Are you struggling to find a marketing strategy that works? Email marketing has long been one of the successful and smart ways to interact with your customers and clients. If you want to market your business through email, you can make the most of your efforts by making use of the tips found below.
Ensure that you only email people who have opted in to your list. When you do a mass mailing to random recipients, they are often received in a spam filter. They won’t know if they know who you are, and then they will think about whether they care at all about the actual content or your email. This most likely will lead them to throw your email in the trash, which in turn just wasted your efforts.
You want to make sure your sales list is a highly targeted one. To do this, you must convince your best customers, as well as their friends and contacts, to join your mailing list. Design your mailings with an air of exclusivity, providing special content especially for those on the list.
Wish your subscribers a happy birthday. Include an optional field on your opt-in form for subscribers to share their birthday and send automated greetings. As an added extra, add a discount coupon to show your customer how much they are valued. It will be remembered by them in future transactions.
Write concise subject lines. A subject line that is less than 60 characters long is more likely to be noticed by a reader and is more likely to be opened than a message with a lengthy subject line. If a long subject is unavoidable, include the most important words first so it will not become truncated.
Ensure that your audience is targeted correctly. After you get a small list going, go a step further and find ways to get them to invite their friends on board. It is important to add a subscribe link to your emails. With any luck, people can forward it to friends that may be interested. This method will have your list of email subscribers growing exponentially.
To get customers enthused about getting your emails, give prizes away through your newsletter. This form of email marketing not only gives your readers a real value for their participation, but also encourages them to refer friends. Referral programs are helpful to increase your customer base.
Keep the emails you send consistent with any branding you use in your other marketing. Use the same color scheme, logo and masthead as your website on each email. Having a solid brand name established with your customers will help convert more readers to buyers because they trust the company already.
Do you want to be known as a spammer? Your emails could be marked as spam if you send them to people who did not request them. This not only negatively impacts your reputation with your customer, it puts your business at risk of being blocked by your ISP for being in violation of their spam policies.
Your email should have a personal tone. Like all marketing, customers are more likely to sign up for those who add a personal touch. For instance, if you have an idea of why they wanted your emails, put that in your message to them.
Include a confirmation page prior to finalizing an email subscription with a visitor. Having this options helps customers choose whether they want to receive mail from you. It may seem odd, but this is really the best way to market effectively and avoid future problems.
Stay away from including emails on your emailing database that have not been directly opted-in by the specific subscriber. Many people will regard such actions as a betrayal of trust and may cease to be clients. Others who have opted in may also be put off by these actions. You should also know that your email provider can ban you for violating their policy about spam.
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 unsolicited mass emailing is part of your regular routine, you may find your business is in danger of accusations of spam.
Use A/B testing to test out different combinations in your subject line. Pick one email then send one half of them with one subject line and the other half of them with a different subject line. This way, you will be able to gain insight as to which subject lines will encourage the highest open rates. You will also see which subject lines people will skip over without reading.
Make the mail preview feature of many email clients work for you. Use a preheader, it is a highlighted piece of text at the top of your email. Several popular email clients, including gmail, display this information on the same line as the subject, so it can grab the reader’s attention.
Try many different email formats. Be sure to always include any important information near the top of the emails. Trying out different layouts will help you find what works the best. Stick with what works. When you do this all of your customers know where they need to look for when searching for information they are interested in reading.
Make your emails content rich. Put some helpful information in emails and don’t just put in information related to sales. Provide your readers with special content that they cannot get on your regular website. Including offers that only readers can get are also much appreciated. Avoid sending emails only when you want sales, and be sure to send emails on holidays.
Keep subject lines under 60 characters long. Lots of email clients will just shorten subjects that are greater than this length. Others are just unable to display past this length. You should only need this many characters to grab your reader’s attention anyway.
Email marketing is a great way to promote both fledgeling and established companies. Use what you’ve learned in the preceding article to create a marketing plan that is both fresh and differentiates you from the competition.
