Email Marketing
Spam!! I bet that's the first word that comes to mind when one hears of email marketing. We all know those spam emails are such a pain. Every time when we check our email we see them lying there - probably in our junk mail folder, but they some how enter our account. Most of us don't even bother to check them.
So then why have I mentioned Email Marketing as a form of online marketing? The fact is email marketing does not only mean the cold e-mail campaigns. We are strictly against those spam email campaigns. But the truth is that email is still one the most direct and fastest way to reach to your customers or visitors (who have signed in to your website and agreed to receive emails, newsletters & Co, Permission based marketing). The good thing about emails campaigns is that you can track your emails - check their open rate (Open Rate - Unique recipients who clicked on the email you sent, the average Industry open rate is about 30% - 35%), learn about customer interaction - links clicked and much more.
You can use email marketing campaigns to
- Inform customers/visitors about new products, ongoing/future sale, gift ideas (form your catalog)
- Send out weekly, monthly new letters - this could be anything from industry news, your articles/blogs, link to your video blog
- Update their address; get some additional information if possible. I usually get emails form Nivea asking me to check my address (may be ask couple of questions as well) so that they can send me free samples of their new product. This is a smart way to learn about your customers.These emails could either be text or HTML based, However Html ones look more attractive and trendy (if created properly). They are easy to create (if you know your html), if not there are many companies which do that for you (of course, they charge). I am sure you are recipient of such emails.
We look at some Key Points for your email campaigns.
Getting into the Inbox: You would need to dodge the spam filters set by email providers, specially if you are going to email your customer for the first time. You would need to careful of your subject line words like "free", "special offer" take your email straight to the Junk mail folder. It would be better to place your unsubscribe link at top of your email or make it more visible on the email to avoid customers clicking on Junk mail. Often customers click on Junk Mail if they no longer wish to receive email, rather than unsubscribe. This could prove fatal for your email address, and they could be treat as spam.
Subject Line: The most important aspect of your email, is your Subject line. This determines whether your email will be clicked (open) or go straight to the thrash can. Your subject line should be Short (less than 20 characters), Relevant (should not be deceptive) and Creative.
As with Business plan where you are advised to write your Executive Summary in the end, you should write the Subject for your email after you have created the contents. This gives you a better idea of what might attract the receiver.From Line: This should be your company name rather than an individual's name. It helps brand awareness, it is important that the receiver should easily recognize the email.
Content: Make sure your emails are informative. You would need to pay close attention to the design and layout, color scheme and images in your email. Treat your email as the homepage of your website, where you want visitors to click on to get more information.
Be vary of information overload otherwise it will make the email too congested and lengthy. It's better to give your readers a summary (index) of the content along with any promotional offers and or new product information at the top of your email. This will help them to narrow down on the essential bits on the email, creating a hassle free experience.
The links (landing page) from your email has to be properly thought of. So if you are updating them about your new product, then don't direct them to your homepage - take them directly to that product information page.Personalized Emails: It's the key to succeed in this ever-competitive digital world. Observe your customers buying patterns, understand likes and dislikes - create 2 or 3 different version of your email campaigns (with different contents, subject and so on) and send to different customer segments. This helps in making the email useful and relevant to the receiver. Consider testing your email camping on a few of your subscribers before rolling them out- again observe the open rate, ROI and user behavior, there is a lot of room for experimentation. A detailed knowledge of the target audience is always at the heart of any successful marketing campaign.
Timings: Yes it does place a crucial part, try different time of the day and different days to send your email see what works. Again this is an area to be explored, see what works for a particular segment of customers try and experiment.
Don't Push Hard: Emails are not only for selling. Send your customers Seasons Greetings, thank them, send discount vouchers, invite them for a party, share with them the good (charity) work your company has done, the awards it has received and so on. At lest once a year say during Christmas or their birthday (if you have their details) send your customers/visitors a e-greeting card and thank them for doing business and for keeping in touch (let them feel appreciated). This is one thing which I don't see many business doing. I mean how much does an email cost!! After all it's all about PR and brand awareness.
Observe, Learn and Differentiate: I am sure after reading this you will pay close attentions to - the subject lines of the emails you receive. The one's which entice you to click, the ones which you don't bother to go through. The email content - what you like about them, what was useful, what caught the eye and so on. Subscribe for email newsletters from the market leaders in your business, your competitors. You can learn a lot from observing and of course there is always room for experimentation & innovation! And of course track your own email campaigns. So Observe!
The main aim of email marketing campaign is to stay in sight of your customers, update them about your special products/features which, might lead to sale. Having said that make sure you do not bombard them with emaisl under the name of Permission Marketing.