Successful marketing on the web involves a whole mix of tactics and tools. Get the right ones for your business – and get them right – and you can expect to see outstanding results. One of the most important tool for marketing is still email.
If you are implementing email campaigns in your organization, there are 5 best practices to keep in mind:
#1 Sign-up must be easy
It might sound obvious, but make it as easy as possible for your user to sign-up to receive your email communications. Only use as many fields as necessary in your registration form. While it is useful to gather as much information as possible, remember that asking people to fill in too many fields can act as a serious barrier. What’s the minimum you need? Email address.
#2 Email Marketing is a Strategy
Any email distribution you perform should be a part of a larger email marketing strategy. What’s the purpose of your email campaign? What are you hoping to achieve? And how does the campaign integrate into all of your other marketing activity? Integration of messaging across marketing channels is always the best approach to get the biggest bang for your buck. An email campaign should not act in isolation and you should always consider the reaction that your prospects are having to each email you distribute. Don’t send an email for the sake of it. If you want a response from your distribution list, don’t spam them, make sure you’re sending good quality communications that offer value.
#3 Call-to-action is key
Believe it or not, many companies are still sending emails without a clear call-to-action. Emails are sent for a reason, you want the user to respond to your content. If you don’t include very clear calls-to-action within the email, you are seriously impacting the performance of the campaign. Calls-to-action can vary in their level of intended impact; I like to call them passive and active. Passive calls-to-action are subtle text links that drive the user to your website, for example. Active calls-to-action are more overt and use bold messaging that asks the user to take a specific action such as filling out a form or calling a number.
#4 Offer Opt-Out Alternatives
So, you have to give your user the option of opting-out, but you can also reduce your opt-out rate by providing other alternatives to the full opt-out. For example, perhaps the user would respond better to less frequent communications or emails only relating to a specific topic. Remember, the best way to prevent your users from opting out is to provide relevant valuable content.
#5 Leverage Targeted Communications
Effective email marketing is not about spamming your distribution lists as often as possible. It’s about reaching the user at the optimal point of relevancy. Understanding who your prospects are, what they’re looking for and when they have specific needs will take you a long way in delivering targeted emails that provide true value.
Do you want a lot of visitors to your website? Do you want to waste a lot of money?
