Do you want to hear some email marketing tips? You sure do, bet let’s first discuss why you should start doing email marketing in the first place. Simple. Email is here to stay. There’s no way around it. Email is how more and more information is shared that had previously been shared via the United States Postal Service. Colleges and universities alert potential students of their admittance status via email now, instead of via snail mail.

Gone are the days when you knew you got into the school of your choice when a big, fat packet arrived in the mail. Likewise, it’s a digital email to let you down gently, instead of that skinny envelope, telling you that you were not accepted.

People expect and subscribe to all kinds of content that are delivered via email these days from retail store news to hotel offers to arts organizations’ events. So how can you utilize this important conduit to more customers? 

Here is a guide to email marketing basics and ways you can develop your very own email mailing list:

 

10 Email Marketing Tips To Master The Basics

1. You can go it alone and manage your own mailing list from your Gmail, Excel, or Outlook account. Or you can choose to use a company to manage your email lists. The Direct Marketing Association found that for every 38¢ spent on direct email marketing, that $1 was earned back. Over time that adds up. Companies such as Constant Contact can manage the list for you, or save money if you manage your own list, especially as a beginning startup. We use Active Campaign.

2. You’ll want your emails to include your logo and any other pertinent look that is part of your company’s branding. Use Arial as your font when blogging. Keep it consistent and use Arial for your emails. Consider the size of the font and whatever picture or photo you’ll be including. If your message is brief, increase the size of your font. Do you have the rights? Is it your own? How is the quality? Will the photo appear? Do a test run with a friend’s email. If you provide a link, make sure the link works.

3. Set up a welcome email for the first email a new contact.  Talk about when the emails will come if their information is held in confidence, and what your emails will include in their content. Suggest that they can reach out to you and tell them where. Promote the other places they can find you digitally, such as websites and social media sites. Reassure them that their email will not be sold. Start creating a relationship with your readers.

4. In order to get their email in the first place, give away some free content that normally would have to be purchased. Perhaps it’s survey information about area schools or a report about the best new healthcare stocks. You decide. People will offer their email when there is some benefit to them. They don’t know yet what they’ll be receiving via email, but they can be afforded a ‘gift’ in exchange for their email address. Once you have their email, manage it well, handle any bounces and take them off the list if they request to unsubscribe.

5. Send your message at the right time. You can schedule your emails to be sent at the start of a week or a Sunday evening before the week begins. Think about when you’d prefer to get new mail in your inbox. Consider why you’re sending your email list information right then. Is it a holiday or near their birthday (if you gathered that information). Sending out the right message at the right time makes all the difference to garnering a customer from that list. Consider making your email blasts happen in time with your other social media site posts. It’s like a media blitz that’ll hit your potential customer with a rainstorm of content and branding info about your company, product, or service.

6. Be sure you pay attention to the subject lines and the preview text. It matters that it’s punchy and gets people’s attention. You only have a small window, literally, of space to grab your reader’s attention. Keep it short and simple, or short and smart. Either way, your reader will be happy.

7. Gain insight into your actual readership by adding a questionnaire or survey to your email. Mom and Dad Money does this in a company email that looks and reads like an email from a colleague. The knowledge you gain from a potential customer’s response is invaluable. Add a link to make it easy to connect to a Google form, for instance.

8. Create an email that is mobile friendly. Mix up your content with photos or artwork that is about a 50/50 ratio with text. Add highlights of good news from around the country for the week and cap it off with an eye-catching GIF. People will be accessing or sharing email via their phone or tablet, so take that into account when designing your message.

9. Consider how you can personalize your emails, add names, add content recommended just for them. This kind of personalization is appealing to your readership. An email with this kind of message can help a customer or potential customer to discover new ideas about your business, your product, or your service.

10. Give them a direct call to action: Don’t forget Dad (on Father’s Day) or Remember to turn the clocks ahead (on Daylight Savings Time day). If the content gives them direction, it’ll move your customer to take action and keep reading. Any movement toward action is a positive reinforcement to click on your links or information.

 

Creating, maintaining, and using an email distribution list can create customers out of names, clients out of strangers. 

Got questions? For more chatter on email marketing, join our private Facebook group.