Planning out a good email marketing campaign can be a tricky business. There are a lot of different factors to consider when writing an email to get people interested in your business, and it can be hard to keep them all in mind at once. The details of an email will depend on the exact thing that it needs to do, but there are a few things that can improve any email marketing message.
Keep it Personal
People respond much better to email marketing campaigns that treat them like people. A good email is more than a simple list of facts and figures that ends with a call to action. If you know a person’s name, be sure to use it in the email to make it seem like a personal letter. Tell stories about your successes and your failures that remind your customers that you are a person like they are, and not simply an unfeeling machine. Use language that is informal where appropriate and be polite!
Start Small and Manage Expectations
Email is a useful marketing tool, but it can only do so much at a time. Don’t expect to suddenly get a huge wave of new customers by sending out a few emails, and don’t try to get that either. Instead, aim for little goals. Get people interested in you to help build towards sales in the future and form relationships when possible. Gather information that can help you win them over later and be sure to listen to what they are saying. Aim for small victories and let them build up into something better over time.
Give Directions
All the interest in the world is useless if customers don’t know how to act on it. Always give clear instructions so that people know how to proceed. If you want people to sign up for a service or a newsletter, tell them exactly how to do so. Give them big buttons to press and clear links to follow. Never assume that something is obvious. A person who can’t understand what you want them to do is likely to give up and ignore you even if you had them interested, so make sure that everything is clear. Nothing loses customers as quickly as confusion.
Trust Statistics and Act On Opportunities
Data is the most important tool at your disposal. If you know what an individual wants, then you can tailor your emails to appeal to them. Nothing is more useful to people who want to customize their emails than a thorough data collection program. Collecting that information over the Internet is reasonably simple, so be sure to do it. Track what people are looking for and when they look for it. Segment your lists by different concepts or geographic regions; find out where those people tend to live and personalize the message accordingly. Once you have that information, you can optimize your efforts and get much better returns for your time. A little work now can reap huge benefits later.
Be Grateful and Polite
Always remember to thank your customers for working with you. It helps to humanize your business and make people feel good for choosing you over your competitors. Being thankful is a sign of respect and anyone paying you for a product or service should have earned that respect. Remember that clients choosing you involves a lot of trust in you. Be sure to remember that your new client deserves your honesty and respect. It is not likely to bring in new customers, but it well help to keep the customers that you already have.
