With the advent of the Internet, businesses can reach more customers than ever before. Email is an excellent marketing tool. Below you will find ways to foster lasting customer relationships and use it successfully.
Only send emails to people that you know. People who you have not built a relationship with will look at your unwanted email intrusion as spam. They will wonder if they know you and whether or not they care about what you’re offering. This can make them delete your emails and waste your time.
Keep in mind that the ultimate goal with email marketing is to get your product sold. This means that all of the emails are just steps towards a reader purchasing from you. This can be accomplished by writing an email filled with information regarding new product offers, old product offers, or special deals that are available to them.
Create one clear message per email. You want to keep your customers from being bombarded with content in your emails, but you also don’t want to make them too simple and boring. Compose a single message, keeping it fairly short and concise. Your customer base will greatly appreciate not being perplexed by too much unnecessary information.
Avoid sending major email marketing messages around holidays. Because people are not checking email as frequently around these times, your email is more likely to be ignored. Certainly there are exceptions to this rule. An example of such an exception might be a Black Friday special for 25% off an LED TV.
Never use the cliche phrases in your marketing. Specifically avoid the “Buy now! messages. Customers may be put off by what appears to be “spam” at first glance. They know you want to sell your products, so build a steady relationship with them first and present it and yourself in a professional manner. They will be thankful for this and may even purchase something from you.
Sending out quality email is a part of establishing a good image for your brand. Therefore, it is important to invest enough time to create a template that permits you to use your corporate logo, theme colors and custom fonts that you have already used on a website or in ancillary materials. This will instantly let your reader know that the email came from your company.
Any message you send out should be proofread for spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. You have to be sure that everything in the email is correct. Prior to message distribution, test email layouts so you know for sure that all the text and elements show up in your preferred way. Additionally, test all hyperlinks in your email and double-check that they point to the right place.
Make sure you have permission to send emails to your subscribers. Without permission, you run the risk of losing potential customers and being labeled a spammer. You can also get blacklisted by certain ISP’s, which can create major problems for your campaign and your business.
Try different email formats until you find what works best for you and your readers. The top of the emails should always contain the most interesting and important information. Vary email formats regularly to determine which ones generate the most sales. Stick with what works. This way your readers know exactly what to expect and where they can find what they would like to read.
Make sure you build and follow a strategy. While persistence is important in email marketing, it only of value when your efforts are focused on the right audience. Persistence while targeting the wrong audience will simply waste your time and energy.
Use consistency in your message. Be consistent in your emails, using the same colors, and always including the company logo. Always use a legible font. With enough exposure to them, your subscribers will come to find your consistent emails distinctive and start paying more attention them. When your customers are familiar with your emails, it makes the marketing more effective.
Remember that more and more people are reading their email with a mobile device, like a smartphone. These gadgets have lower resolutions than modern computer monitors, so you won’t have as much space to use. Know the limitations that you have when it comes to these small displays, and ensure your emails can be read on a phone screen.
Make your emails rich in content and place helpful information in them as opposed to just placing sales information. Provide your customers with articles and things they cannot get from your website. Put some offers into emails that will save them money on products or services. Send special deals and holiday greetings, and remember to not only email when you desire something of your customers.
Include in every email calls to action. Let your email recipients know what they need to do by telling them directly. If the customer needs to follow a link to complete the offer, clearly label the link and tell customers where it leads right in the email. Include these sections in the top and the bottom of your message.
Avoid sending major email marketing messages around holidays. During these times, people are likely to be preoccupied with personal issues, vacations, and inundations from various other outlets. Of course, as always there are exceptions to this rule. Perhaps you want to target a Black Friday deal or a Cyber Monday special.
It is important to individualize the emails you send out and work to make each message feel personalize. Customers are more positive to these kinds of messages than impersonal or bland ones. Sign the message with the name of your company’s president or CEO to impress your customers.
You must be persistent where it counts. Staying persistent with the proper type of customers is the key to success. This is because certain people may find that persistence annoying and will not want to work with you.
Do not ever send unsolicited emails; get permission first. Don’t alienate potential customers by sending unsolicited emails. Nothing positive can result from such actions. You also run the risk of being barred by your service provider for violation of their rules.
