7 Steps To Tasty Email Marketing
Email marketing sucks! That is if you don’t do it the good and proper way. Do you want to increase your profits and build better relationships with clients and prospects? I thought you’d say yes. That’s why I crafted this handy article about the basics of getting email marketing right. If you’re an email marketing expert then stop reading, but if you’re grappling with the idea of integrating email marketing in your online marketing efforts, then read on.
If there is one thing I want you to take away from this article it’s this. Remember that you’re dealing with people’s most sensitive private space in cyber space – their inbox. You’d better make your message real tasty if you want people to munch and digest what you have to say.
Let’s get to the point. Here are the 7 basic ingredients for successful email marketing.
1. Develop An Email Marketing Strategy
To get the best results it is important to define exactly what you want to achieve with your email marketing right from the outset. The first thing you should consider is whether your emails will be Promotion Based or Retention Based emails. Allow me to explain.
Promotion Based email marketing is focused on getting a quick response from people. For instance you might send an email to entice people to take immediate action to buy a certain product on your website or apply for a loan or… you get the picture.
Retention Based email marketing is focused on building long-term relationships with people. How do I do this you ask? Well, a good start is by proving valuable and relevant content to your audience. I mean your content has to be so tasty that they’ll start drooling when they see your email landing in their inbox (more about this later).
Sometimes the best email marketing is a healthy mix of Promotional and Retention based email newsletters. Now let’s get on to a little more controversial topic – The Mailing List.
2. Build A Solid Mailing list
You heard it before. Don’t SPAM. And now you’ll hear it again. Don’t SPAM. So what on earth is a girl to do if she does not have an existing mailing list? First I want you to think about this. What newsletters do you allow into your inbox? My guess is, only the ones you subscribed to or the ones that provide you with really useful (tasty) content. Am I right?
So common sense would let you know that you should only send your tasty waffles with ice cream emails to inboxes hungry for waffles with ice cream. IOW only send emails to people that subscribed or opted in to your email list. This way you know that they are interested in what you have to offer and they want you to hear from you.
There are various clever ways to build a legitimate email marketing list, but this is a topic that deserves a whole article on it’s own.
3. Create Delicious Content
To connect with your audience you really have to make an effort to create content they will appreciate. It has to resonate with them, provide value and be useful or entertaining. Here’s an example. If you run a car dealership provide ten tips on how to “Pimp Your Ride” and subtly include a link to your parts section on your website where they can see the parts and pricing with options to buy. Or promise prospects within a 50km radius as an incentive to subscribe to your newsletter.
4. Creative Execution
So now you have your email marketing strategy down, your mailing list is ready and your content is oozing milk and honey for hungry inboxes. The next crucial stage for your email marketing success is the creative execution. This is where the rubber meets the road or rather “the design meets the strategy".
Your online marketing agency will be able to design and optimize your emails for the best response by keeping the following in mind.
- Creating subject lines that will grab reader’s attention and not make the email land in a spam bucket.
- Personalize your email to address people on their name. This helps to keep the conversation more personable.
- Design the newsletter for the best viewing experience in their inboxes.
- Keeping the images minimal but still create the necessary visual impact.
- Provide a clear unsubscribe link, forward to a friend link and a link to your website.
5. Integrate With All Other Online Marketing Channels
Make full use of your email marketing by integrating it with all other offline and online marketing channels. Make sure the creative look and feel stays consistent and the tone and style of your messages correspond. This will reinforce your brand message and increase responses.
6. Sending Your Email Marketing Campaigns
By creating beneficial content, establishing the right frequency and testing an email for display and deliverability, an online marketing agency should be able to ensure an outstanding delivery rate. Consistency in sending newsletters encourages trust and fulfills expectations. Emails should be delivered at consistent times, but the best time for best results should be tested. Here’s an example. Test if the campaign yields better open rates on Tuesday mornings versus Thursday mornings. Also, never send out your email campaign on a Monday morning or Friday afternoon.
7. Track, Analyze and Optimize
The awesome thing about email marketing is that you can track and measure how effective your campaign was! Once you’ve sent out a campaign you’ll start getting results within the hour. 3 Days after the campaign launch, in my experience, you should generate a report and look at what the numbers reveal. This information can then be used to analyze your campaign and optimize it for the next one.
Email marketing, used correctly, still delivers one of the best returns on investment out of all online marketing tactics considering the cost to produce it. It’s cheaper than printed direct marketing, faster to create and you can track and analyze responses virtually in real time. This allows you reload quicker and aim more accurately for the next email marketing round.
About the Author
Piet Alberts is an online marketer and creative director in Cape Town, South Africa. He started an Online Marketing & Web Design Agency, Clay Ant Creative, in 2006. Clay Ant Creative offers complete creative, design and online marketing support, including search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, and web design and development.
Feel free to reprint this article on your own web site, as long as you include the resource information above. Questions? E-mail Piet.
Published at http://ww.clayant.co.za/library/internet-vs-traditional-media.php by Clay Ant Creative, An Online Marketing & Web Design Agency.
