Make the Most of Email Marketing
Nowdays almost everyone that is online (60% of the population of the UK) is suffering from an excess of emails - so how do you make sure that your marketing emails get read and get results for you?
Targeted email marketing campaigns can be very cost effective and a great way of increasing sales to existing and new customers but think about it for a minute - how many unsolicted emails do you get each day, your customers probably get just as many of not more (the author regularly gets 200-300 emails a day that are spam or otherwise considered junk). As the number of emails increases you need to make sure that your email marketing stands out from the crowd for all the right reasons.
Keep the email concise and on-message
Keep it brief is the best thing to remember, you should try to get your point across in as few words as possible and also outline the main points early on in the email. People that are pushed for time may only read the first paragraph so they need to have their interest piqued enough that they want to carry on reading.
Make sure that the subject of the email is relevent and eye catching - we have all had emails with a subject line that doesn't give you any reason to even open the email. However with the increasing use of spam filters you need to be careful about the wording, using "FREE" in the subject is more than likely going to trigger a filter and may even result in the email being automatically deleted.
Keep the number of messages in the email down
If you ever hear a political speech you will probably find that they are limited to a maximum of 3 key points so that people remember them.
Use the same technique for your email, don't detail every feature of your service or product but just point out the main business issues and how using your service or product can benefit the reader (the WIFM or Whats In it For Me technique).
So, before sitting at the keyboard grab a sheet of paper and work out :-
- the three messages that you want the reader to take from the email
- what action you want them to take (visit your website, send you an email, pick up the phone, see you at an exhibition etc)
- whether this is a stand alone communication or part of a continuing series (or even ties in with other forms of marketing such as advertising, telemarketing, direct mail etc)
More information about email marketing can be obtained from the Institute of Direct Marketing
However, please be aware that of you are a company and in the UK, under the Companies Act 2006 your emails must have your company name, registration number, place of registration and registered office address shown somewhere.