Email marketing is as old as the Internet. Although people rely heavily on filters to block incoming spam, proper email marketing can help both businesses and their customers. Keep reading to see how to improve your subscribers’ lives and your pockets.
Identify and appeal to your audience. Think of a way to entice them to have their friends join. Include a link to subscribe at the top of your emails so that anyone who receives a copy that has been forwarded from a friend can sign up as well. This will cause your base to grow organically.
You should use all types of resources, and learn as much as you possibly can concerning email marketing. There are lots of great online books or even ones in libraries. You should also look into joining a class or a workshop about internet marketing in your area.
Use A/B testing to see which emails are successful and which ones aren’t. Split your mailing list into two parts at random. Send one version of your subject line to one half and another version to the other half. This allows you to determine which subject lines lead to subscribers opening your emails, and which get deleted without a second thought.
Test a variety of different formats for your emails. Include important details and the latest information right at the beginning of your emails. Be sure to try various formats to see what gets the best feedback Continue to use the method that works best. This will allow your subscribers to become more familiar with the kind of content in your emails, and also how to obtain more information when they need to.
Ensure you have the permission from the customer if you are going to send them any emails. When you send out spam, your emails won’t be effective. Some say that they might end up not desiring to work with your company any longer.
It is a very good idea to require people that are interested in receiving emails from you to double opt-in. This may seem like a lot, but it guarantees that the person is interested in receiving emails, so it eliminates the chances that you or your email service provider gets into any trouble.
You should avoid sending too many emails; one a week is enough. Most likely, your customers receive a bunch of messages a day. If you send too many messages, your customers may just tune out your messages and only read the messages they deem important (and marketing messages are never deemed important).
In general, don’t send important email marketing messages near holiday time frames. People are likely to be away from their offices and computers or just preoccupied with other matters. There are some exceptions. An example of such an exception might be a Black Friday special for 25% off an LED TV.
Always limit your mailings to people who have given you permission to do so. If you do not, you will risk losing trust of the customers and who they interact with, creating a bad name for your business. Additionally, some Internet service provides may blacklist you, and that can have tremendously detrimental effects on future business.
Be sure that your strategy is persistently pursued. While uniformity and persistence is key, it will be wasted if it is not sent to the right group of consumers. Persistently emailing disinterested customers is obnoxious to them, and it wastes your time and effort.
Use your emails to provide customers with incentives. They are far more likely to conduct business with you when you offer them a very appealing reason to do so. Offering free shipping for orders over $50 is a good example of incentive.
Call to action wording is essential to a successful email campaign. Your recipients should know what they have to do in your emails by you telling them directly. Include obvious links with instructions on how your readers should proceed once they get to your site. It’s sometimes good to repeat your call to action more than once in an email. You might include it once in the header and once at the end of the email, for example.
Make decisions that will improve your reputation and ensure that your customers can trust you. Avoid cutting corners, targeting the wrong audience, or using any other strategies that will lower the success of your email marketing campaign. Never forget that every action you take effects your company’s reputation.
Your marketing emails should be short and to the point. Keep your vocabulary simple and your language direct. This will show that you value the time of your readers. It will also help you to be sure that busy consumers actually read the entire content of your emails. This is crucial. Don’t forget that the last part of your email will probably have important links and information.
You should try and make your email messages as personal as possible. If your emails feel mass produced, customers will often delete the messages and stop reading future offerings. Putting the recipient’s name into the email is simple; there is much more that can be done. Pinpoint why, when and where they signed up for your emails. Use this information in your message.
You will quickly lose customers if you are thought to be a spammer, so avoid this label at any cost. When customers subscribe to your list, an automated email that confirms their subscription should be sent. The email should contain both confirm and deny links. Not only will your customers be thankful for the added security, but this shows that what you sent out was not spam.
When done right, a reader does not even realize that your email marketing messages are, in fact, marketing at all. If the content in your emails is valuable, people will enjoy reading them. This can benefit your brand in many different ways. The end result is that you attract clients who are happy to spend money on your company. Use the tips outlined above and you will soon see the benefits of email marketing.
