We’ve all received unwelcome or unsolicited email and too often have hit the delete button without even opening the message, let alone reading the content! Email marketing is often mistakenly aligned with direct mail – spamming needlessly and often achieving low success rates. However correctly targeted and designed well with relevant content, many businesses have seen a positive response to their marketing.
Ensure your have a winning formula by following these simple tips:
- Keep emails short and concise – if you need to expand details then link further information to a website or blog
- Use a balance of both visuals and text – create an attractive layout that is easy to read and digest so it’s easy on the eye to read
- Ensure the content is relevant for your audience – it is more important to drive engagement i.e. will they be interested in what you have to say and will they appreciate receiving your information – is it something they can use, or will help answer their queries. Are you segmenting your emails or just sending out a blanket email to everyone?
- Tailor your tone of the email to your audience – this may vary depending on whether you’re reaching out to prospective clients or current clients who know you well
- Make sure the content is timely – with email being instantaneous ensure that your content isn’t out of date with its news but also that you are sending it at the right time of the week or at the right time of day. An email sent at 6pm on a Friday may be better sent on a Tuesday at 10 for example – of course it depends on the business so ensure you are tracking who is opening it and when.
- Include a catchy email subject to entice recipients to open the email – try to avoid salesy ‘Buy Now’ messages which are often considered spam and end up in the dreaded junk folder
- Plan your frequency – listen to what your audience want – would weekly or monthly communication of valuable content work better than daily content?
- Measure and evaluate your activity – there are lots of free or low cost online e-mailing solutions such as MailChimp, Aweber, Get Response and more which can provide reports on how many people have clicked open the email, clicked on links or have even unsubscribed. You can then gage what works or doesn’t work with your audience as well as save you a lot of time on the manual management of your database.
- Make sign up to your communications easy and accessible – embed a sign up form into your website and attract more subscribers by using a valuable free download offer.
- Promote your offer to get people to sign up – You can then promote this offer by adding links to your email signature and social media profiles and posting out on social media.
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