Don’t be fooled; effective email promoting is still very much alive and well. Even though email solicitation was an early form of marketing on the Internet, it still is very useful and is far from being exhausted. A variety of different strategies have been created to help email marketing keep up with the changing landscape of the Internet. Use the ideas below to see how you can use email for yourself.
Personalize your emails wherever possible. As in many businesses, people like a personal touch. They will do business with a person they feel friendly toward. For example, if you know why they signed up to get emails from you, include that reason in your email.
Only use email promoting to target people who have give you permission to contact them. When you do a mass mailing to random recipients, they are often received in a spam filter. They’ll wonder whether they are interesting in what you are selling or not. This ambiguity can lead to a deletion of the email, which is a loss of both the customer and time.
Target your audience. Once you have established some readers, you should then think of different ways that you can entice them to sign up their friends. Be sure to consistently include a link to subscribe in any email you send; hopefully, recipients will forward it to their friends that may be interested in the things that you offer. This is a great method to use to organically grow your base.
Any message you send out should be proofread for spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. It’s essential that your emails or newsletters are correct, especially if you want to appear professional. Before sending out messages, make sure the email layout is easy to use as well as nice to look at. Ensure that every link is working, as well.
In order to promote excitement in your customers regarding receiving emails, offer them special discounts or limited promotions in your newsletters. These types of emails will provide your customers real value and encourage them to tell their friends about your company. Referral programs are excellent methods of growing not only your email base, but also your customer base.
Use as many sources as possible to help you find out as much as possible about email promoting. Search online for information, or check out books from the library. Also, attend as many classes and workshops as you can find locally.
Use A/B testing of your subject lines to test effectiveness. 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.
Remember the importance of consistency. Make sure to be consistent with your colors and branding in your emails. The font used in your emails must be easy to read. Once you have sent a few emails, your recipients will be able to immediately recognize them, and will start to take notice. Cultivating familiarity (or branding) is an important part of marketing, especially through email.
Don’t send emails to people who have not given their express consent. Anyone who spams in any format will instantly receive a negative reputation. It could go as far as people not desiring to do business with you any longer.
Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to send out important marketing email messages during major holidays. Many people don’t access their emails on those days, and you risk them being overlooked among the others that arrived during that same time. Of course, you can take advantage of certain exceptions. These could include Black Friday emails or emails related to other specific events.
The venerable marketing email still has plenty of life left in it, as you can see. By applying the advice in the above article and continuing to search for new methods of improving your e-mail marketing plan, then your plan should keep being effective for years.