What are the important techniques and strategies for successful email marketing? Email marketing campaign is a very important component of a profitable online business. Email marketing campaign can include newsletters, special promotions, articles related to your offer, and recent news about your business.
Email is one of the most inexpensive and effective tools for online marketing. People usually check their emails every day, increasing the chances that your message will be seen and read. In order to succeed in email marketing, you need to learn how to write effective email that captures reader’s attention, doesn’t appear like spam, and turns readers into customers.
What is Email Marketing?
Effective email marketing can give you a lot of benefits. Your online marketing cannot reach its optimum without incorporating email into your campaign. Here are some of the benefits of email marketing:
Email Marketing Tools
You will need the right tool for your email marketing to take care of distribution of your emails and to have a perfect analysis of the results. Never use Microsoft Outlook or regular email account to send commercial emails. Most email providers flag commercial emails sent to hundreds of recipients as spam and block such emails.
You will need a good auto responder to handle requests to subscribe or unsubscribe automatically for you. You should be able to write and prepare emails in advance and set the dates you want them sent. Use reputable email broadcast system such as iContact, GetResponse, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, etc.
GetResponse is one of the easiest email marketing tools with simple user interface and affordable price. It can help you create professional looking newsletters.
Constant Contact is better for handling several thousand contacts and to manage huge contact list, more suited for a large business. It has a number of templates and great social media integration, but not a simple user interface and more expensive than others on the market.
iContact has a simple user interface and great social media integration and reasonable monthly rate.
You’ll need to go through each site and search to find the best tool for your marketing plan. Check out to see how it integrates with other Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that you currently use. Another point to consider while selecting email marketing tool is the social media integration, and to allow you in your email marketing anywhere from your mobile.
Use Proper Format
If you plan to have a successful email campaign, you need to use proper format that would appeal to your potential customers. Some of the formatting options that you can use are newsletters, articles, sales messages, feedbacks, surveys, etc.
Before you come up with the correct format, you need to:
Email Design Techniques
In order to maximize the results from an email marketing campaign, you need to know some basic design techniques that will help get your message read.
Segment Your Audience
From the beginning of your email marketing, try to segment your audience into different categories in order to be able to manage all your emails. The categories might be prospects, customers, newsletter subscribers, type of prospect, product interest, etc.
If you have more than one target market, you also want to separate each one into a different category for your future follow-ups. Remember that while your subject line may speak to one group of people, it may not to another group. You should be able to sort your data based on fields of information, or create a totally separate lists.
Building Your Email List
Building a large list of subscribers is an important part of any successful email marketing. Avoid buying a list of email addresses because you run the risk of people not opening emails from an unknown sender’s name or even flag it as spam. In addition, many email marketing providers prohibit the use of purchased lists.
Your goal should be to build your list by including only customers and those who have given you permission by opting in or requesting to receive information from you.
Most people receive a lot of emails on a daily basis and reluctant to fill their inboxes with additional emails trying to sell them something. However, many people don’t mind receiving discounts or coupons if they first give you the permission.
In order to build your list, you have to come up with an incentive to encourage people to opt in to receive commercial emails, such as discounts and coupons, special offers, free newsletters, free gifts, free e-books, free valuable information, and so on.
You need to place an attractive signup form or a link to a subscribe page on every page of your website and in every email broadcast. Make sure to include “Unsubscribe” to every email you send to your customers and subscribers, and honor every request by removing people off your list. In fact, your email marketing provider should offer this feature to automatically remove those who want to be removed from your list.
Once your email list is set up, you want to start your email marketing campaigns after confirming every successful option to your list. Here are some ideas:
You may come up with more, depending on your email marketing and type of your business.
Subject Line of Your Email
Subject line is an important part of any email because it is the first thing your prospect or customer notices. If the recipient is not enticed to open an email based on the subject line, your email will be deleted instantly disregarding of how good the rest of your email is.
A good subject line is like a good headline of an ad or news story. It has to capture the recipient’s attention immediately and compel them to read your message. It must provide some type of incentive and arouse curiosity.
Most people spend less than 5 seconds to decide whether to open or delete a commercial email. That’s why the subject line is the most important part of your email, and without a good subject line, your entire campaign will be wasted.
Here are some basic tips to keep in mind:
When you send out emails, make sure to address it to the owner of the email address. Also, try to personalize your emails to make your customers feel special. Most email marketing software provides the option to automatically include the names from the database into a default header. In addition, most software allows A/B split testing to try various subject lines to determine which one works best.
Writing the First Line in Your Email
After the subject line, your first line is extremely important to the success of your email marketing. It is also the toughest part of email marketing. Your readers will decide whether to read the rest of email based on the first sentence.
In order to increase the chance for your email to be read, start the email with a personalized greeting by referring to the subscriber or your customer by his or her first name. Your customer will feel that the content is being written exclusively for him or her.
Avoid starting your email with a generic greeting such as “Dear Sir,” “Dear Madam,” or “Hi.” You want to make your recipient feel special and build relationship. So try to insert contact names in the beginning of your email to make your readers feel you are speaking directly to them. After greeting, your first line should start with the best offer right away. You must communicate directly, clearly and effectively to make the connection.
When you start your email marketing you have customers and prospects waiting for you to offer solutions to their problems and their needs. You must fully understand your target market in order to be able to communicate with them effectively.
You need to know why they have purchased a certain product from you and why they have volunteered to subscribe to your list. They are your best asset and a reason for you to be in business. Try hard to treat them with respect and give the best service you can possibly give.
You have created a subject line, so continue with that without boring them. The first line of your email can also be a question to increase their curiosity to want to know more. When you begin your first line with a question, make sure that you have a solution.
Write Good Content
For your email marketing to be profitable you need to make your message more personal and address your customer by their names. Before your write your content, put yourself in your customer’s shoes by asking yourself what would appeal to your customers. And then build your message around the needs and interests of your customers.
Try to write about topics you are knowledgeable or willing to research thoroughly to become expert. Do not give advice that you’re not certain. You have to write quality content to keep your readers interested. Avoid making your message too generic and boring. Avoid too many exclamation marks. Try to make your message clear and direct.
Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Use bold, italic, numbers and bullets. Don’t underline a text message except for links. People don’t like long and dense text emails, but usually scan your content to see the important points that benefits them.
Never use all capital letters. Don’t tag your emails as “high priority” or “urgent” when they are not. Be sure to check the spelling to make sure everything is correct. Don’t rely on your computer’s spell-checker because they’re not 100% reliable.
Email Call to Action
Your email message is incomplete without compelling call to action. There must be a purpose for your email marketing. In order to make your marketing profitable, you want your readers to take further action. It is your job to encourage them to do so.
Make your call to action noticeable in your email. Be direct and tell people what to do next, whom to contact, etc. Don’t use buttons or banners on your emails, but try to provide text links anywhere feasible within your content in bold font to make it noticeable. Remind them again at the end of your email.
If you want your readers to take immediate action, create a sense of urgency by mentioning the deadline, such as: “25% discount if you order by December 15.”
Time Your Email
Never attempt to bombard your customer’s email account with marketing offers. Advertising email more than once a week can be very annoying to most people.
Try to stick with a consistent schedule such as every other Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. Your subscribers will begin to look forward to receive your emails and that’s exactly what you want to accomplish. During peak sales period, you may want to send out two emails a week for a short period such as two weeks if you have a special offer with a deadline.
By John Stanford – 2019 – Update 2020
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For additional articles written by John Stanford, see alliedpublishing.com/online-marketing. John Stanford is the author of Ultimate Guide to Successful Online Marketing published in 2019.