Email marketing can open up your business to more sales. It is one of the most effective marketing techniques available to you. You can increase profits, connect with existing customers and find new ones through emails. This promotional technique offers a cost-effective way to stay in touch with your customers. It can also bring dormant customers back to you.
Email marketing is an effective promotional and brand building technique. You can send email newsletters, announcements and notices to your subscribers and then keep in contact with them by sending news, offers and reminders.
Your audience is bombarded with emails. To stand out, immerse yourself in your audience’s thought process to see why they would open your emails. You can then appeal to these interests to encourage them to regularly engage with you.
Here are some email marketing tips that can help you to increase open rates and click-throughs.
Email Subject lines
* Focus on the first three words your email Subject line
* Use a merge code to include the recipient’s name within the Subject line
* Use segmentation (i.e. within a Mailchimp Audience) to focus on specific cohorts of people as this will make it easier to produce an eye catching Subject line
* Be specific about your newsletter content, within your Subject line
* Test different Subject line alternatives
* Create a sense of urgency i.e. by including a date
* Any offer beats no offer (even for B2B marketing)
* If you use Mailchimp, always write some text in the Preview field
* Don’t make the Subject line too long
Email newsletters
Within this article on email marketing strategy I talk about the difference between email newsletters and e-shots.
An email newsletter is sent out regularly. It should be well written, grammatically perfect, helpful, interesting and informative. An email newsletter is usually produced using HTML in order to include colour, images etc.
Naturally, it will contain news – which means that you will have to find newsworthy items to write about on a continual basis. This is fine if you work for a large enterprise; it can be challenging if you run a small business.
e-shots
On the other hand, an e-shot is selling something or trying to persuade the reader to take action.
It may contain an offer or the introduction of a new product or service.
You’ll get better results from your e-shots if they are sent to people who already receive your email newsletter.
The challenge, of course, is the rise in the number of incoming emails which we all receive. Newsletters, announcements, invitations to join new communities and spam messages invade our inbox every day. Many of these emails use a ‘push’ approach to try and persuade us to buy something.
You can signup to my newsletter here.
Email content
* Pack your newsletters with useful information
* The best emails engage recipients quickly and with impact
* Write short sentences and short paragraphs
Newsletter promotion
Promote your newsletter by saying something like this:
We put our expertise to work for you. Our newsletter features our best tips and strategies.
Email newsletter frequency
Send more frequently. Yes, I know that people say that this will put people off, however, if you have good content, this is simply not true.
What does ‘more frequently’ mean?
Well, say you send out a monthly newsletter.
You could try sending twice a month.
This does not take twice the effort, as you can probably split your monthly newsletter into two shorter ones.
Fashion brands often send an email to subscribers every single day.
You wouldn’t do this, would you, but it makes you think, doesn’t it?
See also: Email writing tips
I hope that you have enjoyed these email marketing tips. .
Nigel Temple is a Mailchimp trainer.
