Perhaps you thought that email promoting was an outdated trick. You would be wrong. Even though e-mail marketing has been used for some time now, it hasn’t gotten old. New strategies and techniques are constantly being made to make marketing emails effective and fresh. Check out the tips below for ways to put email to work for you!
Do not send out unsolicited email messages. If you mail unknown recipients, your email may be perceived as spam. The recipients will be hesitant to accept your mail if they don’t know you, and they may not care about your companies product. This most likely will lead them to throw your email in the trash, which in turn just wasted your efforts.
Test variations of your subject line via A/B testing. For a single email, split your mailing list in half randomly, with each half receiving messages that have different subjects. This can help you see which subject lines cause readers to open your messages and which get ignored.
Know your audience and be focused. 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. By doing this, your viewer base will grow.
If you intend to undertake an e-mail marketing campaign, it is important that you have permission from those that you intend to email, and that means each and every person who’s address you intend to utilize. Otherwise, your spam complaints will increase, and, you may even lose customers over it completely.
Prior to contacting any of your customers through email, you should always get their permission to do so. People will regard suspicious emails as potential spam and ignore or delete these emails. It may even violate your ISP’s policy by doing so.
Avoid spammy sales techniques, such as urgent messages that they need to “Buy now!” in your email messages. If you do so, your work looks like spam. Instead, focus on building a solid relationships through informative or useful content your readers will enjoy. They will appreciate your efforts and be more likely to purchase from you.
In order to promote excitement in your customers regarding receiving emails, offer them special discounts or limited promotions in your newsletters. This is an e-mail marketing method that makes your subscribers feel like receiving your emails is beneficial to them, and will encourage them to get friends to sign up as well. You should consider creating a referral program for your customers so that they can get an added benefit for forwarding their emails to friends.
Create rich and relevant content in your emails in conjunction with sale information. 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. Always send out holiday greeting and specials. You shouldn’t simply send out emails just when you are wanting something from your customer base.
Don’t contact people via email without permission. Most people just delete email that they have not requested. It may violate the policies of your ISP if you do mass emailings to people who have not asked to receive your emails.
Choose to install a double opt-in feature to make sure that the person signing up for your emails is truly interested. It may seem like overkill, but by doing this, you can be sure that a person wants to receive your emails and that will make it harder for your email provider to get into trouble.
The more choices you allow the customers to make, the better your marketing using email will work. Allow your subscribers to choose the number of messages they would like to receive and how often, as well as what information they want to disclose. The greater amount of control that your customers have over this, the more comfort they will experience.
Your company’s branding should extend to the marketing you do through email. Because this is so true, you need to set aside the time and money to develop an email template that features several key elements, including the company logo, company colors, and any other elements that make it consistent with the rest of your marketing. This brand recognition will create a more professional appearance.
Active Feedback
It’s important that you build your brand when sending emails to your mailing list. For that reason, you should take the time to design a template that allows you to incorporate your company logo, colors and any special fonts also featured on your site or other marketing materials. This will help users recognize you and your brand.
Always take feedback seriously when it comes to your marketing with email campaign. Active feedback and/or passive feedback can be quite helpful. Ask what they like about your emails, what they don’t and what they’d like to see added, all called active feedback. Passive feedback may not even be noticed by the reader. There are dozens of resources available to see which of your links are getting clicks.
Now and again, change your format a little, giving it more of a personal touch. If you send out regular emails in HTML, consider doing them in just plain text format every now and then. If the message is well-written, it can help you to connect with the customer, which will increase their desire to support your company and its products or services.
Use passive and active feedback to improve your email marketing strategy. Ask what they like about your emails, what they don’t and what they’d like to see added, all called active feedback. Passive feedback can be much more subtle, and may even be undetectable by your readers. There are many software tools available that will track the clicked links on your email messages.
This may seem like obvious advice, but make sure that when you are doing e-mail marketing, that you have the correct addresses for all your contacts. You shouldn’t be wasting time tracking down addresses and sending out more emails once you receive tons of messages that have bounced back due to invalid addresses. It simply wastes precious time!
When customers sign up for your emails, ask them for their name. When you have this information, you can personalize email messages for personal attention. As such, you will be far ahead of the competition.
Try mixing up the format to engage readers more. If you typically use HTML formatting for your messages, then occasionally use plain text formatting instead. If you write these well then you can actually provide a really intimate and simple message that can make people feel comfortable with looking at and purchasing your products.
If you only send emails that contain useful information, it will demonstrate to your customers that their time is valuable to you. Avoid blatant sales ads as they can be insulting and might only serve to annoy your customers. Include a promotion, a solution to an everyday problem, or a new way that your reader can use a common item in every email.
Your marketing emails should be no more than two paragraphs in length. Try to keep your language direct and to the point. Doing so shows that you value your clients and their time. If your message is brief, your readers are also more likely to read the entire thing. This can be vital since you probably end your emails with a link to your site to encourage your reader to find out more.
You should utilize some type of call to action within your emails. Your recipients should know what they have to do in your emails by you telling them directly. If the email contains links, make them stand out and also provide instructions on how to use them. If necessary, these can be added to your messages at the beginning and the end.
Personalizing your e-mail marketing will make it more important in the eyes of your reader. Nothing turns off your reader more quickly than a letter that reads like it is just a form intended for the masses. Putting the recipient’s name into the email is simple; there is much more that can be done. The information you collect at the time of signup should include the location from which they signed up, as well as the reason they signed up. Use all of this information to focus your message to your readers’ needs.
As you now know, email promoting is a strategy that still works. By implementing the hints and tips you’ve been given and keeping up to date on new methods that can enhance your email marketing plan, you should be able to gain benefits from this technique for many years to come.
Make sure you let your customers know what kind of emails you will be sending them when you are setting up your subscription form. Make them aware of the exact type of emails you will be sending out, and how regularly you will send them. This prevents someone who expected infrequent emails about cats, for example, from becoming surprised when they get one email a week about dogs.