Those that are new to email marketing may be unfamiliar with the etiquette involved. Professional email marketing is important if you wish to retain customer satisfaction. Keep reading for some useful tips on the proper etiquette for email marketing.
Always get permission! Unsolicited email is not welcome, and in certain cases, can get your ISP blocked. When contacting someone, always include a newsletter or an offer – this way the customer has the chance to agree to receive your messages. The last thing you want is to be branded a spammer.
If you want your email marketing messages to be successful, make sure you have permission to send them. If you do not have permission from your recipients, the potential consequences can range from being added to spam filters all the way up to getting blacklisted by Internet service providers themselves.
Provide your customers with useful tips or information in each marketing newsletter. Think of the newsletter as an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise in your field. Your customers will trust you more when they see how much you know and will be more likely to buy products or services from you.
It is important that your friendly form line is one that your subscribers will recognize. For example, do not have the CEO of your company sending the emails. The reader may not know who it is from and just delete the email. In the subject line, put your business’s name.
When it comes to sending out effective marketing emails, you need to be your biggest critic. You should read every single email that you add to the rotation. If you find it hard to finish an email, then how can you expect potential customers to be inspired by it? Also, keep longtime readers engaged by adding and updating your emails often.
Make it easy to unsubscribe. Make the unsubscribe link clearly visible in your email, allowing someone to stop getting email marketing. This way you are less likely to get reported for sending spam. Also, if someone has unsubscribed, don’t make the mistake of continuing to send them email: that is likely to cause them to complain.
When someone subscribes to your email marketing list, confirm that this is what they really intended to do. Implementing this double opt-in strategy will make it much less likely that your email provider will receive spam complaints about you. Also, you will be assured that the people receiving your emails are actually interested in what you are sending them.
Personalize your marketing emails. You can do more than just putting the recipient’s name on a standardized message. Utilize all the information you have gained about your email subscribers. Mine the information about your subscribers. Break them down into smaller buckets based off of similar profiling, and customize your messaging based off of that profiling.
Solicit feedback in your emails. Ask a thought-provoking question and ask your readers to respond. This will engage those on your list, and they will feel like they are having a more personal experience than they otherwise would. You will also glean valuable feedback that you can use to adjust your emails if needed.
As you are utilizing engaging emails and targeting the right customers, make sure you are also soliciting feedback from them. Getting feedback from targeted customers is key to knowing what you can do to make your marketing strategies even better. This will help you be able to make your email marketing plan even more effective.
Once you have the format of your email marketing messages set up, you should check it on multiple email clients. In the same way that different browsers can display web pages differently, a strange email client may show your message in an unexpected fashion. Make use of all of the popular free email clients and ensure that your message is going to appear properly on them.
Use plain text. Plain text emails will be received as more personable and HTML can be more difficult for some people to read. Some email readers may even prevent the delivery of HTML, depending on user settings. Plain, simple text will always be easy to read and very well received.
Follow your competitor’s actions when using email marketing. Subscribing to their emails is the perfect way to do so. Knowing what they are doing will help ensure that your e-mail campaigns are better than their campaigns. Learn from their mistakes and fill in the areas where they do not have a solid presence. Track their promotions, and see if you can offer similar, or better opportunities for your customers.
Ask for your subscribers’ birthday when they sign up for your list and send off an email when that day comes around in celebration. This process can be done automatically and will easily get your good wishes to your subscriber on their special day. If you can, include a coupon or discount and remember to keep a friendly tone in your message to make them feel more appreciated by the company.
Find the right frequency for your mailings. If you don’t contact your customers often enough, they will forget about you and likely unsubscribe when they do receive another mailing. If you contact your customers too often, however, they will become annoyed with your mailings and likely unsubscribe as well. About once a week is generally considered to be correct.
Think above the fold when designing your messages. In newspapers, anything above the page folds features a lot more prominently than material lower on the page. If someone has to scroll down to see your call to action element, chances are pretty good they will not ever see it, much less click it.
As you can see from the article above, it is very important that a business owner practice proper email marketing protocol. Your clients will quickly unsubscribe from your mailing lists if you do not treat them with the respect they deserve. Use these tips to create positive customer relations.
