Email Marketing is a good way to reach all your customers, no matter where they are. But it is a great responsibility, people do not give their email addresses to anyone, and misusing this information could harm you.
Are you thinking about starting to create your own Email Marketing campaigns? These are some tips you should keep in mind.
- Make it easy to subscribe to your newsletter
It includes a registration form on the main page of your website, blog, your Facebook page, and in all the places where you think your clients are active. Include only the necessary fields in the form : name, date of birth (for a special offer for your birthday), email and sex. Too many mandatory fields in the form, could scare away your customers.
- Inform them of the conditions of the subscription
If you plan to send company updates, letters from the president, daily offers or weekly tips, it is important to let your readers know so they know what to expect from that subscription and how often. Offer them as much information as possible on the registration form, so they can decide whether or not they want to be on your list.
- Send them a welcome message
It is always a good idea to send your new subscribers a welcome message, in which for example, you send them a special offer or exclusive content, as a thank you for their loyalty.
- Design a newsletter that suits your corporate image
Your Email Marketing campaigns must match the look of your brand and contain a language adapted to your corporate image. If you are using a template, customize it with your colors, and include your logo in the email header. If all the publications you send and the design of the emails are in accordance with the image you want to transmit, it will be easier to familiarize and retain your readers from the beginning.
- Make it simple
Surely your subscribers will be very busy people who will receive a lot of emails every day, so it will be difficult to get all their attention. Use short paragraphs, subtitles and images to guide your gaze to what really interests you. You can also add a line at the beginning that briefly describes the content of the email. If you are going to send a long article, consider inserting a “read more” type link, so that they can read the rest of the email whenever it suits them. The subject of the emails must be direct, so that your readers can decide if they are interested in opening it. It is also a good idea to try two different issues and see which one works best.
- Send them the content that interests them
The Email Marketing tools that you can use to create your campaigns, offer you the possibility to segment your readers in different groups, to offer each one only the content that interests you. In fact, if your customers are two different types of communities, you could ask them in the registration form, to check a box to join a particular group. For example, if you have an online store, and you have an exclusive offer in women’s clothing, send the offer only to women who are registered in your newsletter. Bad segmentation can lead to the loss of subscribers.
- Keep a publication calendar
A periodic newsletter is a commitment. If you have not sent anything for several months, your subscribers will forget about you and may mark your emails as Spam. Take some time to plan, write, and design and send your newsletters regularly.
- Allow time for editing and review
When you are working on your publication calendar, leave enough time for the editing and review process. Once you send a campaign, you cannot go back and update it. Neglected and misspelled bulletins reflect a bad image of the company that sends them. Spelling and style are as important in emails as in your blog. Before launching the campaign, send a test email to verify that all the images look good and the links are correct.
- Think mobile
If a campaign cannot be seen properly from a mobile device, it will not work. According to a study, 63% of Americans and 41% of Europeans, read their emails from their smartphone, and this data will continue to increase in the coming years, therefore, use a responsive template for your emails, it is an obligation.
- Know the rules of Spam
Only mass emails are allowed to people who asked to be on that list. Include a link at the end of your emails in which you can unsubscribe and remind your readers, why they came to that list.
- Control the results
Most Email Marketing tools offer free reports that contain very useful information for your campaigns. Learn to read and understand these reports, so you can use statistics to improve your email marketing campaigns for the future. Pay attention to the number of open emails and clicks, and identify the patterns that cause those numbers to go up or down. If a campaign receives a high number of unsubscribe, try something different next time.
- Be friendly
Feel free to use an informal tone in your email newsletters. A voice that is too formal or too heavy may seem out of place. Your subscribers have provided you with their email address, so you can start to build a relationship with them. Customize your emails including the first name of your subscribers and use a more relaxed tone that hooks them from the beginning.
- Send and email only if you have something to say
This advice seems obvious, but many companies start sending newsletters without any plans and nothing interesting to say. Before starting an Email Marketing campaign, make sure it is a commitment that you can sustain and that will help you achieve your business objectives. Otherwise, you could waste your subscribers’ time and yours. Ask yourself: What is the objective of this type of communication? What do I have to say? How will I measure the success of the campaigns?
