Show customers that their time is valuable by sending them only the most pertinent information in your emails. Do not bore or overwhelm them with strong sales tactics. In each email you should include a solution for a common issue, a innovative way to use products, or some type of special promotion.
Write an interesting subject line for your emails. An enticing or catchy subject line, increases your chances it a potential customer reading the actual email. An email subject which looks to be spam or uninteresting will be passed over and deleted.
Make sure your emails are kept short and sweet. Customers won’t want to read any more than a few paragraphs. Your readers don’t have the time or the attention span for overly long messages. Say what you want to say and let your readers go, and they will return to read your next message.
Use A/B testing to view the subject line. Split your mailing list into two groups and mail one email with one subject line to one group and another to the other group. This allows you to determine which subject lines lead to subscribers opening your emails, and which get deleted without a second thought.
Send your marketing emails out on a regular schedule. Your newsletters should go out on the same day of the week each week, and, if possible, at the same time of day. Uphold your subscribers’ expectations by sticking to the frequency and timeframe that you promised in the first place; it’s not a good idea to leave your customers waiting.
Pick an audience to target. After you have established a small reader base, try to get them to spread the word to their friends. Make it easy for people to invite interested friends by including a “Subscribe” link in every email message you send out. This is a great method to use to organically grow your base.
Send birthday greetings to subscribers. Allow your subscribers to list their birthday on their sign-up forms if they wish, so that you can set your email program to automatically wish them a happy birthday. This helps customers feel like your business cares. To maximize the effect of this technique, send a coupon or discount code along with the automated message.
Send emails with only text. Sure images are fun, but they make email load slow and sometimes email providers block images anyway. Remember that some people are still on dialup and have slow computers. Always make the content of your emails top priority, and focus less on any images that you might decide to include. You will get repeat business by using this technique.
Sending out quality email is a part of establishing a good image for your brand. Because of this, you should design a template which lets you incorporate the company colors, logo, and other special fonts that are on your site. This will enable your customers to quickly recognize the source of the email.
Spamming can be very detrimental to your site, so ensure there’s a confirmation process to your newsletter’s opt in so you only have engaged subscribers. This amounts to sending new subscribers a validation email that aims to confirm that the right email address is subscribing to the list. You should put two links into the email, one that allows them to confirm and the other that allows them to refute their subscription. This will provide you with proof that you’re not a spammer while protecting your readers, giving them confidence in the fact that you respect their wishes.
Keep in mind that major holidays are not the best time to send out important emails. People do not have time to check their emails as much since they are away from work and have limited access to their computers. Yet, there may be exceptions to this. Some examples of this are occasion-specific campaigns such as Black Friday specials.
Be certain that your messages are not simply sales presentations. Your emails should read like a newsletter with interesting information about your business. Any email which seems like nothing more than a marketing ploy will lead your readers to opt-out rapidly. The newsletter can be a great sales technique, but only if your customers don’t feel like you’re selling to them.
Do not annoy your subscribers with an obnoxious “Buy now!” approach. It will eventually backfire. If you do so, your work looks like spam. Your customers are well-aware that you are selling something, so it is more important to build a professional and ongoing relationship. Your customers will appreciate being treated well and will return the favor by buying from you again.
From time to time, change up the format of your emails. For example, use plain text if you usually use HTML and vice versa. If you write these well then you can actually provide a really intimate and simple message that can make people feel comfortable with looking at and purchasing your products.
Before sending your email, make sure you’ve tested all the embedded links. The email will be of no use if customers are unable to connect to your site via links. Your inability to include working links also hurts your credibility with readers.
If you are sending out good emails, your customers will read them out of interest and not realize you are selling something. If you give your readers a value or service, they will be excited to view your current and future emails. This will increase your brand recognition in a positive manner. The end result is that you attract clients who are happy to spend money on your company. Use what you’ve learned from the article above, and start enjoying success with email marketing.
