A crucial part of any online business is keeping in contact with your customers, and one of the best ways you can do that is with email. In this day and age of overwhelming bulk emails, it's easy to see why email might have its disadvantages. However, it's still one of your most effective tools when vying for your customer's attention and business.
It would be amazing if every visitor to our website immediately purchased our products or services after their first visit. But unfortunately, that's just not reality.
Instead, we have to rely on tried-and-true methods like email to build relationships with our potential and current customers so that they remember us when they're finally ready to make a purchase.
The success of your email marketing campaign is largely dependent on several complex factors. However, many of these issues can be effectively managed with the right planning and execution. When developing your next email campaign, consider the following guidelines:
1. Your list
One of the most important aspects of any email marketing campaign, your list is essential to your success. Make sure your contact list is up-to-date, with names belonging to individuals who have given their consent to receive marketing material - and who are also likely to be interested in products or services similar to your own. Use squeeze pages that provide a valuable lead magnet to grow your list of email subscribers.
2. Your subject line
Getting a user to open your message is critical in any email marketing campaign. The one way to determine the subject line that works best is to measure the response to each email and use the highest-producing one as your control. In follow-up emails, try to beat the response rate of your control email.
3. Your sender information
The sender name on your email is just as important as the subject line when it comes to getting your message opened by your target audience. What information appears on the sender line of your email? Will your prospects recognize it?
Do they want to hear from you? Emails are frequently deleted without being opened due to an unrecognizable sender name. Keep your sender name brief and straightforward to avoid having your email lost in the abyss.
4. Track your results
Tracking your email allows you to understand your audience and what they respond to best. By analyzing what worked and what didn't in your campaign, you can develop a more successful email strategy for your next campaign.
It is also important to use tracking for testing subject lines, embedded links, and other direct response messages. Not only will this give you a better idea of what content to include in your emails going forward, but it will also help you determine the best time to send them so that you can maximize your open and click-through rates!
5. Make sure your unsubscribe method is in place and working
The CAN-SPAM act of 2003 requires that all email messages contain a clear way for recipients to unsubscribe from future mailings. You can provide this opt-out mechanism by including an unsubscribe link in each email you send.
If someone clicks the link, they should be able to confirm their request to stop receiving emails from you or your business. It's in your best interest to remove people from your list who don't want to hear from you anymore.
6. Your images are correctly referenced and you’ve used alt tags in each image
If you don't reference your images correctly, they might appear broken in your email – which would be a shame, since all that effort you put into finding the perfect photo would go to waste.
To make sure your images are referenced correctly, they should appear as "img src=http://www.yourdomain.com...." rather than "img src=/images/picture.jpg". Alt tags are another important part of your images.
With the new security features in almost every email client, images are disabled by default. But if you have alt tags in place, your reader can identify the image and decide if it's safe to enable.
7. Test, Test, Test!
If you want to be successful with email marketing, there are a few essential guidelines you need to follow. First, it's important to always test your campaigns before sending them out.
Measure your opens, click-throughs, and purchases after each campaign, and keep track of the specific date, time, list, subject line, and content you used. This way, you can refer back to your past successes and replicate them in future campaigns.
In addition, remember that email doesn't have to be a complex form of marketing. There are many best practices you can follow to make sure your messages are effective. By keeping these tips in mind, you can streamline your email marketing process and get great results.
Conclusion
By following the simple rules, you’ll not only deliver an effective email campaign, but you will also discover a consistent method for generating revenue for your business.