Email Marketing
– The Basics You Need to Know
Setting and Following a Goal
This concept is important for any type of marketing in fact, so take it to heart no matter what you may be doing to grow your business. You need goals, and you need to constantly look for ways to reach them. So, before you create or consider sending out an email, ask yourself, what is its purpose? Some of the goals could be:
- Driving Traffic to Your Website
- Inviting People to Upcoming Events
- Educating People about a Product or Service
- Build Loyalty among Customers
- Share News about the Business
- Offer a Promotion or Sale
You need to set a goal, and that way, you will have something specific to work toward when you start an email marketing plan.
Know the Difference Between Regularly and Too Much
When you send out emails, there is a fine line between emailing regularly and emailing to the point that you annoy people. If you send out things every day, then likely, you will come across as spam and people won’t want anything to do with your business. You need to find the line between what is enough and what is too much. The best idea is to email for your business once or twice a month with specialty emails going out every once in a while. Once a day or multiple times a day would be way too much.
Make Your Email Interesting
People see emails all the time, and they will skim through or just straight delete something if it doesn’t capture their interest. A hook is definitely needed. A hook is simply something that will get attention of the reader and draw them in. So, make sure your email includes things like images, dynamic content, links to your website, etc. You want to make sure it is as interactive as possible so that people will feel more involved. That will definitely hook them much more quickly.
Always Include an Unsubscribe Link
You may be tempted to leave this off so that you will keep more subscribers, but that is a very bad idea for a couple of reasons:
- People will get annoyed and frustrated to the point that they never want to do business with you.
- You are legally required to include an unsubscribe link according to the CAN-SPAM act. Make sure you follow this so that you don’t get in trouble with the law, and when people ask to be unsubscribed, make sure they actually are.
Email marketing is certainly a powerful tool, and it can offer you many different options to reach potentials as well as established customers alike. However, the only way that marketing can be successful is if you think it through very carefully. Make sure you have a goal or plan in place when you start, know how much you should email without becoming “spammy”, and ensure you have a way people can opt-out for the email. Finally, always use content that will get attention and that will allow the reader to interact with the email itself, and therefore your business.