In an era of Social Networking and Mobile, it's important for small businesses to remember that E-mail marketing remains an extremely active and viable way to communicate with customers. At The Chamber, we send out E-mails multiple times a week (if anything, a bit too much, though our open and click through rates remain very high), and E-mail remains one of our most (if not the most) effective way that we communicate with our members.
So, does your business have an E-mail newsletter? It should. Here are some tips to maximize your e-marketing effectiveness.
1. Use a professional service: Of this, there is no shortage; Constant Contact and MailChimp are two that jump to the top of the list. Professional services like this can create good templates, give you analytics and help you design the best E-mail possible.
2. You can't just sell: This is one of the areas where E-mail marketing and Social Media overlap completely. You CANNOT use your E-mail list to just sell. You have to create value and encourage people to read your information; this way, they will be more likely to use your business in the future. here's an example: I get a "market update" once a week from a financial planner that I subscribe to. This is useful and valuable to me.
3. Track your success: As mentioned earlier, a professional service can help you track your open and click-through rates, among other stats tracked. Use that information to alter the timing and content of your E-mail.
4. Keep it brief: Do not write the great American novel in your E-mail. Try to keep it as brief as possible and have lots of click-throughs for people who do want more information.
5. Mobile friendly: If your E-mails aren't mobile friendly, they are wasted. Seriously. It's that simple. As more and more internet use shifts away from computers and goes to mobile devices, you are wasting your time if your E-mails cannot be easily read on a laptop or smart phone.
As always, leave your tips and comments below!
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Showing posts with label E-mail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E-mail. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
E-mail marketing - still relevant, if you do it right
I was just talking to a Chamber member who was interested in taking advantage of our discounted E-mail marketing agreement with Constant Contact (members can get a 20% discount off of a six-month contract, or 25% off of a full-year). He eagerness to get started reminded me of something: despite the effectiveness of Social Media, E-mail marketing remains a powerful and effective way of getting your message out - provided that you do it right.
Here are some tips to do just that:
1. Use a professional service: A professional service can do things that you just cannot do on your own, including allowing for opt-outs, tracking statistics, automatically importing your website design/color scheme, creating an attractive template to use, and more. This works a lot better than anything you could design on your own in Outlook!
2. Get permission - or else: Under most circumstances, you do have to get permission from someone before adding them to an E-mail list - otherwise, you risk violating the CAN-SPAM act. This could get you fined, or worse! Also, always make sure that you have a method that allows people the opportunity to opt-out of getting your E-mails.
3. Content matters: You have to sell in an E-mail marketing campaign, but don't let that be the only thing you try to do. As always, provide value to your E-mail blast - give tips, provide advice, etc - and also have an easy to find, actionable way by which your potential customers can take advantage of your services. Using your E-mail too frequently for sales with dilute its effectiveness.
4. Have realistic expectations: Are only 25% of your customers opening your E-mail? Don't worry - that's pretty good!! The amount varies from industry to industry, but generally speaking, having more than a 15-25% open rate is great.
5. Subject lines matter: Be straightforward and don't try too had to sell. Don't use all caps, don't use too many exclamation points, and be grammatically correct. Your subject line will largely determine if your E-mail is opened - here's some more info on effective subjects.
Those are some of our thoughts - what about you? Any good tips to share?
Article any source
Here are some tips to do just that:
1. Use a professional service: A professional service can do things that you just cannot do on your own, including allowing for opt-outs, tracking statistics, automatically importing your website design/color scheme, creating an attractive template to use, and more. This works a lot better than anything you could design on your own in Outlook!
2. Get permission - or else: Under most circumstances, you do have to get permission from someone before adding them to an E-mail list - otherwise, you risk violating the CAN-SPAM act. This could get you fined, or worse! Also, always make sure that you have a method that allows people the opportunity to opt-out of getting your E-mails.
3. Content matters: You have to sell in an E-mail marketing campaign, but don't let that be the only thing you try to do. As always, provide value to your E-mail blast - give tips, provide advice, etc - and also have an easy to find, actionable way by which your potential customers can take advantage of your services. Using your E-mail too frequently for sales with dilute its effectiveness.
4. Have realistic expectations: Are only 25% of your customers opening your E-mail? Don't worry - that's pretty good!! The amount varies from industry to industry, but generally speaking, having more than a 15-25% open rate is great.
5. Subject lines matter: Be straightforward and don't try too had to sell. Don't use all caps, don't use too many exclamation points, and be grammatically correct. Your subject line will largely determine if your E-mail is opened - here's some more info on effective subjects.
Those are some of our thoughts - what about you? Any good tips to share?
Article any source
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