You’ve heard of spam, but do you really know what it is? Even more important is knowing how to avoid the perception that your email marketing campaign is spam. If you’d like to learn how to create emails which market your products without being thrown into a junk folder, read on.
Always seek permission before sending marketing emails to potential customers. Sending unsolicited emails will quickly have you labeled a spammer. Getting permission to send your messages doesn’t have to be hard; offer something valuable to your customers in exchange for the ability to email them, such as a discount, coupon, or other sign-up incentive.
Each message needs on clear message. Don’t overwhelm your reader with a ton of text! Think of what your message is, and say it clearly and simply. Your customers will appreciate not being weighed down with extraneous information.
Be persistent with your email marketing messages. It can take as many as twenty emails to one prospect before you routinely have their attention. Try telling a good story through your messages. Hook them with a few messages and let it unfold over a series. Running contests that span several weeks are good way to do this.
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.
if you run out of ideas for your email marketing campaign, try allowing your customers to assist you. Do things like write down questions that you receive from customers. Then when you go to send the next email, you have a topic. Make sure to include the customer’s name for credit too.
Provide your customers with useful tips or information in each marketing newsletter. Think of the newsletter as an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise in your field. Your customers will trust you more when they see how much you know and will be more likely to buy products or services from you.
Make sure that your email subscribers know exactly what to expect from you. An excellent way to do this is to make your first email to every new subscriber a default informational message. You should lay out what sort of content you intend to send them, and also indicate the frequency of messages they can expect from you.
Do what you can to make your email go into your customers’ inboxes. You must work to get your email to pass ISPs and not get tagged as spam messages. If they get tagged as spam messages, your recipient may never see them. Check with customers to see if they are getting your emails, or if they’re no longer interested.
Post a version of your newsletter with graphics and animation on your website. Then send your email list a plain text version of the newsletter with a link to the web version. This keeps your emails simple enough to stop them from being diverted to the spam folder as well as encouraging your customers to visit your website.
Even though you may be tempted, do not fix email addresses that appear misspelled or mistyped. Given the sensitive nature of email, it is important that you do not tinker with what a person typed while opting in. If your attempts to reach a particular address continually bounce, remove it from your database and move on.
Write good content in your emails. Do not copy something, whether from another site or your own, directly into your email. Emails are not like web pages; they must be short and concise to hold your reader’s attention. That said, the content must be well-written, grammatically correct, and free of spelling errors.
If your company has developed a branding practice prior to the start of your email marketing program, then keep your future emails consistent with that established branding. Use the same color scheme and add your logo to each email you send. If your brand is established and has a fine reputation that is trustworthy, this gives added credibility to the emails you are sending out.
Offer incentives. People might be hesitant to give their consent to receive e-mails. Try offering some sort of incentive as a bonus for receiving e-mails from you. Offer coupons or exclusive promo codes. Make sure that there is content in these e-mails that they will find both worthwhile and useful.
If you are following up with your customers, you can send a follow-up email to them that includes a warning. Attach a line in your message that allows them to sign up. The closing postscript can include a phrase that this can be a very low investment on their part.
Make your emails focus on your audience, not yourself. Your customers are the ones that make your campaign a hit or a failure Be a great resource to them and try to do what you can to include feedback from them. This can be with polls, comments, etc. Getting them engaged may help you build beneficial relationships for your business’s future.
Keep your email content fresh. Don’t start repeating old information or re-using anything that you have previously written about in your emails. Your readers know when you’ve already said something and when you’re out of ideas. Furthermore, if you notice that something in your emails, like templates, images, etc. just aren’t garnering attention anymore, don’t fear changing things around.
Now that you know how to create a well-received email campaign which will bring your sales pitch to your target audience, go for it! Use all of the techniques you’ve read here and you’ll be well on your way to increasing profits and driving traffic to your site again and again.
