You’ve probably never heard the term “email marketing” before, but more than likely you have seen it. It’s everywhere! Your favorite companies have more than likely sent you a message telling you about a product. This is email marketing in its purest form. Does this sound like something you would want to use? Granting that it is, then continue reading.
Keep your marketing copy on a personal, friendly level. Just like any other marketing, those who get them will buy more from you if they feel like they know you. Use your customer’s names in the emails that you send them, and thank them in a personal way. This will give them the impression that your business cares and can go a long way toward increasing sales.
The beginning and conclusion of your marketing email should include a call to action for your customers. Be clear about what you want your customer to do, and include at least two obvious links to your site. Use clear suggestions that direct your customers to the offer your email is promoting.
Follow up with contacts you meet at trade shows. Collect people’s phone numbers when they stop by your table and call them within a couple of weeks of meeting them. Use the follow-up call to check in with your contact and ask him if he would like to receive your marketing newsletter by email.
Before sending out emails to your subscribers, try to let them know what you will be sending them and how often they can expect to hear from you. This way, they know when to expect your email and they can prevent it from getting automatically sent to their spam folder.
If you buy a list of emails to send to, check and make sure it is up to date. Sometimes lists for sail might match your target demographics but be woefully out of date. The number of addresses now defunct can be as high as 25% of the overall list.
The easier it is to subscribe to your email newsletter, the more subscribers you will have. If you have a physical store, ask your customers for their email address when they make a purchase. If you sell on a website, ask them for their address when they are ready to check out.
To make a clear and memorable impact with every email, keep your marketing messages short and sweet. Every email should have a very clear message and should only include information, media and links that are completely relevant to that message. A succinct but convincing email will be easier for your readers to absorb than a windy message that tries to force too many points.
Don’t put out emails that use images to give people information that’s critical. Some modern email clients might automatically revert to a format that doesn’t display images. Often this will result in an unsatisfactory look or unreadable message when images are prevalent. The most important information needs to be in the email’s main text. If you must use images, be sure they have useful alt tags.
Prior to adding any person on your email listing, always ask for their permission. If they have not, they may send an abuse report to your ISP, web host or bulk email provider. If your service provider gets complaints they may ban you from doing business there.
Preheader materials should be taken advantage of. Preheaders are the first text line in an email body, normally highlighted. This is a fabulous way to grab the viewer’s attention as this piece of text is normally displayed immediately after the subject line by some email service providers.
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.
The messages you send need to be unique and emphasize a particular idea. Customers respond better to personal messages than bland, generic ones. Your customers will also respond more favorably if the message is from the president or CEO of the company.
Personalize and customize all of the emails you use for marketing. Just putting their name in the subject or at the top of the email isn’t enough. Use all of the things you know about your readers. Separate your subscribers into small groups that have common interests. Create different messages for these different groups.
The subject is one of the most important parts of your e-mail. If you do not have a subject that immediately grabs the reader’s attention, it is likely that they will not bother to read the e-mail at all. The best written e-mails can be completely worthless without a compelling subject. Make sure that all of your subjects are great!
Offer your customers a chance to sign up for your special email promotions. This way, they will have voluntarily signed up to be receiving your emails and the messages and promotions will not come across to them as spam. Gaining the permission of your customers to email them with offers will help keep your customer’s trust intact.
After countless times of encountering email marketing, you finally know what it is. Put simply, it’s using the medium of emails to send messages either current customers or future customers for the sole purpose of marketing to them. Now that you know what it is, make use of it in your own emails!
