You might have considered email marketing to advertise your products and services. It's a fast growing trend not only because it is a low cost way to contact your customers but also because it can be very effective if used correctly because it is instant, wide-reaching and motivates impulse purchases.
Nevertheless, in order to make email marketing work for you, you need to follow certain golden rules:
Rule #1: Don't spam
There are many ways for you to spam - knowingly or unknowingly. But at the same time you have to avoid this at all cost. If your email contains certain terms such as "Free" or "Discount" many spam filters will move it directly into the spam filter or even delete your email without your recipient even seeing it.
If many recipients report that they did not want to receive your email and consider them as spam, or if a large proportion of the mailed
addresses bounce, you might be added to a blacklist, which makes it very difficult for you going forward to use emails.
Learn about how the different spam filter softwares available function and try to avoid being flagged up.
And finally, don't send too many emails. Once or twice a week will be acceptable in most environments, but if you have a high unsubscribe rate, you might want to reduce it. And if you ask your customer how often he wants to receive messages from you, don't send him more than he asks for!
Rule #2: Personalisation rules
In Email Marketing it is relatively easy to personalise by using a code into your email template retrieving the data from your mailing file. If
you have the name of your subscriber or customer - use it.
Just think about it, are you more likely to respond if you are called "Dear Subscriber" or if your real name is used. Most of us like being
addressed directly, seeing or hearing our name, made feeling relevant and important.
If an email is directly addressed to us, we are more likely to be interested than if it is sent to "Whom it may concern".
Rule #3: Allow the customer to stay in control
If you like it or not - it is your customer's choice if he wants to receive your email. And even legally you are obliged to allow anyone on
your email distribution list to opt-out. This means, that you have to give them the option to notify you to stop emailing you - either by
clicking a link or by replying to your email.
Now, you might say, you just add this to the bottom of your email in tiny writing so that people miss it and don't unsubscribe. After all, it
is practically free to email them and they might buy at some point. But I wouldn't recommend doing this.
Why? Well, your recipient is not bothered about your reputation. If he wants to unsubscribe and can't easily see how to do this, he'll just add you to his blacklist. Or in other words, he marks you as spam. And if many people do that you will get a reputation as spammer and your emails have an increasing chance to be caught in spam filters of people who actually want to hear from you.
Rule #4: Choose the right day
As a general rule of thumb, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to send email campaigns as response rates tend to be higher. But this rule doesn't have to work for everyone. By all means, test, test and test again to find the right time for your message and target audience.
Rule #5: Be relevant
It is tempting to send your email to absolutely everyone with an email address on your database. It doesn't cost much more to email 1000 or 10000 after all. But just as in traditional direct mail activities, sending relevant messages is the key.
If your mailing list receives a large number of messages not relevant to them, they will unsubscribe or stop reading your message. But if you send information targeted to them, you will increase your response rate considerably.
Rule #6: Get them interested
Companies often put a lot of effort in the actual email, but then forget to look at the door opener - in other words, the subject line
It is the first thing your customer will see and he will make a decision within an instant if the message is relevant to him. If you lose him at this stage, he will never read what you have to offer. So think about what will get them to open the email - but keep it relevant, misleading customers is not a good way to win their trust - and test what type of subject line works best for you.
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Nevertheless, in order to make email marketing work for you, you need to follow certain golden rules:
Rule #1: Don't spam
There are many ways for you to spam - knowingly or unknowingly. But at the same time you have to avoid this at all cost. If your email contains certain terms such as "Free" or "Discount" many spam filters will move it directly into the spam filter or even delete your email without your recipient even seeing it.
If many recipients report that they did not want to receive your email and consider them as spam, or if a large proportion of the mailed
addresses bounce, you might be added to a blacklist, which makes it very difficult for you going forward to use emails.
Learn about how the different spam filter softwares available function and try to avoid being flagged up.
And finally, don't send too many emails. Once or twice a week will be acceptable in most environments, but if you have a high unsubscribe rate, you might want to reduce it. And if you ask your customer how often he wants to receive messages from you, don't send him more than he asks for!
Rule #2: Personalisation rules
In Email Marketing it is relatively easy to personalise by using a code into your email template retrieving the data from your mailing file. If
you have the name of your subscriber or customer - use it.
Just think about it, are you more likely to respond if you are called "Dear Subscriber" or if your real name is used. Most of us like being
addressed directly, seeing or hearing our name, made feeling relevant and important.
If an email is directly addressed to us, we are more likely to be interested than if it is sent to "Whom it may concern".
Rule #3: Allow the customer to stay in control
If you like it or not - it is your customer's choice if he wants to receive your email. And even legally you are obliged to allow anyone on
your email distribution list to opt-out. This means, that you have to give them the option to notify you to stop emailing you - either by
clicking a link or by replying to your email.
Now, you might say, you just add this to the bottom of your email in tiny writing so that people miss it and don't unsubscribe. After all, it
is practically free to email them and they might buy at some point. But I wouldn't recommend doing this.
Why? Well, your recipient is not bothered about your reputation. If he wants to unsubscribe and can't easily see how to do this, he'll just add you to his blacklist. Or in other words, he marks you as spam. And if many people do that you will get a reputation as spammer and your emails have an increasing chance to be caught in spam filters of people who actually want to hear from you.
Rule #4: Choose the right day
As a general rule of thumb, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to send email campaigns as response rates tend to be higher. But this rule doesn't have to work for everyone. By all means, test, test and test again to find the right time for your message and target audience.
Rule #5: Be relevant
It is tempting to send your email to absolutely everyone with an email address on your database. It doesn't cost much more to email 1000 or 10000 after all. But just as in traditional direct mail activities, sending relevant messages is the key.
If your mailing list receives a large number of messages not relevant to them, they will unsubscribe or stop reading your message. But if you send information targeted to them, you will increase your response rate considerably.
Rule #6: Get them interested
Companies often put a lot of effort in the actual email, but then forget to look at the door opener - in other words, the subject line
It is the first thing your customer will see and he will make a decision within an instant if the message is relevant to him. If you lose him at this stage, he will never read what you have to offer. So think about what will get them to open the email - but keep it relevant, misleading customers is not a good way to win their trust - and test what type of subject line works best for you.
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