Email Marketing Best Practices
A favorite among email marketing newsletter writers, and readers, too, for that matter, is the numbered list of top things. These lists are informative, quick to read and easy to digest. Today, in the form of a top 5 list, we're going to look at some best practices in email marketing campaign management.
1 - Bring down the barriers of entry. Make it easy for people to sign up for your free email marketing newsletter by placing sign-up buttons strategically throughout your website. Upon registration, consider just collecting an email address - most people don't want to take the time to fill out a form and give you their life story just yet. You can request other information, but don't require it.
2 - Create a diverse promotional strategy. Don't just bombard people with sales promotions, give them interesting articles, tips, etc., that will boost both your brand integrity and your credibility as a leader in your industry or market. Don't let your brand become synonymous with discounts unless that's how you want it to be viewed.
3 - Make it easy for readers to unsubscribe from your email marketing newsletters. When they hit that button, offer them alternatives like receiving your emails less frequently, changing content options to receive more interest-targeted versions, and always allow them to give you feedback, especially when unsubscribing. Let your readers know you appreciate their opinion and show them by making adjustments when it seems fitting.
4 - Speaking of feedback, email should be used to facilitate a dialogue between you and your recipients, not a monologue about how great your company is and why people need to spend their money with you. Segment your list to cater to different audiences, send surveys and ask questions of your readers. Use their interactions with your newsletter and website (what links did they click? did they buy anything?) to determine their interests right now. Find out who they are and what they want to receive from you in terms of content right now, knowing that could change later. Remember, you need to keep them happy even when they're not in a position to buy.
5 - Allow your readers to take various levels of action. Calls to action can be general, precise, or somewhere in the middle. If you're promoting specific products, a link to one of those products would be the lowest call to action common denominator. A link to a category of products on your website would be a level above that, and then your website's homepage would be above that still. This type of "action staggering" gives readers yet more options and increases the possibility that they'll respond or interact with your newsletter in some way. Bounce that response back to them every time in a way that is timely and relevant.