Top 10 Tips For Email Marketing

Why should you choose email marketing? Email marketing has proven time and again to be a very cost effective and efficient marketing tool. Email is a tool that almost everyone uses today and it is much more cost effective than traditional marketing.As can be seen in the below graph, email marketing offers the best return on investment. Before we look at the top 10 tips for email marketing we will look at some of the advantages of this channel.

Top  tips & advantages of email marketing

Email marketing is simple, affordable & effective. As you are only sending emails to customers who agreed to give you their email address, this can lead to much higher conversion rates. It is also a good idea to segment your email list based on customers who would have an interest in this particular message and this will improve the performance of your email. Emails are easy to create and the process is a very quick one. It is also very easy for your customers to share the email with their contacts.

Boost your sales:

Email marketing can boost your sales. If you are a traditional brick & mortar company you can include money off vouchers that the customer can print off and bring in store or promote special offers. For online companies special promotional codes can be used and special offers as well as many other options.

Social media integration:

You can easily integrate social media icons into your email to allow social media to be part of your strategy. By doing this you are expanding the reach of your email message. It also gives your email subscribers more ways to connect with you.

Track your success:

Measuring the success of your email strategy is easy. You can measure click through and bounce rates as well as many other options. This gives you the possibility to see what is working and what is not working and you can make changes immediately to improve the campaign something that just is not possible with traditional marketing.

We have put together our top ten tips to help you get the most out of your email marketing campaigns:

1. Build up a relevant database. You can do this by running competitions or you can invite customers to subscribe to your newsletters and of course when your customers purchase in your online store. Make sure you keep your database up to date. If get undeliverable emails, remove these contacts from your list. Some companies buy email contact lists from 3^rd parties but this is not advisable as you have no way of knowing if the contacts are interested in your company and products.
2. Use an email marketing tool: For an effective email campaign always use an email marketing tool like “Mailchimp” This makes the process much easier with many templates to choose from. Also it’s easy to do reporting with their analytic tools.
3. Optimise for mobile: The number of smartphone users in Globally is expected to reach 2 billion in 2016. This makes it vital to optimise for mobile. Email marketing tools will provide this option.
4. Personalise emails: This makes sense however it is often something companies neglect. Personalised emails will capture the reader’s attention faster. It also allows for a more customised and targeted message. Write your email as if you are talking to one person, customers appreciate the personal touch.
5. Create a sense of urgency: Urgency in a subject line will ensure that there is an incentive for the customer to open the email. This gives your readers the impression that there is a time limit on your products/services.
6. Subject line: your subject line is very important as it will be the reason if the email will be opened or not. A call to action should be used if possible to increase open rates.
7. Optimise website landing pages: Your email campaign should link to your website. The landing page should be relevant to what the user expects to land on. Optimise the content and call to actions on the landing page to make it clear to the user what to do next.
8. Have a call to action in your email. The call to action should be in the subject line for example “20% off all products this weekend” This should then bring the customer to the special offers section of your website.
9. Remember email campaigns send out more than communication, they send out a message. Use these campaigns to tailor your messages according to the customer’s profiles, interests and actions. Consider sending different messages to the different segments of your list when appropriate. Additionally, by making sure you are including value added content, your readers are more apt to engage with your emails.
10. Monitor success: You should be regularly monitoring your email campaigns with the analytic tools of your email marketing tool. You can for example check click through rates and open rates. You can also report on the number of visits to your site from your email campaign.

References:

(1) 2015.Internet business consultants. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.cybertegic.com/blog/page/41/. [Accessed 27 August 15].

(2) 2015.Emai marketing. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.loginradius.com/2015/01/email-marketing-benefits-success-tips/. [Accessed 27 August 15].

(3) 2015.Social media intregation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sscinc.ca/social-media-integration. [Accessed 27 August 15].

(4) eMarketer. 2015. 2 billion users to get smart phones by 201. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.emarketer.com/Article/2-Billion-Consumers-Worldwide-Smartphones-by-2016/1011694. [Accessed 02 September 15].