Want your email campaign to stand out? Use these 4 simple tips!

So we’ve established that email marketing is one of the best methods to increase your company’s return on investment (ROI) as it relates to your overall marketing campaign.  However, with so many messages being sent by so many different businesses, using this same method, it is important to increase your odds even more with a killer online campaign which helps your message to stand out.

Here are some of my suggestions based on the experience I have gained over the years:

1.       Keep it short and simple – Generally speaking, people despise reading long, drawn out messages.  The shorter, the better; the simpler, the sweeter.  By keeping it short and simple, it forces you to be pointed with your message.  Beating around the point guarantees that the message will be lost to the receiver.

2.       Choose the subject line, carefully – The subject line determines whether or not the message is read by the receiver, as such the message and the subject line must be synonymous.  As I’ve said before, there is nothing more annoying than opening an email with a particular subject line and it has nothing to with the message inside the mail.  Additionally, in this age of scamming, your subject will get your message automatically deleted if the offer in the subject line is just totally ridiculous.

3.       Consistently provide useful information – One great way to stand out in the clutter of information is to provide useful, relevant information.  If from the onset, you pride your business on delivering useful information, i.e. industry tips, do-it-yourself guidelines and links to other useful information, then you will have little problems getting into the client’s inbox.  Yes, sales pitches and product announcements are important but mix it up a bit and tie it into a larger picture.

4.       Give the customer the option to ‘opt out’ – As much as it is your intention to get and keep customers, sometimes customers are no longer interested in receiving information from your business.  And it’s not because the information is no good, it’s just that they may have grown past your business offerings or their financial situation may have changed.  At the end of every email, there must be an unsubscribe option.

Happy emailing!

Maximizing your email contact list

Creating an email contact list is one of the most crucial marketing actions a new business can take.  An email contact list gives the business direct and consistent contact with the client/customer group and enables messages to acted upon, queried and responded to in real time.

Email marketing has emerged as more than a legitimate method of reaching a targeted audience.  A great feature of email marketing is that it is largely permission based, which means that the persons to whom you will send information, are open to receiving same.

The following are some tips to maintaining your email contact list:

-          Keep your list current – People change their email addresses for different reasons, or maybe in sending your message, you get a letter wrong or misplace a character and that results in the message either getting bounced or not sent at all.  Track the number of bounces and undelivered emails to see who isn’t receiving the messages.  Make contact with them to reconfirm email addresses.

-          Send an introductory message; immediately – Once you receive a contact’s email address, send an introductory message immediately.  It does two things – reconfirms your conversation with the client which led up to receipt of his email address; and establishes recall once future messages are sent.  This is also a great way to build a relationship with your clients.

-          Make your messages ‘user-friendly’ – Whether it’s formatting and layout or mobile versus desktop, ensure that your messages are user friendly.  Video, in particular and creatively designed graphics tend to grab a lot of attention, but there are those customers who just want to get the message.  Use bullet points to highlight the main points and be as clear as possible with your subject line.  There is nothing more annoying than opening the email and it has nothing to do with what was highlighted in the subject line.

-          Solicit customer feedback – Because you are in contact with your customers, this is an excellent way to solicit their feedback.  Find out what they want to hear from you, how they feel about your products or services and what improvements they would like to see.  And don’t just get the feedback, implement some of the ideas; it will allow your customers to feel like they are part of the business.

-          Don’t use a ‘one-size-fits-all’ message – Although your customers generally have some similarities, all your customers are different and get different benefits from your products and services.  Your job is to identify, which customers can receive generic messages, versus those who needs specific messages.