Remember that in each passing day, your readers are likely to read your emails using a mobile device or even a smartphone. These gadgets have lower resolutions than modern computer monitors, so you won’t have as much space to use. Be certain that all of your mailings can be read on small, phone-sized screens.
Make sure your email messages are personal to the reader. You can insert the recipient’s name, and much more, in a standard message. Use all the information you have on each subscriber. Break down your subscriber list into groups that share the same interests and tailor your messages to these groups as much as you can.
Give your customers some type of incentive in your emails. They will have more interest in doing business with you when they see an advantage to it. For instance, advertise a discount, free shipping or a free sample with every purchase.
In order to form a better bond with your email subscribers, do everything you can to personalize each message. If they believe that they are being treated as “customer #13992”, rather than someone with specific interests and desires, they’ll just delete your email and unsubscribe from your list. Putting in their name is simple, but take it one step further. Look back to see when, why, even where that customer signed up for your newsletter. Make use of such data in your emails.
Do not use email messages that require graphical elements in order to present key facts. Many email clients won’t display images right away. Your messages may look strange or be impossible for some people to read if the information depends too heavily on graphics. Always use clear text for crucial parts of the newsletter, and include descriptive alt tags for images in case some readers cannot see them.
Celebrate your subscribers’ birthdays with a congratulatory message. Your opt-in can have an optional field for subscribers to give your their birthday information and you can set up automated greetings. This can make sure your customers feel wanted and will especially make them feel so if you give them a discount or coupon.
Try to make the message in your emails sound somewhat personal. You will get a much better response from your customers. Sending messages from higher ups, like the President or CEO, can boost your impression with your readers.
If your business has branded previous customer communications, make sure that your email marketing campaign is consistent with that branding. Every email message you send should utilize the design characteristics you are already using, such as logos and colors schemes. When you have already established yourself with a reputation that is trustworthy then any emails you send out will be to your advantage.
Make the messages you send out for marketing as personal as possible. Look beyond just adding the name of your recipient to your message. Make use of every bit of information you have collected on the people you send emails to. Segment your subscriber list by interest or buying behavior, and create messages that are likely to appeal to that group of people.
Integrate your email marketing program with social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and watch your subscriber base grow. People will share your content on social networks and get more people interested in your products. Make sure these people can easily sign up to your email list.
Leave a way for people to opt in to receive your email. This will increase your email list. This can be done on your website by making a link that subscribes to your newsletter.
Ask permission of those on your chosen email list prior to sending anything. No one likes unwelcome messages taking up space in their inbox. Sending out spam will give a bad image of your business. Preserve your reputation by sending emails only to those who want them.
If you take the time to mention personal details in your emails, your subscribers will notice your efforts. If your customers feel like you have mass sent the email, they may just delete and block you. Adding in their first name is very easy, but take it step further. You should understand when, why and how they subscribed to your emails. Take that information and use it as you craft your message.
Your marketing list should receive email messages which include your colors and brand logo. Your customers will be familiar with your company’s traditional logos and will associate the colors and designs you use on your website with your business. Design emails that look similar to your website so people recognize your brand and understand where these emails came from right away.
Make sure you use Alt tags to your benefit when you add images to emails. If an image fails to load or the recipient’s client refuses to load images, the image’s alt tag will appear. The descriptions written in these tags need to be relevant to whatever the image is, so that the recipient can see the purpose of the image. Your links should also contain these tags.
Set up a confirmation process for those who opt-in to your emails. People will realize what they are signing up for and be less likely to receive emails they did not want. At face value, this may appear counter-productive, but it’ll protect you from being reported as a sender of spam down the road.
Use multi-part coding when you send out email marketing messages, in order to grab a larger market share. These emails include both plain and HTML texts, so they will be displayed no matter the option your recipient favors. This is well worth the extra effort, because a plain-text subscriber will not stay subscribed to an HTML-only list for long.
The Internet has become a popular way to get business done. In order to connect with new customers and seek out new ones, a business owner can take advantage of the powerful communications tools offered by email marketing. Use the advice from the article you just read to create an email marketing campaign that works for you.
