Establishing an ongoing relationship with current customers and reaching out to new customers is a crucial part of a successful business. Email marketing is one of the newer and most effective ways to accomplish this. The tips and techniques in the article below were designed to help you launch an email marketing strategy that accomplishes that.
Offer a coupon to customers who sign up for your marketing email list. Put a form on your website where customers can sign up and set the form to email automatically new customers a coupon when they submit the form. This encourages customers to agree to allow you to send them marketing materials so that you won’t be accused of sending out spam.
Follow up with contacts you meet at trade shows. Collect people’s phone numbers when they stop by your table and call them within a couple of weeks of meeting them. Use the follow-up call to check in with your contact and ask him if he would like to receive your marketing newsletter by email.
Never overuse the “Buy this right now!” approach. It will eventually backfire. This will make you look like you are spamming them, which will in turn affect your business. They will know that you only care about selling services and products, you want to have a good relationship with them and be considered a professional. They’ll appreciate this and will most likely buy from you.
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.
Be especially careful when crafting your first three emails to new customers. A new customer should get an introductory email inviting them to join your marketing list. Once they accept your invitation, the next email should tell them about discounts or special offers they can expect to get now that they’ve signed up. The third email should contain their first newsletter and their special offer.
When developing your email, consider how large the preview pane is in most email reading software. If your email is well beyond the size of this preview pane, it is wise to edit it immediately. Many people read their emails solely in this preview pane. Information that is outside of the scope of the pain may never be seen at all by your reader.
It is important that your friendly form line is one that your subscribers will recognize. For example, do not have the CEO of your company sending the emails. The reader may not know who it is from and just delete the email. In the subject line, put your business’s name.
To get the best results from your email marketing campaign, test your messages thoroughly before you send them. Do not just type up a quick message and blast it out to your subscriber list without checking it carefully first. Preview it in different email programs and on different platforms to make sure it will display properly for everyone.
Avoid using exclamation marks as crutches in your emails. If you want to express a sense of urgency or importance, use the structure of your sentence and the words you choose to to make that impact. Overusing this form of punctuation can turn potential customers off and make your message seem insincere.
To get the most out of each email you send, try to focus each message on a single clear, concise message. Your readers should know what you are trying to say within the first few seconds of reading the message. Give them a call to action that is clear, and that they can easily respond to.
Develop content that is interesting and informative to your customer base. The message should be engaging, and not filled with dry, boring content. The recipients are more likely to read it all the way through if it is not too long. As they see that your content is relevant, your reputation will grow.
For maximum accessibility, send your email marketing messages as multipart format. Any email clients that support HTML or have it user-enabled will show your content in HTML format. However, if someone receives your email and only allows text content, that is what they will see. Doing this allows everyone to see your message, regardless of their client or settings.
Don’t get yourself in trouble by not getting permission. This is spamming and you could be penalized for it as well as having all your mail refused, which could damage your business irrevocably. By getting permission to use email marketing, you will be creating positive relationships with customers who will keep coming back.
Set up some expectations for your recipients when they sign up for your email campaign. Once they sign up, they should receive an immediate confirmation email that highlights what they can receive from signing up. This can help you build great customers relationships and help you avoid complaints from the recipients not being aware of what they were receiving.
Make your emails truly personal. Do not just use their names in your emails play to their wants and needs as well. You need to understand your customers and why they opted into your list. When you speak to them personally, they will feel more comfortable doing business with you.
Make use of pre-headers in your marketing emails. Certain email clients – the more advanced web-based ones in particular – display a short summary for each email in the inbox. This is the pre-header. It is easy to set up. Clients generate pre-headers from the first line of text in the message. Compose your emails accordingly!
It is very true that your relationship with your customers is a vital part of having a successful business. All businesses need a way to interact with current customers and to be able to reach out to potential customers who are interested in your product. The information and tips in the above article can help you do just that.
