Email marketing: what you need to know

Email marketing is a great way to maintain contact with your market. It’s cost-effective and, when managed well, can strengthen relationships keeping your company at the forefront of the customer’s mind. Whilst 60% of UK adults currently use social media, the percentage with email jumps to 88%. And the added advantage, a well-planned email is delivered straight to the inbox so you can guarantee it will reach your intended audience.

The key is to get the message right. Think about some of the emails you receive – chances are many of them are deleted before you’ve finished reading the title. Some don’t even make it into your inbox and are immediately filtered as junk. So before you get started, here are a few tips to help you achieve the best results:

Time spent on your mailing list will pay off

Work on your mailing list and don’t send unsolicited emails, consider a ‘subscribe’ button on your website and detail the benefits.

It might also help to segment your mailing list for more targeted campaigns, that way you won’t accidentally promote a product to a customer who has already bought it.

On the flipside, make sure the unsubscribe link is prominent on your email, it’s better to give users an easy way to unsubscribe than have them mark your email as spam.

What do you want to achieve?

There should be a genuine reason to send a marketing email and it should always include a call to action, maybe a new branch opening or a special offer. Keep it relevant or your customers will quickly find the unsubscribe option.

Get the subject line right

The recipient is likely to be busy so the subject line needs to be factual, specific and interesting. If it’s ambiguous, the reader probably won’t have time to look for the answer, if it’s overly ‘salesy’ they won’t read it at all.

Content is king

The first sentence needs to motivate your customer to read on, so make sure your key points are clear, consistent and placed at the top of your message. Whenever possible, demonstrate expertise in your field, using case studies, news, features and useful hits and tips to increase customer engagement. Most of all don’t be pushy and don’t fill your message with sales and advertising. If you chase someone, chances are they’ll run away!

Test test test

How does it look on different email platforms and browsers? Your email might look good on your screen, but try and test it in Hotmail, Google, Yahoo as well as Outlook. If you use a mailing company like MailChimp or iContact, they will run a lot of these checks for you.

Following these tips will put your message straight into your customer’s inbox, improve engagement and get you noticed.