Almost anyone who has an email address has probably received some form of email marketing. Email marketing is a way that businesses can market to existing customers, as well as reach new customers, by email. If email marketing is something you think could be useful to your business, keep reading for great ideas.
Minimize traditional email marketing activities during the holidays. Customers are preoccupied with family and friends, and are less likely to be paying attention to business email. Your odds of ending up in the spam box are considerably higher, which could have longer term implications for your bottom line. The major exception to this would be a business directly related to the holiday activities. Otherwise, give yourself a break and enjoy some downtime yourself. Business will be back on track in a day or two.
Ask your customers for feedback on your emails. Since your customers are the most important part of your campaign, it is important to know if they are pleased with the emails they receive from you. You could ask them to fill out a short survey with a few questions on what they like and what they dislike.
Before sending out emails to your subscribers, try to let them know what you will be sending them and how often they can expect to hear from you. This way, they know when to expect your email and they can prevent it from getting automatically sent to their spam folder.
If you want your email marketing messages to flow out across the Internet to people’s inboxes, consider where you are sending them from. Sent frequently from known and stable IP addresses is best. Sudden surges from new IP locations can raise suspicions and even result in blocks and blacklists from ISP’s.
Not only should you provide your subscribers with an easy way to unsubscribe, but also you should ensure that it goes into effect immediately. Receiving emails from you after they have unsubscribed will give recipients a negative impression about you, harming any future relationships with them. Process requests to unsubscribe right away.
It is significantly more effective to build your own e-mail list for e-mail marketing than to purchase a list, or acquire the services of a marketing company that has their own lists. The reason for this is that everyone who submits their e-mail address to be a part of your list is interested in the services or products that you have to offer. These people are far more likely to be receptive to your e-mail.
Be sure that every email address you have is valid. There’s no point in spending a lot of time sending new messages to addresses on your list after they bounce. You have better things to do!
The most obvious way to increase the number of people who subscribe to your email list is to make it easy to sign up for your list on your website. You can go ahead and provide people with this option on your site. Just make a place where people can sign up for updates and everyone can be happy.
Be sure to ask permission to be able to send information to someone’s email. When asking, be sure to offer something in return. Turn it into something that your customers will look forward to checking instead of dreading it. This will keep your emails from looking and feeling like spam.
Encourage your recipients to forward your e-mails to friends that might be interested. A recommendation from a friend is very effective due to the fact that people trust their friends. This is a great way to introduce your business to potential customers that are very likely to have an interest in your products or services.
Offer your customers a chance to sign up for your special email promotions. This way, they will have voluntarily signed up to be receiving your emails and the messages and promotions will not come across to them as spam. Gaining the permission of your customers to email them with offers will help keep your customer’s trust intact.
Make sure that the call to action in your messages is crystal clear. Featuring this element prominently dramatically increases the chances of a reader clicking on it and following through to your landing page. Even if they do not on a particular message, it will prevent them from getting soured on a jumbled message that does not seem to have a focal point.
Show your subscribers respect by not sending them tons of unwanted emails. Two or three email messages a month should be all that they receive from you. If you are flooding their email boxes, not only it will not be appreciated, but it will be highly unlikely they will buy anything that you are selling.
After about nine months, ask your subscribers to re-confirm their wishes to receive emails from you. Retention can be tricky, but those on your email list will appreciate you asking, and will be less likely to unsubscribe. The re-confirmation process will also let you know which readers are loyal to you.
Send a confirmation email to new sign-ups to ensure they really want to receive your email marketing. This will allow your customer to be sure that they want to receive mail from you. Doing so will minimize the likelihood of your messages being reported as spam, or complaints against your business by people who don’t desire to receive your emails.
Since email marketing is so commonplace, it is easy to assume that everyone has been exposed to it. It is the premier option for companies to get their offers and messages out to clients. It can work very well as a marketing strategy if utilized right and that can be easily done by using the advice given to you in this article.
