How to launch a successful email marketing campaign?

Q: Email marketing -
What is email marketing? Why should I use that? How can I benefit from that with limited marketing budget?

 

Q: Subscription -

How to switch your website visitors to your customers?

 

Q: Email Campaign Content -

Good subject lines, higher email open rates

 

Q: Delivery -

When to send your email campaign in order to have a high click rate?

 


Email marketing:

What is email marketing? Why should I use that? How can I benefit from that with limited marketing budget?

   

Email marketing uses the Internet to communicate information about company news, promotions, product updates and more. It can strengthen the connection between a company and a potential or existing customer.

   

No matter you are from a large corporation or one-man business, email marketing brings you sales opportunities and benefits.

For business users, you can send product updates and discount offers to your customers subscribed on newsletter on your web site or imported from existing customer database. Your marketing campaign can be effectively held for increasing sales with a low cost! It is ideal for anyone looking for increasing revenue, boosting sales, generating leads, building brand awareness or shortening sales cycles.

   

You can also send newsletter to different interest group, alumni, association members etc. Some newsletter management system can be applied to recruitment. By importing existing applicants or asking web visitors to subscribe your job post newsletter, you can send related job opening in the future.

   

Even for home users, you can send personalized invitations, announcements, etc. to all your friends and relatives easily.

   

Some web-based newsletter management or email marketing systems, e.g. Reasonable Spread, do not require installation or download. Thus, you can save costs in setting up or managing the system.

   

Also, by using these kinds of systems, much time and money can be saved. This is due to no creating, printing and postage cost of marketing materials. They can save your time by instantly delivering the newsletter or promotional materials.

Besides, these kinds of systems would flexibly allow users to create email campaign without any technical skills. Sending your promotion to targeted customer groups would even trigger sales.

[Top]

   


Subscription:

How to switch your website visitors to your customers?

   

Visitors that come to your website from a search engine are most likely to be actively looking for your product. They will probably purchase it immediately. However, some visitors may not want to buy it at once. How to retain your visitors and buy from you later? There are several methods to do so.

   

  1. Web page collection

Many companies collect email addresses via the web. E.g. if you are selling software online, you can collect more visitors?email address by requesting them to leave an email before downloading your software. To improve the sign-up rates, it is recommended to add text informing the visitors what benefits they would have upon registering. Like they would receive e-newsletter, product updates, etc. Besides, the subscription box which collects visitors?email addresses should be available on your home page. Don’t make your visitors look for it.

   

  1. Existing email database collection

It is wisely to provide “tell your friends?or “mail to others?button. You could ask your existing customers to provide additional addresses or simply passing the newsletter, promotion, specific offers, or other information to their friends, family or associates who have similar interests.

   

Many newsletter management systems include the function of helping you to build your email list. E.g. Reasonable Spread allows you to generate HTML codes and embed into your website. So when visitors visit your website, they can place the email addresses and you can contact them later.

   

Lastly, to be an ethical email marketer, un-subscription options should be included. So gather email addresses and follow up regularly, then you will find your website profits grow with the same rate as your email list.

[Top]   

   


Email Campaign Content:

Good subject lines, higher email open rates

   

The subject line of your email marketing campaign is the key which opens the door to your message. Without the right key, the door will never be opened. The best subject lines include a powerful phrase with an action and an incentive. Here are some tips for drafting a good subject line.

   

  1. Identify yourself

Another form of identification for your email is the subject line. Thus, use your company or brand name in the subject line to grab a receiver’s eye.

   

  1. Brief subject lines

Some email clients cut off the subject lines beyond 50 characters. So keep it short, say, 6-7 words including spaces is ideal.

   

  1. Inform but with incentive

If your subject line is too vague, your receivers may not feel any urgency to open the email. However, if it is too descriptive, they may not feel the need to open and read more. E.g. “ABC company offers 20% off discount to premium members?may change to “ABC premium members: 20% off discount on…”

   

  1. Avoid using words that cause your email to be filtered

When composing the subject line, it is recommended to avoid words or phases like: free, order now, advertisement, money back, etc. This is because these words are too promotional. Even if they cannot be filtered by technology, they can be filtered by human brain. Receivers may filter based on the words or the tone used. Also, avoid using all capital letters or wildcards like $, or excessive exclamation marks (!!) in your subject line. These unusual practices would certainly be filtered as spam.

 

[Top]  


Delivery:

When to send your email campaign in order to have a high click rate?

   

There is no universal rule for determining when to deliver your email. E-mail providers such as e-Dialog and Responsys recommend sending once a week. A recent ExactTarget study found that emails sent on Wednesday to Friday get the most opens, while users click most on weekend emails. Marketers should test different days and frequencies to see what generates the best response with their customers.

   

Generally, Tuesdays through Thursdays are the most effective days of the week for email marketing offers. Mondays tend to have poor click rates because busy consumers often deleting accumulated marketing emails sent at weekends. Fridays are also not ideal because people tend to plan for the upcoming weekend via email and are ordinarily less receptive to advertisers. If you are sure your customers database consists only of personal email addresses, weekends and holidays are generally good times to target your campaign.

   

What are good rules of thumb then? Actually the best way to decide when to send your email is by testing different days and times.

[Top]