24 Tips To Set Up An Effective Email Marketing Campaign - Part 1

Email Marketing

Email marketing is directing your messages to targeted addresses. These addresses are either rented or gathered from your opt-in list. Don’t worry. This is not spamming. The people whom you send messages to want your information.

An Effective Email Marketing Campaign Will Help Your Business...

Target your customers
Build a good rapport with your potential customers
Lower your ad costs (email marketing is cost effective)
Increase return on investments (ROI)

"69 percent of U.S. e-mail users have made purchases online after receiving permission-based e-mail marketing, 59 percent have purchased in retail stores, 39 percent have purchased through catalogs, 34 percent through call centers and 20 percent through postal mail."

And, "78 percent of those surveyed say they want to receive e-mail from their favorite online merchants."

Source: DoubleClick

24 Tips to An Effective Email Marketing Campaign…

Own a proper domain name

If you are serious about your business, you need to own a proper domain name that will appear in your resource box in all your email marketing campaign. Free domain name like yoursite.xxx.com or www.xxx/yoursite.com will not be taken seriously. It gives people the impression that your business is a fly by night operation.

To build credibility you need to have your own proper domain name (www.yoursite.com) and professional web hosting.
Auto-responders

An auto-responder performs 2 important functions. It stores the names and email addresses of your visitors who opted to be on your mailing list, and automates your follow-up process. It can send a single message to thousands of subscribers in your opt-in list automatically.

You can have more than one auto-responder, each sending a different message. Without the effective use of auto-responders, an effective marketing campaign cannot be set in place. Imagine handling the tasks of a growing business without automation.
Offer Free Short Courses

The advantage of auto-responders is you can send out messages at preset intervals. You could utilize this capability to offer short email courses lasting from 5 to 7 days. For example I could offer for free a short course Five Days to Effective Email Marketing with this article. Offering short mini courses is one way to build up your opt-in list.

When your subscribers gain enough confidence in you through email courses, they would be more disposed to buy your products. Needless to say, your products must be related to the courses you offer.

Offering short courses also exposes your subscribers to your products or services.
Offer Free Ezines/Newsletters

Ezine is short form for electronic magazines. Share quality and useful information with your subscribers through ezines.Update your products and keep your subscribers posted of the latest developments in your business. This is good for building long-term relationships with them.

When you established your business as a reliable source of information, know-how and expertise, people will naturally be sold to it.

If you have a large subscriber base say 2000 – 4000, you can sell advertising space in your ezine.
Be Personal

Address your subscribers by name. You may write something like, Hi [First name] or [Last name], Thank you for your sign-up. People like to be address by name. It gives them a sense of importance. This is psychology 101.

Though your email will be read by thousands of subscribers each day, write as if you are talking to one person at a time. Use singular pronouns like ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘You’, ‘Your’. This kind of approach is more personal.
Be Formal

Just because you are writing emails it does not mean that you do away with all the formality of offline letter writing. Maintain proper greetings, Hi [First name] of [Last name], and proper signing offs like to your success, best regards, etc.
Fill in the From Field properly

Fill in your name, not crony names, followed by your full email address so it does not pass off as junk mail. Delete and empty trash.
Fill in the Subject Field properly

It must be a clear statement that is relevant to content. Don’t leave your Subject Field blank.
Remind people how they got on your mailing list

This is good practice. Most people will not remember why, where and what they signed up. Remind them at the beginning of your email how they got on your mailing list.
Write as though you are speaking to your friend

Email writing is somewhat different from writing for print. Write as though you are talking to a friend. Don’t sound like a university professor or a kindergarten teacher.
Be Concise and get straight to the point

Your email text must be concise and get straight to the point. People don’t have all day to read your email. A good thumb of rule for an effective email marketing copy is 250 to 300 words. Don’t bombard your email marketing campaign with banner ads all over.
Use Short Sentences and Paragraphs

Avoid wordy sentences. Keep your sentences short and simple. Don’t clump your text together. Use plenty of paragraphs. It is easier to read the text that way. Paragraphs should be no longer than five lines.
Never Type your Text in Caps

Online this is interpreted as SHOUTING.
Check For Bad Grammar and Misspellings

An email with bad grammar and misspellings gives your subscribers the impression that you don’t take them seriously. So don’t expect them to take you seriously too. Check and recheck your email copy to correct bad grammar and misspellings.

The opening line is important. Bad grammar and misspelling from the start will get your email copy trashed fast.

Continue with Part 2

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