Email marketing is one among the most acclaimed modes of advertisement which can capture many people all in one go.
It is the most efficient method in which a company can announce its presence without having to go through the hassles of costly processes.
The following are 10 Best Practices for an Effective Email Marketing Strategy
Connectivity
With the email platform, one can have a broad range of connectivity to people far and beyond across the globe with the touch of a button.
It is this connectivity that start-up businesses need to map their operations with the rest of the large operations already in business.
Update: Do not address person’s name in emails you send. A recent survey found that this may be against cyber security concerns.
Avoid Sending Multiple Emails
An appropriate method of approaching the potential client is by sending emails only at predetermined times, say, once every week.
This way, the potential customer will look forward to receiving the emails from you and just click through. Sending too many emails may lead to unsubscribed list or spam marks.
Interact With Subscribers/Customers
Give a channel through which the clients can easily reach you, and answer all questions right on time.
If you can't answer all the emails, any email service provider may most definitely offer autoresponder services.
Update: Best practice is you setup an automated response that you received an email. And then, get back to the customer within 8-12 hours. Any delay may lose trust.
Don't make assumptions.
When composing emails never assume your subscriber has read a previous email. For whatever reason, your customer may not have received a previous email, so it is good practice to cover all avenues.
Give the right information
Make use of email marketing to give very helpful information to the prospective clients before you even try to make any sale.
Some consumers opt-out of the list of emails because they do not even have the necessary information required to enable them to purchase a product
Develop an opt-in list
Develop an opt-in list so as to get potential clients. To win new customers, several new businesses usually opt to purchase email lists gotten from service companies.
Even though this practice has been done successfully in some cases, purchasing records do not warrant success particularly for a business which is new.
Make Subject Lines Short and Simple
Do not have long subject lines just to cover the topic in your email. Instead, take some time to think about a short and simple subject line that will increase open rate.
Draft your email first and then write at least 10-12 short subject lines. Brainstorm and choose the best one for your campaign.
Update: Ideally, a subject line of 45-50 characters is considered effective.
Subscribe To Your Competitors List
Create a new email address and subscribe to the list of your subscribers to see what they are up to. Track what they are selling and sharing. Notice their email style and try to bring along your own ideas to schedule an update for your list.
If they have something unique for their subscribers, customers or clients, then you should have those too.
Reward the Subscribers Who Regularly Open Your Emails
You may have noticed that there are few subscribers who always open your emails no matter what you send or share (Not the ones who buy, but only those who open your emails).
These are known as silent subscribers and are waiting for your emails to see what new you have in your pockets.
Reward them with a gift card, access to a course, or additional bonuses.
A/B Testing - TEST TEST and TEST
It is an essential factor that you test your subject lines, day and timings when you send an email, and the email style.
Every subscriber reacts differently to a different set of emails. Some may like style A emails, some style B, and others style C. Track the behaviour of each subscriber and create a new list with the name as “Style A sub”, “Style B sub” and so on. Of course, you can put up any names.
This may seem time-consuming if your list is huge, but once you have them filtered, you will notice increased open rate and click through rates.
Note – Do this for only first 20 emails with different styles.
To Conclude
Email marketing can provide a lot of revenue for the business if appropriately used. The main point to keep in mind when you try to use email marketing is to build relationships first with the potential customers before you can sell any of your service or product.
Additional Notes
I hope you find the strategies helpful and informative. If you feel the information is not upto the mark or more can be added, feel free to post a comment below :-). I will be happy to update the article.
Will also be happy to receive feedback of the write-up.