There are steps you can take to make sure you are handling your marketing professionally. If you are looking for the right way to go about email marketing, read on.
Do not engage in the distribution of unsolicited email. Your emails may be marked as spam by people who are not interested in receiving them. In addition to having a negative effect on your reputation, this could also cause ISPs to block you.
Limit yourself to sending only one email message each week. Most of your customer base probably has to tend to many other email messages each day. If you send more than a weekly email, they may begin to skip over them or delete them without ever receiving the content you worked so hard to create.
Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to send out important marketing email messages during major holidays. People are often not at work and are busy with families, not checking their emails. There are always going to be exceptions to any rule. For example, Black Friday or other occasion-specific specials may warrant an email sent on a holiday.
With any email marketing materials, limit the use of graphics. Certain email programs will block email that is packed with graphics, so certain members of your audience might not even be able to access your information. Also, your email is likely to end up being sent to junk mail if it contains too many graphics.
Email marketing should have the branding of your business. Design an email template that incorporates elements from your site. By using the same fonts and colours, and including your logo in all of your marketing materials, you will create a visibly unified message. This will foster instant recognition among your readers. Get Response will help you do this easily if you are in need of an emailing service that does that.
Utilize both passive and active feedback in your email campaigns. Readers should be asked to provide suggestions and opinions when offering active feedback. Passive feedback is less obvious, or sometimes non-existent, to readers. You could use whatever software and tools you have to determine the links that are clicked on, most of the time.
Provide an incentive for customers in your emails. Give them a little extra encouragement to give you their business. For example, you could provide them with free shipping on the orders they make that are over $50 if they simply click on one of your links or buy an item on your site.
Give your promotions a personal touch by changing your usual format. If your messages in email marketing are in HTML format, try sending messages written in text format on occasion. If you write it well, you can create a nice emotional connection between your company and the newsletter readers.
Make the mail preview feature of many email clients work for you. Use a pre-header; it is a highlighted piece of text at the top of your email. A lot of email clients will put this after the subject line of your email this will grab the attention of your customers.
Ask for at least a customer's first name at the time that they opt-in to your list. This way, you can customize each recipient's email so that it addresses them individually, making your message seem more personal. This will help your emails stand out from those that seem anonymous and cold.
Every email marketing campaign should include an unsubscribe option. Email messages can cost money, though not very much. You'll also damage your reputation, causing your profits to reduce and potential backlash such as appearing on an email blacklist.
Always keep your reputation in mind as you plan your email marketing strategy. Do not be cheap when it comes to email quality, be careful to target the right customers for your business, and stay away from any tactics that could be considered misleading. The character of your business is at stake, so you must always make sure you keep this in mind.
An effective way to create an email marketing list is to give users an option to sign up for your mailing list on your website. It's simple to set up a sign-up form on your website. People who are interested in your products will be happy to sign up.
You can make an email have multiple parts in order to reach the biggest audience. This includes HTML and content that is plain text. This helps because some customers may prefer to view it in HTML, while another may prefer plain text. The extra effort that this requires is worth it, since not all of your subscribers will be capable of reading HTML-based emails and will quickly unsubscribe from an HTML-only list.
As you build your email contact list, do so naturally. Steer clear of purchasing or renting lists as you may find the list is made up of people not as relevant to your needs as you'd like. Make the list from your real contacts and clients, as well as any networking that you have done. This helps keep your list relevant and can greatly help your business grow.
Your emails should not just be about a sales pitch. Your mailings should be a newsletter, with information about the business information. Simply sending sales pitch emails will disappoint many of your readers, causing many of them to unsubscribe from future emails. You will, of course, use the newsletter for selling purposes, but the readers will lose interest if bombarded with constant pitches.
If you follow the above suggestions, you can create a marketing campaign that is professional and appropriate.
Navigating Through The World Of Email Marketing by Carlos Danger