Email marketing can be a bit of a minefield and if you get it wrong you can do your reputation (and indeed your business) a lot of harm.
It is never simply a matter of firing off a quick email with the first random thoughts that come into your head and pressing ‘send.’ However judging from some of the marketing emails I receive, it seems that this is exactly what some people actually do.
There is an art to email marketing and these six simple email marketing solutions will help ensure that your emails get opened, read and acted on:
- Never, ever send spam. The golden rule is that you only send business emails to those people who have given you permission to do so. Targeting random people in the hope they want your goods or services (or worse – buying email lists for the same purpose) is not the way to go. Do not do this.
- Respect your email list. You may think you have the most wonderful offer that your subscribers will be fighting over to get their hands on. The trick is to promote it well…but not so much that your subscribers will get sick of hearing about it. For example ten emails a day would almost certainly be too much. But would three…or four?
- Really know your subscribers. People love personal service and despite the long-distance aspect of the Internet, people still enjoy great levels of personal service. So while most people on your list will know that your marketing message is going to everyone, they still want to think that it has been written just for them. When you really know your subscribers, your emails will always be relevant and you will instinctively know when the time is right to send out another marketing mailing.
- Know what you want to say. Before you set out to write any business email you must know what you want to say. If you don’t have a clear idea what your message is and what the desired response to your email is then don’t even consider writing it yet. You have to get this clear in your own head so take time on getting this step right.
- Say what you mean to say. Make a list of the key points you want to cover in your email. This ensures that you don’t miss out anything important and that you don’t include anything irrelevant. Use clear, simple and concise language that everyone can understand. You will never get complaints that your emails are too easy to understand.
- Don’t mail to sleeping customers. I don’t understand why so many people like to send emails at midnight…I can’t read emails while I am sleeping. Even worse, by the time I am awake then the midnight emails are right at the back of the queue. Spend some time working out when the best time is to send emails to your list. This can dramatically affect your open, click through and conversion rates.
Finally you will want to use a reputable auto-responder to manage your email campaigns. This must be flexible enough to meet your needs, must actually get your emails delivered and be easy to use. RocketResponder was designed to be fast, flexible and efficient – while not surprising you with unwelcome price hikes as your subscriber list grows.
If you follow these six simple email marketing solutions then your emails should get opened by your subscribers and they will be more likely to take the action you want them to take.
