Email marketing is still alive and well - but you must continually improve your processes if you wan to reach your recipients and have success. Here are a few key tedbits:
Be Specific - no more "batch and blast" It’s not enough to send your entire audience the same email communications—unless your audience is completely homogeneous. This is no longer "one size fits all" marketing. Be relevant to your subscribers- send specific emails, personalized to their needs and interests.
Optimize your email. Sounds simple but may people are still not doing the very basic things to make sure their email is read.
- Use alt tags in your email for your images
- make use of the pre-header to let people know what your email is about
- optimize for the preview pane - your call to action should be in the top 1/3 of your email
- have a creative but succinct subject line
- personalize your email
- optimize the "text" version of your email
Use an ESP (Email Service Provider) There are a multitude of email marketing service providers that can offer expert services at a reasonable cost. No more going it alone sending your emails via Outlook or your own internal server. With an ESP you will get better delivery and key statisitcs to drive your marketing. Here are a few that we have vetted that work great for our clients: ExactTarget, Blue Hornet, Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, and Campain Monitor
Optimize Email for Different Devices
Users are in the habit of accessing email anytime, anywhere—from home, at work and on the road—and from a variety of devices—desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones. Plus there are dozens of email programs in use, from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail, Yahoo and others.
Optimize emails for reading in different programs and devices. Have a link at the top of your emails allowing users to access a web version in case the content does not render well in the program they’re using. Poll your users to see how they are viewing your emails. Remember there is a big migration tot he 3rd screen (mobile). How does your email render there?
Testing Is a given.Testing helps you improve the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.Plan and simple. You can test various components of your emails and make adjustments based on what you learn to increase your results in terms of clickthroughs and conversions.
Test these:
- from line and subject line;
- day of week and time of day for sending;
- number, placement and type of links;
- call to action; and
- layout and use of graphics.
Think outside the box lead generation. There are plenty of potential customers you are not able to reach because they haven’t heard of your company or you haven’t met them. We have had success by advertising in third-party email newsletters that your audience reads. You place advertisements and or advertorial that drives prospects to a specific landing page. Try it...you will like it.
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