8 Tips on launching a successful e-mail marketing campaign

by admin on Jun.01, 2009, under Email Marketing

No email marketing campaign will be successful if no one actually reads your emails. There are various rules of thumb that you can follow that will encourage people to actually open your emails and to improve their readability.

1. Decide what it is you want your e-mail campaign to accomplish. Do you want people to buy a product or service, or do you just want them to go to your Web site and opt into an e-mail list?

2. Plan out your email campaign flow. Let’s admit it: it’s easy to get lazy about thinking ahead. But it pays to think ahead with email marketing. Plan out the sequence of the email marketing flow and use tools to automatically trigger the right messages.

For example, when a customer buys a product X, send a thank-you email with “How to use the product” information within 24 hours, followed by a “How is the product working out for you?” survey in one week.

Depending on the survey response, send further product information or a discount on the next purchase, and so on and so forth. The key is to plan and automate.

3. Make sure your e-mail marketing campaign is consistent with your brand and message. That means making sure that your brand and your message and your goals extend all the way through from your e-mail to the signup page to whatever special landing page you’ve created for the event [or product] you’re trying to promote through your e-mail. Also, make sure the design and tone of your e-mail reflects the design and tone of your Web site, so there is an instant connection. And don’t forget to brand the “from” line of your email with the name of your business and include your logo in the body.

4. Engage readers right away with an intriguing subject line. The subject line is the most important sentence of your entire e-mail campaign. People are busy, so your subject line needs to intrigue your readers and draw them in. For example instead of using the bland subject line “February Newsletter,” spice it up by having it read “Initech’s February Newsletter: How Good Is Your HR Team? Take Our Quiz and Find Out…”

5. Practice give and take. Have your last ten email campaigns been about pushing products? Mix up your email campaign content by providing “how to guide” or “tips and tricks” on products your customers have purchased recently.

For example, wouldn’t it be nice if a clothing retailer sent an email explaining cashmere care to those customers who purchased cashmere products?

6. Resist the temptation to over communicate. Remember the boy who cried wolf? Too many email promotions are overkill. Research shows that consumers prefer to get email marketing messages weekly, or even monthly.

7. Think integrated thoughts. Email is the cheapest form of direct marketing, bar none. Think of ways to integrate email marketing with your more expensive offline direct marketing campaigns to maximize the overall effect.

For example, why not use email to alert your customers about the arrival of new seasonal catalogues? You’ll see the uptake in catalogue sales. I guarantee it.

8. Test to find out what works — and what doesn’t. One of the wonderful things about e-mail campaigns is that you can measure the results. Got two different ideas or approaches? Go ahead and test them out and track which one does better.

Use tracking to learn what your audience likes, and doesn’t, and mix it up from time to time to see how small tweaks affect those response numbers. Try two different subject lines; try flipping stories one and two in the body copy; try sending to half of your list on Tuesday morning and the other half on Thursday. In the end, the only way to really find out which subject lines work best, or whether longer or shorter content is the right approach, or which day really is the best for sending is… to try it.

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