If you would like to try email marketing to enhance your small business, then you are certainly on the right track.
Marketing through emails is known to be a very efficient method of direct mail marketing for many businesses. Here, we present the best email marketing strategies that you can apply.
Make it personal
When composing a message, think of it as if you are speaking directly to your customer. Instead of sending a very formal business letter, make it more personal, while maintaining a professional tone at the same time. A more personal style often encourages positive response from customers.
Timing is important
For a lot of business owners, sending emails on Friday evenings or during the weekends generate a higher response rate. The best way to know what works best for your business is to test different distribution times until you find the right timing.
Use an interesting subject line. The subject line would be the first words that the recipient would read when he/she opens the inbox. Needless to say, an effective subject line will encourage the recipient to actually open the email and read the rest of the message. This is why its important to spend time to come up with a subject line that will capture interest.
Never SPAM
Even if people opted in to your mailing list, see to it that you only send relevant emails so that you dont waste their time. Most especially NEVER try to send an unsolicited email no matter how important or how exciting you feel your message is. If you try to SPAM even once, you will be damaging the good reputation of your company.
Track results
Its very important to keep track of the results of your email marketing campaigns. Don't forget to set the proper metrics so that you will know exactly how to measure your email marketing success.
Don't give up
Email marketing is all about repetition. Dont worry if at first you dont get the results you expected. Instead, review the steps youve made and try to see where improvement is needed. Dont give up. Continue to send test emails. Study the formatting, paying close attention to the details. As long as you do not spam and you allow proper intervals, you can repeat email marketing campaign as many times as needed.
Include call to action
Be sure that all your emails include call-to-action words or phrases. Do not leave it up to your reader to guess what he/she has to do next. Spell it out and encourage positive action. Call to action phrases like Click here, Order now, Call now may sound redundant and simple but they can really make a big difference in encouraging response from a reader.
Watch out for errors
You always want to make a good impression. Just before you send your marketing emails, spend some more time to review the content, making sure that there are no typos, misspelled words, or grammatical errors. It is also a good idea to have someone else proofread your emails especially if you were the one who composed the message.
Lisa Olsen
