It can be tough when you are first starting out in business to learn the proper way to conduct an email marketing campaign. There is a certain way to handle email marketing professionally that will keep your customers happy and looking forward to receiving communications from you. Keep reading for some great etiquette tips for your email marketing campaign.
Before you send out emails, make sure to proofread them. It’s essential that your emails or newsletters are correct, especially if you want to appear professional. Prior to sending each message, print a layout sample to ensure that the message appears as you intended. Test any links within the context of your email, so that you know they work.
Make sure you use Alt tags to your benefit when you add images to emails. If an image fails to load or the recipient’s client refuses to load images, the image’s alt tag will appear. The tags’ descriptions should be relevant to the picture in order for the recipient to see its purpose. Use them in conjunction with links, as well.
One very important thing to think about is that you need to be consistent when you are branding your business. The more repetition you use in colors, subject lines or overall design, the more recognizable your emails will become over time. If each email you send is different than the last, your customers may not remember you.
Remember that the purpose of email marketing is ultimately to sell your products. Every email you send should bring your readers one step closer to making a purchase. You can achieve this by using your messages to inform subscribers about new products, to tout the benefits of existing products, or to promote special offers or other incentives.
Try to make the message in your emails sound somewhat personal. This will make it more likely that customers will read each message without growing bored of the same old content. You can further increase the impact of your emails by sending them out from someone with an important position in your company, like the president or owner.
Ensure that your messages get right to the point and that they’re concise. Nobody is going to peruse an email communication with many paragraphs. People are busy and don’t have much time to deal with marketing messages. Make your point and allow your readers to move on, and they’ll come back for the next installment.
Email marketing is a most effective and easy method to contact interested parties about your products or services. When marketing through email, make sure that your messages are concise and that they get right to the point. It is unlikely that most people will be interested in a lengthy treatise about light fixtures or cardboard boxes. Don’t forget to include a link back to your website!
Remember, that many of your email subscribers will be reading your mailings on mobile devices, like smartphones. These gadgets have lower resolutions than modern computer monitors, so you won’t have as much space to use. Find out how your messages look on these devices, and make any changes necessary to make them easy to read on small phone screens.
Take all the subscription information you’ve obtained and put it to use in order to make each customer’s experience that much easier and more personalized. When one of your customers clicks on a link provided in one of your emails that goes to your site, utilize this information from the subscription in order to automatically fill in the portions of this purchasing form. This makes the sales process go much smoother and encourages them to buy.
It is a legal requirement to get someone’s permission before adding them to your mailing list. If you do not do this, people will view you as a spammer and will simply delete all your emails or possibly unsubscribe from your site. Even worse, when your email provider collects so many spam complaints about you, they could cut you off for failing to abide by their spam policies.
Every customer on your email list should be someone who clearly opted in to your email marketing campaign. This reduces the chances of your emails being marked as spam.
Do not send out a marketing email without first testing every link in the message. If your customers are unable to answer your call to action by visiting your site and purchasing your products, the value of your message is precisely zero. It may also damage your reputation because you’re not even able to create an email with links that work.
Celebrate your subscribers’ birthdays with a congratulatory message. Your opt-in can include a field for birth date input, thus allowing you to send automatic birthday wishes. 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.
Each message needs on clear message. Do not let your customers get annoyed or bored by your content. Create one simple message that is short and direct to the point. Your readers will like your brief and to the point newsletter, which isn’t burdened by tons of unwanted information.
Do not ever send unsolicited emails to unsuspecting customers. Messages sent to recipients who did not request them are at risk of being marked as spam. This is not only harmful to your reputation, but it can actually cause your ISP to block you or your email service provider to suspend your account.
Branding your email marketing in a similar fashion to your other marketing endeavors will ensure your customers instantly recognize your content. Because of this, you need to create a template that will let you incorporate your company colors, fonts and logos that you use on all of your marketing materials. This will make you instantly recognizable to your readers.
As evidenced above, proper marketing protocol is an important practice. When you don’t respect your clients, they will leave your email list. Use this advice to avoid annoying your happy customers.