mardi 5 mars 2013

Email Marketing: How To Market Effectively Without Becoming SPAM

By Peter Duncan


Email marketing is a marketing method that uses emails to promote to customers. To some, this can sound a bit difficult, but it really isn't. Using email marketing to reach your customer base isn't as hard as you might think, especially if you pay close attention to the tips in the following article.

Take advantage of message previews by using a pre-header. The first line at the top of your message is known as a pre-header, and is often used by email services as a preview that is displayed alongside your message subject. It is a great place let your readers know what is waiting for them inside of your message, and entice them to click inside to read it.

Respect for your subscribers has to be the cornerstone of your email marketing efforts. One way to show this respect is to limit your frequency of communication with them. Familiarity breeds plenty of other negative traits besides contempt! Limit yourself to two or three emails per subscriber per month. If you communicate more often, you risk losing readers' interest and becoming background noise.

One tip to enhance your e-mail marketing campaign is to send out regular updates to your customer base, even if not much is happening in your business. These regular updates can be short and sweet. They remind your customers that you are staying busy and want to keep in contact with them.

Do not ever send the people on your list any kind of unsolicited attachment. Most people will not open attachments because of the obvious risk of contracting a computer virus. Also, you will appear presumptuous and that will not be well received. Keep your emails simple if you want them to be read.

A good suggestion for following up with prospects is to send out a follow-up email that has a receipt included in it. Attach a request on this email for them to research this receipt. The conclusion of the email should tell them that they can be the judge over whether it is good or bad.

Build your mailing list one person at a time. Start by asking your largest customers to sign up and recommend you to their friends. Word of mouth is the best form of recommendation and you will gain much more business this way as well as have a larger, targeted email list to market your products to.

Use your email marketing campaign to offer customers a personal perspective of your business. Tell a story about how you got started and why you are passionate about your business while giving them a special promotion or offer. It will build trust in your clients and make them more apt to make a purchase from you.

Use double opt-ins. It is very important that when you build your subscriber list, you create a way for your customers to confirm they want to receive email communications from you. You must make sure your consumers know what they are subscribing too, and if it is alright for you to send them emails.

Give your marketing emails the same consideration that you give your site content and other marketing materials. Too often businesses take a too-casual approach to their email marketing efforts, and seemingly small errors like typos end up undermining their readers' perception of their level of professionalism. Before you add an email to your marketing rotation, ask yourself if it would inspire you to buy.

A previously stated, email marketing has brought about an entire new world for businesses to communicate with their customers. Email marketing has so much potential if it is done correctly. This article provides information and tips to help you develop a email marketing plan and to harness that power for your own business.




About the Author: