Take a look at some of the trouble you are headed for:
Tip 1: Provide a clear call to action
A lot of times email marketers get so caught up in making their
newsletters and marketing messages look attractive and compelling that
they lose sight of their goal. They end up creating a beautifully
designed marketing message that conveys absolutely nothing. The reader
notices its aesthetic beauty and feels inspired to so something – but
unfortunately there is absolutely no call to action!
The marketing newsletter or message fails to guide the reader in terms of what the reader is supposed to do. Should the reader click on something? Should he follow a particular link? Where should he place his order? These are all important questions that need to be answered right at the start of the message.
The focal point of an email marketing message is that it should spell out clearly what the reader of the message is meant to do, and how the reader should do it. It is also important that readers are made aware of what they will gain when they click through. This can be explained as simply as placing a ‘click here for 35% off on your next purchase’ link.
Tip 2: Give the preview pane due importance
Tip 3: Benefit from the power of personalization
Personalization is one of the simplest tools for increasing your
reading and click thru rates. Think of it this way; if you were out in
public somewhere and you heard someone shouting, “Hey, You!” would you
bother to turn around and acknowledge the shouter? No, you wouldn’t.
However, if that person shouted, “Hey, (your name)!” you would certainly
turn around as you would think the person calling out your name knows
you. This principle holds true when it comes to emails. It has been seen
that simply starting an email with the reader’s name can increase
reading and click-thru rates significantly. So, benefit from this fact
and always personalize your emails.
Tip 4: Place sign-up boxes on each page of your website
One of the easiest ways to increase your list is to get more people to
sign up for your newsletter. This may sound like a case of easier said
than done, but if you have a website, this goal really is very easy to
achieve. All you have to do is ensure that you place a sign-up box on
each and every page of your website, instead of just on your homepage.
The reason for this is that not everyone accesses your website from your
homepage; a lot of people happen to come across a random page of your
website and may not know what or where your homepage is. Such people
should be able to easily sign-up regardless of which page of your
website they are on. You should also see to it that the sign-up process
is short and extremely simple; this motivates visitors to sign-up
faster.
Tip 5: Provide people with an incentive to sign up
People are reluctant to sign up for newsletters as this involves giving
away their email address. Nobody wants to be a victim of spam and
people prefer to be cautious and protect their email addresses by simply
not signing up. Your job is to motivate such people to part with their
address by providing them with an excellent newsletter as well as a
little extra something - a bonus. White papers and detailed case studies
for those who have already subscribed are great bonuses. New
subscribers can be temped with a special newsletter edition or a
humorous Winamp skin. These are just suggestions; there are plenty of
other options when it comes to offering a bonus. However, it is
important to keep in mind that whatever the bonus is, it should be
relevant to your newsletter.
Tip 6: Send at least a monthly newsletter
An email is a passing phenomenon. It is something that needs to be
constantly conveyed to its readers on a fairly frequent basis. Failure
to send your newsletter often enough will result in disaster; your
subscribers could easily forget you, you could lose your readers to your
competitors and your emails may be considered spam.
Tip 7: Always send newsletters on time
It is important that your newsletter is always punctual. It is not
enough that you send a weekly newsletter once a week or a monthly
newsletter once a month. You need to ensure that it goes out on the
right day at the right time. Let’s say you have a weekly newsletter that
you sent out on Friday at 4 p.m. You need to ensure that your
newsletter reaches your recipients inbox every week, on Friday and at 4
p.m. This will prove to your readers that you can be trusted.
Tip 8: Place your email signature everywhere
It does not matter who you are sending your email to; what matters is
that your website URL as well as your email address is an inseparable
part of your signature and makes its presence in every single one of
your emails. Providing these details in your email signature is instant
advertising and effectively lets all those who get your emails know that
you are online – they let people know that you exist.
If you pay attention to these tips, you are sure to get better results for your email marketing efforts. So make sure you put these tips into practice when you embark on your email marketing journey!
Comments
Post a Comment