Email Marketing Basics
Even though you know that email marketing is very powerful and highly effective
, for the first time email marketer it can seem like a daunting task
to undertake. This article will help establish some basic rules for you to follow when starting off your campaigns. Once you get the hang of these
few tips, you can have success using email marketing software.
Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) wants to send out that special holiday email to keep in touch with your clients or contacts. The reason for doing
this makes sense: show them how much they matter to you and they will like a valued costumer and therefore be loyal to your organization. Before
you send out your holiday e-cards, keep in mind that the holiday season can be a tricky time to send emails.
Because so many people are sending messages at this time, your contacts will likely be inundated with e-messages and best wishes emails. Also,
during the holidays are when people are on vacation or taking a break from their computers for a while. The result of this is that your email,
when (or if) it gets looked at, will be after the holidays. This means it's been sitting in someone's inbox for a week or so along with EVERY other
holiday email.
Think about what you would do if you had an inbox stuffed to over flowing with holiday cards. You'd probably try to pick out the important ones and
toss the rest. Or, rifle through the emails as quickly as possible paying very little attention to the message. I'm sure that the thought and
effort put forth in creating the email would not get passed along, all because the email was sent during the holiday.
A remedy to this situation is to send the email early. Sending the email at the beginning of December or in the second week of January will get
your email a more unique reading time, therefore a higher likelihood that the email will get a response.
This brings me to my next point.
A very important thing to remember about email marketing is that you need to make sure you know exactly HOW you want your contacts to respond to
your email. Knowing this will make creating the email a heck of a lot easier (because you will have a concrete focus), make it more targeted to
contacts that are interested and will elicit a better response from your contacts. Also, once they do act on your email you will have a measurable
way to gather data on the success of your email.
Here's an example: "Click the link to receive a 30% discount on your next purchase."
With this call to action, you can measure two things: 1) if the contacts have clicked on the link in your email. The better email marketing
software will provide you with detailed tracking that will record which contacts have clicked on the links in your email. This is GREAT information
for preparing a more targeted email, because they have provided you with information on EXACTLY what they interested in. 2) If contacts actually
purchase something at the discount price mentioned in your promotion, you'll know that your marketing campaign has worked. You can create a list
of these individuals and target them as preferred customers. I don't have to tell you that customers that respond to your emails by purchasing
something are the BEST kind of customers!
When you are getting ready to create your email marketing message, start with your subject line (only after you've determined what the focus of
your email campaign will be). Make sure that in your subject line you indicate the focus of your email and you avoid using dollar signs and words
typed in all capital letters.
Using dollar signs and capital letters in your email marketing subject line are meant to attract attention. They do attract attention....from the
spam filters. Spam filters determine whether an email should be sent to people's in box or junk/spam folders. If your email lands in the junk
folder it won't be read.
The same is true for exclamation points. If you want to suggest the urgency of your email, make sure you use words to do so, and not symbols.
Here's an example: "2 Days Left to get a 50 Percent Discount".
The message speaks for itself. No need for emphasis. If the customer is interested they will open your email.
When you get to sending out your message, it is always better to address the recipient in the email. This is done by adding a 'Hello Jill,' or
'Dear Jim'. Your email marketing software can pull this data from the file you uploaded to you your database, provided that you've indicated a
first name for the recipient in the file. This will give your recipient a more personalized feel and the contact won't necessarily feel that the
email was sent in bulk, but was strictly meant for them.
To find your first bit of email marketing success, use these basic tips to start you off on the right foot. There is always more to learn about
email marketing and the task may seem like a mountain to climb. These tips will give you the right foundation to start the process of email
marketing advancement.
by: Rudy Barell
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