5 Email marketing best practice tips
Email marketing can be a highly effective tool in your marketing arsenal, as long as it’s done right. Make sure you’re on the right track with these tips.
Gail Goodman
Email marketing is an easy and cost-effective way for anyone to reach their target audience. It’s effective for everyone from small businesses, franchises and entrepreneurs to organisations, non-profits and associations. Here are a few tips to make your email marketing work for you.
1. Know your audience
Say a sporting goods store emails a promotion on kayaks, canoes and accessories to its entire list. Hikers and cyclists might not open the email.
But if the same sporting goods store segments its general list into boaters, hikers and cyclists – they’ve got the basis for three targeted mailings based on customers’ interests. Segmenting can divide groups by other characteristics too. Are they prospective customers, casual buyers or VIP members?
Deliver a personalised experience by knowing your customers better. Quality beats quantity, making it important to target customers with relevant content.
2. Give subscribers valuable content
Make your customers feel special. For example, a savvy wine merchant doesn’t just advertise specials but also offers a short article on why this year’s French Beaujolais are so fabulous.
Useful little tips are appreciated, making it likely that you are the go-to business when the customer is ready to buy. Coupons, sales alerts and advance peeks at new merchandise are all valuable. Mix in interesting content to separate your emails from the other promotions bombarding customers’ inboxes. Become a trusted advisor and your emails will always be welcomed.
3. Have a goal for each campaign
Know why you’re sending an email and what you want to happen with it. It’s not always about making a sale, you can send monthly tips to stay connected to your customers and remain top of mind. Your goal is to make sales and engage your audience.
A clear call to action produces the best results, so remember to make your call to action stand out amongst the other links, copy and graphics.
4. Adhere to the basics of best practice
Permission is more than polite; it’s the mantra of all legitimate email marketers. Get permission before putting any name you’ve collected on your email list. Make sure your ‘from’ line includes your business name, and your subject line is specific and free of screaming capital letters and exclamation points.
Let them know who is sending it and why they should open it. In a world of information overload, only thoughtful, welcomed emails have a chance of breaking through the static.
5. Pay attention to reports
Email marketing offers wonderful, real-time intelligence on the people reading your emails. Review your tracking and subscriber reports and see what’s working and what’s not. Experiment with segmented lists and subject lines. Write new content. Solicit reader feedback.
Respect unsubscribes. Read up on industry trends. Great email marketers make email marketing part of their business plans. They learn more about their customers and email marketing best practices. They pay attention to their reports, try new things to improve their campaigns, and avoid common mistakes.
If these top five traits seem like a lot to accomplish, set a goal to work on one a month for the next five months. You’ll go from good to great before you know it.