Email Marketing is so NOT ‘out’

InboxI had an interesting conversation with a client recently on their reservations about starting an email marketing campaign. They thought email marketing was ‘out’ and getting emails from companies was considered spam. I am not sure if I could have disagreed more.

Email marketing campaigns are a great way to stretch your marketing dollars and to keep in touch with those customers and potentials who want to hear from you the most. In these tougher times email marketing is a great low cost way to market your company with a proven method of high return.

Email is the number one thing people participate in on the internet! Your ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have done an outstanding job lately coming up with new ways to protect you from spam.

Here are a few major point to help get you started and to make sure your email marketing campaign is a success:

  • Quality over Quantity -Build your email list with quality contacts. Try to avoid scanning every badge you get at a trade show or collecting as many business cards as you can stuff in your pockets. Of course you are interesting and your products or service is the best – but make sure the people who are on your list want to hear from you regularly. If not, you may start with 1000 subscribers but over time that list will dwindle as people unsubscribe or, worse, mark your email as spam in their inbox.  Poor open rates and clickthroughs are not only a waste of computing resources, but will negatively impact the overall deliverability of your campaigns.
  • Lay out your agenda right away
    Try to set up a welcome email for when people subscribe to your campaign. Let people know right away what they will be receiving from you in their inbox and make sure to take note in that email how often they will expect to hear from you.
    Example: Thank you for signing up for our monthly newsletter. Each month you will hear from us tips and tricks about our industry.
    Set that bar right away. Try to keep that schedule of emails coming out on a regular basis. It creates a trust between you and your potential reader.
  • Monitor your results
    After you are cranking out stellar emails it isn’t quite over – you have to constantly measure your success!  Figure out which emails got the most feedback, the highest open rate or were forwarded to more people. Think about cleaning up your list or tailoring special offers for particular subscriber behavior.Have ten people who haven’t ever opened your email? Send an email out just to them to see if they are still interested in receiving your correspondence. Have 5 people who always seem to forward your emails to their friends? Maybe create a special offer just for them for spreading the good word.

Email marketing is a easy cost effective way to spread your message and drive traffic to your website. The best way to not let yourself be catorized as spam is to produce good, worthwhile content that your readers will look forward to receiving from you.

Photo Credit cdevroe

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