Essential Tips for Email Marketing Success

Susan Poirier — December 8, 2016 Follow @aceconcierge

Email marketing is a basic, yet elemental solution to reach out to millions of people in a matter of seconds. Your personalized message is a cost effective business tool to touch a larger target market at a much lower cost than hard copy mass mailings or print ads.

Email Marketing Will:

• Help you build lists
  
• Increase website traffic
  
• Generate sales
  
• Stay in touch with clients
  
• Share data about your company
  
• Create an instant call to action
  
• Enhance your brand or corporate image

As a form of direct marketing in the digital world, your communication is sent directly into the hands of your consumer, delivering impact and content. This isn’t simply a mass broadcast, but a carefully crafted bulls-eye message to your interested audience.

Your email marketing campaigns are delivered via different types of email or messaging platforms. Tip: don’t spam your readers and ALWAYS ask permission before you send a newsletter, a text message or add them to a list. OPT-IN!

1. Transactional – triggered by a consumer action. When a customer buys a product, pays via credit/debit card or even makes an online reservation, emails or text messages are generated based upon this activity. This type of communication provides the marketer with an immediate opportunity for another touch point with the consumer to deepen the relationship and buyer satisfaction.

The Transactional emails have 8x more opens and clicks than any other type of email, and can generate 6x more revenue. Experian

1. Email Newsletters – regular emails delivered to opt-in subscribers containing relevant industry content, solutions to pain points, and company news in addition to some promotional news/e-commerce products. These help to keep your audience connected and informed during the purchase or marketing cycle.
   
2. Mobile Messages – text messages for appointment reminders, sales, special mobile opportunities as well as typical campaigns read via a device. Mobile messaging continues to grow at exponential rates – be mobile ready, mobile friendly, and responsive.

A fundamental purpose of your email marketing is to make it simple and easy for the consumer to act. You want them to opt-in, click, engage, share, purchase and be your brand evangelist.

Guide Your Audience

1. Add a sign up box in your email signature, website, social platforms and other marketing collateral
   
2. Make your content rich and relevant
   
3. Solve pain points and address gnawing issues (How can you improve their lives?)
   
4. Add share buttons
   
5. Embed links to your blog, products and services
   
6. Always use a CTA (call to action) in your emails

Engage Your Readers

1. Readers want to know, ‘What’s it in for me?’ Make sure your email delivers
   
2. Your email needs to capture their attention immediately. Use a clear and captivating subject title
   
3. Content should be relevant and engaging. It’s too easy for your reader to click the delete button. If either of these two expectations is not met, your reader may delete or unsubscribe
   
4. Encourage your readers to share your e-newsletter by offering incentives
   
5. Keep it short and sweet
   
6. Add links to drive traffic to your site or to reference other attention grabbing articles
   
7. Develop a reputation as value added – a resource in your industry

There are many email marketing platforms to choose from so it is important to review the features, benefits and cost structure of each of them, learning which one best suits your company and your needs. Consider your present situation as well as future expansion. What might work now, may not work in a few years.

As with any marketing or social media communications, consistency is key, as is your content marketing. You are writing for your reader, not for yourself. Understand their wants and needs.

Hold off on sounding spammy and merely pushing products and services – it becomes overkill and annoying. Your marketing efforts should be to not only educate and inform, but more importantly, build the relationships with your audience.

This is the heart of your business!

Thanks for reading. I hope you found this post useful and informative. What successes have you experienced with email marketing? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

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