Member Article

Top Ten Email Marketing Tips

Email Marketing is a cost effective tool for promoting you business and building loyalty, trust and brand awareness. Newcastle web design agency Urban River takes a look at Ten Top Email Marketing Tips to help you get the best results from your email marketing.

1. Decide Goals

When starting any email marketing campaign it’s important to define your goals and you can do this by looking at who you are talking to and what you want achieve. By thinking about your audience, what they are like and what they would want to know you can then tailor your email message so it is focused to their needs. A focused message sent to the right people will be much more effective than one that isn’t.

2. Value Your Audience

Once you’ve got a better understanding of your audience you should then make sure they know that they are valued because at the end of the day happy subscribers are vital to the success of your email marketing campaigns. You can make your customers feel special by providing them with special offers, helpful tips and promotional materials and by running surveys and polls to gain their feedback.

3. Build a List

You’ll not get very far with your email marketing if you don’t have a list of key contacts. There are many ways in which you can build your list. You can add a sign-up button on your website and let customers know they are signing up to receive marketing emails. You can put sign up books or postcards out at your office location and at exhibitions so customers can add their names easily. You can also encourage people to sign up through your online and offline marketing by telling them about the benefits they will get from your email news and by offering discounts or giveaways as an incentive to join.

4. Don’t Spam!

There a few vital things to remember so that you avoid sending spam. The first and most significant is that you must have permission to send email marketing materials. If you don’t have permission then it will be considered spam and if the person receiving your email thinks its spam, then it is. You should never buy lists of email addresses as bought email lists often result in a high number of complaints which can cause your account to be closed. Your subscribers have allowed you permission to email them and trust you to send appropriate content so don’t abuse that trust and always treat them with respect. Finally, you must include an unsubscribe link within your emails so that if the recipient decides they no longer wish to receive your emails they can opt out at any time.

5. Quality not Quantity

When it comes to email marketing the quality over quantity rule applies. It is considerably better to have a small subscriber list of contacts who are actually interested in receiving your emails than a huge list of unqualified recipients. You will find that improved results will be produced from a small list because it is more targeted and you should always keep in mind that interest in your product or service is more important than list size.

6. Composing your Email

There are certain things you should consider when composing your email in order to build trust and maximise the effectiveness. Put your company name in the “from” field so subscribers instantly recognise who has sent them the email. Keep your subject line short and snappy – an enticing summary of the email will work best as it leads the subscriber to open it and read more. Include your company logo at the top of the email to reinforce your brand image and don’t forget to include a persuasive call to action. Your call to action should clearly explain what you would like the reader to do, whether that is to visit your website, register for an event or buy now!

7. Content Counts

After you’ve decided what you want to say you need to figure out how to say it. Your content should allure, connect and inspire recipients and you can do this by focusing your content around what you think they will want to read about. Keep your message as simple as possible and use language and tone that your subscribers understand and can relate to. If you have a lot to say but not enough room to fit it in you can reduce your email and make it easier to read by using short paragraphs, bullet points and including links to your website.

8. Let your personality shine

We’ve already mentioned that it’s important to keep your messages short and sweet and it’s also equally important to let the personality of your brand shine through with your interesting and relevant content. Be chatty and relaxed in your tone and write your content as if you’re having a conversation with them. The more friendly and interesting you are the more likely your subscribers will continue to open all of the emails you send.

9. Don’t bombard!

How you decide how often to send email marketing campaigns should be based on whatever fits with you and your audience. If you’re having trouble gauging what frequency is best we suggest that you only send emails when you have something relevant and interesting to say. One thing is for sure don’t bombard your clients with emails! If you send too many emails your subscribers will become frustrated and annoyed and its likely they will stop reading them and then eventually will be driven to unsubscribe.

10. Test Test Test!

We can’t stress enough how crucial it is to test your email marketing campaigns. Every time you prepare an email marketing campaign you need to make sure it works multiple browsers and email programmes. You can test your emails by setting up several accounts with a variety of services and programmes and simply send the emails to yourself to check over. The main programmes to consider are Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail and AOL. When checking your emails you should keep an eye out for untidy formatting and broken images.

Urban River provides a cost effective email marketing solution - give us a call on 0191 423 4588 to find out more.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Urban River .