The Essentials to Effective Email Marketing
Although social media and videos are growing in popularity as marketing strategies, there is no denying that email marketing still brings in good results. Done properly, email has the ability to bring in new sales or leads at a steady rate. The secret to effective email marketing is using this tool in innovative and intelligent ways.
Growing Your List for Effective Email Marketing
With lists, quality is more important than quantity. This is especially true because every year about 25 percent of list names are lost. That means you constantly need to be growing your list to keep it from going “cold.” One good way to get targeted names for your list is to have an opt-in form on your blog with some sort of giveaway. eBooks and autoresponder series are the most common, but are the most common, but more creative solutions like an exclusive interview work great. A blog that has plenty of useful posts relevant to your market brings in new subscribers. Having people opt-in to a list is far better then buying or renting a list of names from list brokers.
Keeping Subscribers on Your List
One problem list owners have is people unsubscribing. This often happens because people get too many emails or the emails are mostly sales oriented. If your company sends out frequent emails as part of a content strategy, offer subscribers the option to receive fewer emails instead of completely unsubscribing. Even better, only send emails when you have something of real value to offer and recipients will be much more likely to stay on your list, enhancing the effectiveness of your email marketing.
Integrating Emails with Other Marketing Strategies
An effective email marketing plan utilizes a variety of strategies. With every email sent out, have icons for any social media site that you use, such as Twitter or Facebook. Encourage readers to share the email, like the emails via Facebook or follow your Twitter account. Another important idea is to make every email suitable for mobile devices. This often means putting the most important information at the beginning of the email. It is also essential to take advantage of all the data, analytics, and metrics offered by your email service provider, and the social media sites you use. By analyzing this information, you can create a better marketing plan because you know what is working.
Segmenting Your Email List
Every decent email service provider allows you to segment your list. This means putting names into categories, like geography. This list includes all the email names located in the city or state where your company is located. You can also categorize the list by interests such as what products they have purchased. Another category is behavior. This can include a number of things such as opting into less frequent emails, or the number or name of white papers or ebooks downloaded.
By treating your subscribers well, listening to their feedback, remembering that helping customers is the best way to make sales, and analyzing all your email data, your company can conduct effective email marketing campaigns.
