Communicating though e-mail to your clients and potential clients is a great way to generate sales and drive repeat business. If done properly, it can have a significant impact on revenue and further your company brand. Like most forms of online marketing, there are best practices you can use as a guide when developing your strategy. All businesses are different, but these 9 tips have always worked well for me with my websites:
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- Use permission based e-mail marketing – Ask your users or readers for permission before sending them e-mail. If you plan to purchase e-mail lists, only purchase ones that have a verifiable opt-in status. Response rates will be up to 10 times greater when your e-mail lists are opt-in.
- Provide a one click opt-out link- Respect your readers wishes and make it easy for them to opt-out if they no longer wish to receive your information. Most e-mail solutions have this functionality built in. If you’re looking for an e-mail marketing tool, read my post on e-mail marketing solutions.
- Write clear subject lines – Your subject needs to compel the recipient to read further. If your subject is weak, the time you invest in writing a promotional offer in the e-mail will be negated when they click delete.
- Make your message simple – A marketing e-mail should be designed with a purpose in mind. Keep your message simple and make it easy for your reader to complete the desired action. If you’re trying to get your reader to create an account on your site, link to your sign up page throughout the message and give them reason to complete the signup.
- Keep the flashiness to a minimum – Graphics get blocked in many e-mail clients. Make your creative simple and also ensure that the e-mail is legible when the images are blocked.
- Provide a call to action – Tell your reader what to do next. If you want your reader to visit a page on your site, tell them to. If the goal is to get them to call, tell them to and give them the number.
- Be persistent - Research shows that e-mail marketing takes more than one message. Send out newsletters or marketing e-mails on a regular basis. Conversions increase when you send out a consistent message regularly.
- Track results – Open rates, number of unsubscribes, links clicked, received messages, conversions and content read. Most e-mail marketing solutions provide detailed reports that offer valuable insight into what your e-mail subscribers do when they receive your message. This allows you to continually improve your message in order to get better conversions.
- Time your e-mails – When you send your e-mails is almost as important as what you send. For B2B, e-mail messages sent from Tuesday to Thursday have proven to have a higher conversion rate. It’s also important to not send your message in the evening as morning marketing messages tend to get deleted frequently. Try sending emails to your subscribers at different times and use reporting to find out what times are best for your business.
Using these tips with a little trial and error will help you fine tune your campaign in order to get the most from e-mail marketing. Good Luck!
