Marketing your business is a big job. You need to have techniques and methods that allow you to target your customers and clients in a way that fires them up for what you have to offer. Email marketing can be an excellent tool for your marketing strategy if you know how to use it. Here are some good tips to get you going.
Make emails as personal as you can. Just like any other marketing, those who get them will buy more from you if they feel like they know you. As an example, if you are aware of the reason why a group of your subscribers joined your list, add that reason into your messaging.
Ask your customers for feedback on your emails. Since your customers are the most important part of your campaign, it is important to know if they are pleased with the emails they receive from you. You could ask them to fill out a short survey with a few questions on what they like and what they dislike.
To get the most of your email marketing, invest in a program that personalizes your emails with every customer’s given name instead of a generic greeting. Ensuring that every email starts with the recipient’s name is key to encouraging your customers to see your newsletters as valuable information and not just more sales spam.
You should get in touch with your subscribers at certain intervals and confirm with them that they are still interested in receiving emails from you. Most companies do this every nine months so that they can be sure that they are not being seen as an annoyance. This will also guarantee that the people on your email list have genuine interest and are not just taking up space.
When you are building an effective email marketing campaign, you need to have the proper sign-up forms on your company website. Make sure you have them on every page, and also make sure that they are in the proper locations on your site pages. This is key to getting the customers to sign up.
For your email marketing campaigns to be truly effective, every message needs a clear call to action. For example, if you are promoting a new product then you should encourage customers to go directly to that product’s page. On the other hand, if you are promoting a new sale then you should clearly explain how customers can take advantage of that sale.
Your emails should be readable sans images. Many email providers disable images by default, and unless the user changes their settings, they will not be able to see any images you include. Because of this, any images you include in the emails that you send should also be followed by comprehensive text.
To improve your email reading rates, offer subscribers the option of seeing your newsletters in either plain text or HTML. Too many companies send their emails out in only one format, discouraging their less tech-savvy readers or alternately disappointing readers that expect a more dynamic presentation. Offering every newsletter in both formats makes it more accessible.
Change up your formatting once in a while, to imbue a more intimate feel. For example, use plain text if you usually use HTML and vice versa. If your message is written well, plain text adds a personal touch, making customers feel ‘connected’ to the products and services that you offer.
Automatically unsubscribe customers who don’t respond to your marketing materials after a certain number of emails. If your customers aren’t responding to your emails anymore, they most likely have lost interest in your newsletter but aren’t annoyed enough by it yet to unsubscribe. By unsubscribing them, you avoid generating bad feelings that could hurt your business.
Be sure to test your email messages on different platforms to see what they look like to the readers. Once you create a template that looks perfect from where you are, try it on a variety of browsers, operating systems and email clients. For instance, an email opened under Linux Gmail will look different under Windows Hotmail.
There are zombie email addresses, and people do sell them. This not only wastes your time, but it keeps your messages from getting to the right targeted customers. Make sure you know what you are getting into, and make sure you are sending messages to people that could actually do business with you.
Write your message copy with benefits in mind, but not yours. Make sure your messages reflect the benefits that your content, products or services are offering your subscribers and readers. They want to know what is in it for them before they commit to the call to action, which is where your benefit happens.
There is nothing wrong with composing your marketing emails in HTML, but you may find it rewarding to give it a break from time to time. A simple message composed in plain text will be taken as a little more intimate and a little less formal by your subscribers. If you exercise moderation, sending plain text emails can encourage loyalty and draw your readers closer to you.
Use an appropriate font in your e-mails. Realize that not all fonts are supported on all computers. Use a common font. Try not to use anything that is difficult to read or looks especially unprofessional. A bad font can cause a person to dismiss your e-mails without even reading them.
Include two email fields on your email opt-in forms. Often people will make typos when entering their email address. Asking subscribers to type it two times makes these mistakes less likely to slip through, and increases the likelihood of your messages being received.
Email marketing can be a great opportunity to reach your clients and customers. If you implement the tips that this article has given you, you are likely to notice that your target market is more satisfied. Use the tips here to create a solid email marketing plan that ultimately raises your profits.
