Email marketing
Email marketing is a powerful one to many online marketing strategy that can generate amazing results at relatively low costs. Email marketing can be broken down into transaction emails, direct emails and trigger emails. Each type can be very effective and be part of a highly successful campaign.
In the email marketing Section you'll learn about different email marketing tools, effective list building, best practices and advanced email marketing strategies. You'll be able to read about ways to increase email opt-in rates, maximize email open rates & click through rates, create effective auto-responder sequences and improve email deliver ability.
EMAIL MARKETING: SAY IT LOUD!
What's first? Well, once you've completed this walk-through, what comes first will be up to you. I like to start with the content since that's really what your email is about. So let's talk content!The Technical
Simply put, good writing matters. Don't distract your readers with typos or exhaust
them with over exclamation. It's worth having a few friends proof read for you. This
helps you avoid run-on sentences and poor grammar. If anything stands out in this
regard, it's a distraction from your intended message. Seriously, proof read!
The Philosophy
Well, I'll try to keep it simple (there's that word again) when talking about content. Let's
start with this basic idea:
You know your readers better than I do.
Everyone always says, "know your market." That's true for emailing too. What do you think they want to hear about? Remember, you want them to read and enjoy the emails you send and look forward to the next one. What, as it pertains to your business, will give your readers something interesting to read?
Do you like receiving emails that are nothing but a hard sell? I'm sure you don't! No one likes the pixellated equivalent of the junk mail that arrives in your post box every day.
Here's the REAL reason you're emailing:
You want to connect with your customers and fans. You want to provide value, keep them informed and give them a moment in their hectic day to enjoy the email you've sent.
You also want them to read your next one, to share it with friends and to stay loyal customers. Don't lose sight of that.
And how do you do that?
Well, by sitting down and asking yourself, "What do I, me, myself and my friends and customers want to read? What do I look forward to receiving in my inbox? What can I share that my customers might not know. If I were my customer, what would I find interesting?"
Buyer Personas
Let's take a quick digression and chat about buyer personas. That sounds terribly fancy and jargonish but it boils down to this: A buyer persona is a fictional example of your customer. Larger businesses, politicians and universities often rely on multiple buyer personas to dictate their websites and marketing tactics. Ask yourself this: Who is my likely customer? What are they like? What do they do during the day? Often, building the buyer persona relies on asking some customers to share their thoughts. Other times, you're relying on your own knowledge. Most likely, if you're a small business, your buyers are just like you. Stop and build a character for your customer. Give him or her a name and a story. You may gain some insight into your own business and make some positive changes to your email marketing.
These could be personal stories about a product, the chef's inspiration behind a new dish or news about the industry you're in.
Say your business is to sell "small batch" roasted coffee beans. A weekly email that highlights various ways to prepare coffee, from cold press to stove-top percolators (my favorite!), would be perfect. Talk roasting techniques or why the chief coffee poobah created a blend of dark roasted Sumatran beans and medium roasted Arabica or... you get the point. As a very passionate coffee drinker, I'd find this fascinating and I'd be inspired to try out those techniques or new blends.
If you're informing, you're already being interesting. If you're interesting, it won't feel like an advertisement.
