All kinds and sizes of businesses can benefit from implementing an E-mail marketing campaign. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to do it properly. While for some, it can become the cost-effective marketing and communications tool needed to boost their business, for the inexperienced others it can become a costly mistake that turns their prospects and customers off.
So how exactly do you go about launching an effective E-mail marketing campaign? Here are a few important tips.
Know who you’re trying to reach out to
E-mail marketing is about targeting an audience composed of prospects and customers with whom you might want to engage with – and vice versa. That’s why it doesn’t work to just compile all the E-mail contacts you have and barrage them with unsolicited advertisements and newsletters. Think about what you have to offer (in terms of products and services), and then determine who among your contacts may find it relevant or interesting. If you don’t have a list yet and have to build out from scratch, you can buy or rent one from specialist providers. From there you can come up with your own E-mail database, composed of people who are interested in what your business can do for them.
Use an E-mail marketing provider
Sure, it’s handy to just use Microsoft Outlook or some similar provider to send out your E-mails, but there’s one huge advantage in using an E-mail provider that specializes in marketing campaigns such as the one you’re about to do. (Mail Chimp and Constant Contact are only two of the leading E-mail marketing managers you will find on the Web today.) It’s the ability to receive and work based on metrics and analytics reports; with these, you can determine how many are clicking, what they’re clicking, who’s unsubscribing, who’s subscribing. Moreover, using E-mail marketing providers allows you to customize the way you send your E-mails – perfect for cases where you want to add features like surveys, social media sharing, auto-responders, and RSS feeds.
Monitor – and then adjust
This pertains to several facets of your E-mail campaign. Like the database – monitor it regularly, and then find out ways to keep on targeting the people you want to reach out to. In terms of regularity, meanwhile, you have to monitor the number of subscribers (and un-subscribers) and determine whether increasing the frequency of your blasts will turn them off. (E-mail them once a week is the general rule.) You can also monitor the clicking behavior of your E-mail recipients to see if you have to edit the content of your messages.
Lead readers to the right landing page
The links that you place on your E-mails should lead readers to the right landing page. Otherwise, they may think you’re wasting their time, making them less hesitant to unsubscribe. If they clicked because they want to find out more information, make sure they get that information. If they clicked to check out your new product catalog, lead them directly to where you’re showcasing that catalog.
Reply
Chances are that if you’re engaging your readers well enough, they’d be sending you E-mails, making inquiries, leaving comments and feedback, giving suggestions. Don’t put off replying. Respond in a timely manner. Gather in advance the resources that you will need – human and otherwise. When the responses generated by your E-mail marketing campaign are more than you initially expected, you will be more than relieved that you’re prepared for it.
