When you execute email marketing properly, it’s still one of the most effective marketing tools out there. It’s cost effective and can generate those all-important leads, as well as establish your brand and reputation within your target niche.
With this in mind, in order to get the very best from your email marketingcampaign, here are 9 great tips you really should be following.
Tip 1 – Keeping it personal
Always try to direct your emails as if you are writing specifically to the reader. For example wherever possible state ‘Hi John’ rather than ‘Dear customer’. Keep the tone casual as if you are writing to a business colleague or friend directly. It will go a long way.
Tip 2 – Split your target audience up (segmentation)
It’s never a good idea to fire off one email to the whole of your database of names. This is the easiest way to get people to unsubscribe, particularly if you send them information and offers that don’t apply to them. Instead look to split your market up using criteria such as age, previous purchasing behaviour, demographics etc. This way your emails and email marketing will be more in tune with your customer.
Tip 3 – Always create a snappy subject line
The first thing that people look at when they see an email is the headline or title. If it just isn’t catchy then the chances are that they simply won’t open it, no matter how compelling the information is inside.
Tip 4 – Get to the nitty gritty
The secret of a compelling email is to get right to the nitty gritty of what you are trying to say as quickly as possible. Research has shown that you have something like 7 seconds to engage with your audience, so this needs to be done certainly within the first few sentences.
Tip 5 – Don’t leave call-to-actions to the last sentence
Mirroring the point above regarding reader’s attention, your call to action (i.e. the text in which you want the reader to take action) needs to be placed fairly high up in the body of your email. It can be reiterated further down, but it’s really important to make that connection reasonably early on.
Tip 6 – Careful with the hard sell
The bottom line is that people subscribe to newsletters because they find value in what the sender has to say. The quickest way to get people to unsubscribe is to deliver the hard sell. If you consider email marketing as an opportunity to establish yourself as a leader in your field and offer value to your readers first, then the rest will follow.
Tip 7 – Use both HTML and plain text in your messaging
As more and more people are receiving emails by hand held devices such as mobile phones the sender needs to make sure that all templates are mobile phone compatible. If you don’t do this then you’re missing out on a large segment of your audience. By sending out both HTML (to include graphics and coloured layout) and plain text (to include solely the message content) you’re covering all areas.
Tip 8 – Monitor all your links
Any emails you send out should always be set up so that any links can be tracked. This way you can measure click-through rates and the overall success of your email marketing ventures. Any email system you’re using will have the facility to track links; you just need to make sure it’s set up. Finally and most importantly, make sure that your links work. The last thing you need when you fire off 30 or 40 emails is to have a dud link!
Tip 9 – Test test test
Email marketing campaigns don’t always go the way that you would expect and for this reason, it’s advisable to experiment with different headlines, templates, graphics and content. Try it out on a small segment of your target niche first and monitor the results. Once you have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t, you can then roll it out properly.
So there you have it, 9 top tips you should be using in order to make your email marketing campaign a success. Remember if carried out correctly, it really could put you streets ahead of your competition.
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