opt-in strategy. Your first message should require some sort of additional action, like replying or clicking on a link, to make certain that the reader wants to receive further emails.
Use colors and fonts that reflect your business and are easy to view. Even if the content is interesting, difficult to read fonts and harsh colors can cause some customers to reject the email, and possibly future ones as well. Use the same color scheme and fonts for all of your emails.
If you are following up with clients through an email, try following up with a press release concerning your company. Include a statement on your message that tells your clients to register on the below link. The concluding P.S. could tell them to view all the examples on the link that was provided in the email.
Make sure your subscribers know what they are getting into when they sign up for your email marketing campaign. Setting expectations is highly important to the success of your campaign. You can have many people sign up, but with the wrong expectations, you end up just disappointing many people and losing customers.
Keep your important aspects of your messages “above the fold.” This “fold” refers to the area that is previewed in an email program. Anything that is important should be arranged with this “fold” in mind. Many readers use these to preview a message before deciding to open it. Keep anything important within this area so that they don’t have to scroll to find it.
If one of your customers is not happy with your products or services, you could send a follow-up email to this person that apologizes to them. Include a link on the email that tells this person to click on it in order to listen to the apology with their own ears. The concluding postscript could inform them that they can get a free sample by clicking on the provided link.
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.
Be straight forward with your recipients about what they will be receiving. When someone opts to receive e-mail from you, make sure they know what they’re agreeing to. Keep information easily visible about what they will be receiving in these e-mails and how often these e-mail will arrive in their inbox.
Respect for your subscribers has to be the cornerstone of your email marketing efforts. One way to show this respect is to limit your frequency of communication with them. Familiarity breeds plenty of other negative traits besides contempt! Limit yourself to two or three emails per subscriber per month. If you communicate more often, you risk losing readers’ interest and becoming background noise.
Make full use of passive feedback in your email marketing campaign. There are simple but powerful tools available to you that will give you lots of data on what your subscribers do with your messages. You must learn to use these tools and collect this valuable information. Find out who clicks on what links and determine why.
Avoid over-using exclamation points in your email marketing copy. An exclamation point does not make a poor sales message into a good one. Good marketing copy is punchy and catchy on its own, without the help of added punctuation. Focus on writing quality copy, not on how many exclamation marks you can use.
When following up with prospects, consider sending a follow-up email with a criticism report. Include an order on your email that tells them to check this report out for themselves. The ending postscript could tell them that they can view this criticism report by simply filling in their order information.
Use other contact mediums besides email. Email is highly effective in garnering business, but there is so much more you can do. Ask your list for their home addresses and cellphone numbers, too. Ask them if they want to receive texts. Different people like different forms of contact and knowing their preferences will enable you to utilize the one that will be most well received.
Remember that many users now use mobile devices to check email. Mobile devices such as smart phones have a much smaller viewable area than a computer monitor often just 320 by 356 pixels, as opposed to the 1024 by 768 pixels that are common on computer displays. Try to ensure that your message looks great, no matter how your customer is viewing it.
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.
