Many an online business has been made, or broken, by a single email marketing campaign. If you do it right it can go viral, driving massive traffic to your website. If you do it wrong, on the other hand, it can sink your company. Read this article in full to find tips and techniques to teach you how to do it in a way that benefits your company.
To make sure your emails don’t turn people off, always seek permission before sending them out. Include a subscription button on your site, and encourage regular customers to have their friends sign up as well. If you’d like to give people some extra encouragement to subscribe, you could feature subscriber only deals.
When sending a email as part of your marketing campaign, do not use a casual font. You want customers to take your product or business seriously, and they probably will not do that with an uncommon font. Pick out a font that is well known, such as Times Roman Numeral, Arial or Verdana.
Find out as much information as possible about email marketing. Lots of books can be discovered in libraries and online. There is surely a course or workshop in your area that can help as well.
Be especially careful when crafting your first three emails to new customers. A new customer should get an introductory email inviting them to join your marketing list. Once they accept your invitation, the next email should tell them about discounts or special offers they can expect to get now that they’ve signed up. The third email should contain their first newsletter and their special offer.
Put information that is useful in your emails and avoid only including information to make a sale. Make sure that your subscribers receive special articles that are only available via email. Also give your valued subscribers some exclusive offers only available for people on your mailing list. Send greetings for holidays or a personalized message for birthdays for instance.
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.
Make sure your emails are consistent with any branding you have done. You should be including your company colors, logos and anything else unique to your business in your emails. Customers should be able to recognize your emails when they arrive in their in-boxes so that they are not automatically deleted.
Tailor your emails and landing pages for mobile users as well as those using desktops. Keep in mind that smartphones have tiny screens that may not be compatible with the way you have your emails formatted. Trim the width so that your emails can be read by users without them having to re-size them.
When people opt-in to your email marketing list, you need to let them know what to expect up front. Tell subscribers how often they can expect to hear from you and what types of communications you will be sending them. If they are expecting the volume of mail you will be sending, they are less likely to get frustrated and unsubscribe.
Automatically unsubscribe customers who don’t respond to your marketing materials after a certain number of emails. If your customers aren’t responding to your emails anymore, they most likely have lost interest in your newsletter but aren’t annoyed enough by it yet to unsubscribe. By unsubscribing them, you avoid generating bad feelings that could hurt your business.
If you make it a point to send only emails which provide useful information, you are indicating to customers that you know, and appreciate their time is valuable. Avoid sending them emails about sales only. You can include solutions to problems that commonly come up, new ways to use your products, or special deals in each email you send out.
Do not worry about anti-spam filtering when you compose your marketing emails. You need not avoid any particular phrases or use exotic spelling and punctuation in words like “free.” As long as you are not sending out unsolicited emails, you have already cleared the spam filter hurdle. Write for people instead of machines.
Before sending any promotional emails to customers or potential customers, be sure to get their permission for contact. Email is a powerful tool, and consumers hate when it is misused. Any email contact that isn’t initiated by the consumer feels to them like spam. Your customers must agree to receive additional emails from you, even if they have made purchases in the past.
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.
Your customers will be more open to your email marketing campaign if you let them choose the frequency of your messages when they sign up. Knowing how often they can expect to hear from you will keep them from feeling surprised or overwhelmed by your messages. This will make them more receptive to what you have to say.
When you know what to do, creating an email marketing campaign will be easy, effective and profitable. You’ll better your online reputation while building profits, and the initial investment of both time and money is small. There is no better way to grow your business, so start creating your campaign today!
