Email marketing is not hard to do, but it does feature certain conventions and standards that business owners should familiarize themselves with before they get started. There is a certain way to handle email marketing professionally that will keep your customers happy and looking forward to receiving communications from you. Keep reading for some great etiquette tips for your email marketing campaign.
Do not ever send unsolicited emails to unsuspecting customers. People who receive your unsolicited marketing messages may report them as spam. This not only negatively impacts your reputation with your customer, it puts your business at risk of being blocked by your ISP for being in violation of their spam policies.
Insert a link to your subscription form into your marketing newsletters. That way, if your customers forward marketing emails to their friends, their friends can easily subscribe to your list too. Using this strategy makes it easy for you to build a large list of potential customers who have agreed to receive your marketing emails.
While online promotion is essential, don’t overlook the opportunity to promote your mailing list offline. To build both new subscribers and potential clients, look for any opportunity possible to get the word out. Some great opportunities to build your business can be found at networking events, trade shows, conferences and local gatherings.
Don’t include the use of newsletters in your email marketing campaign. You can send the people on your opt-in list relevant emails about particular topics instead. You will attract more people when they know that they will only be receiving information that they are interested in, and that they will not have to sift through an entire newsletter to get it.
It is very common for people to view the Internet with cell phones instead of using a full sized computer. Since this is the case, you should make it so that the width of any email you send out is easily viewable by mobile phone. You should also make sure to do the same to your landing page.
Give customers the choice of getting a plain text version of your email marketing materials or a rich text version. Customers can choose the option they prefer when they sign up for your newsletter. Plain text versions don’t include graphics, so customers with slower connections or overactive spam filters might appreciate this option.
You want every email campaign to have feedback that is passive as well as active. Active feedback will give you very direct answers to public opinion of your brand. You ask for suggestions or comments, and you will receive them. Passive feedback could even be invisible and is subtle to the reader. You can get tools and software that can help you to figure out what links have the most clicks.
Be sure that your strategy is persistently pursued. While persistence is important in email marketing, it only of value when your efforts are focused on the right audience. Continuing to target the wrong group of potential clients simply creates ill will and is not a good use of resources.
Always make sure customers have a clear and concise way to opt out of emails at any time. They signed up with you because they wanted more information, and if at any time they wish to stop receiving that information, they should be able to opt out. It is only fair.
Try to keep your email subject lines short. Try keeping them around 60 characters or so. Depending on the nature of your business, you may be able to get away with a longer one as long as you put your most important information first. That said, it’s better for the average consumer to keep it short, sweet, and to the point.
When creating text for your email marketing campaign, make sure you use fonts that reflect the tone of what your email is trying to convey to the customer. This is important in providing the right emphasis, and it conveys the message clearly to the customer. This will work wonders in keeping the reader intrigued.
Try getting inspiration from your competitors or other people in your niche. Try signing up for their email campaigns to see what is working for them. This can give you a better idea of what you’re up against and why something may or may not be working for your own campaign.
When following up with clients, you could send a follow-up email to them with a message that confirms their interest in one of your products or services. You could include a link that says to watch it. The ending of the message could include another link that allows them to add your product or service to their cart.
You can target a very large group of potential customers by making your email campaigns accessible to mobile devices. So many people these days use mobile devices to check their email, you can make your emails attractive and engaging by using small images, and using small, to-the-point messages. Be sure to put your logo at the top of your email.
Don’t send out your email messages during major sales holidays. While this may seem counter-intuitive, unless you are selling consumer products, your customers just aren’t interested in your product that time of year. In addition, it is likely to get buried in all of the other marketing messages they are receiving.
Implement a double opt in. Sometimes clicking a little box to signify that you want to receive e-mails slips by a person. To eliminate complaints of spam, use a double opt in. Have the person confirm that they wish to receive e-mails by verifying their e-mail or clicking a second button.
As you can see from the article above, it is very important that a business owner practice proper email marketing protocol. You will lose customers if you don’t use common courtesy. Use what you’ve learned to cultivate an email list full of happy customers.
