The Essentials of Email Marketing by Kim Phillips

knowledge drop

The Essentials of Email Marketiing

ÂŠ 2011 l u c i d m a r k e t i n g

The Essentials of Email Marketing In spite of the popularity of social media and other online channels, we still depend on email more than any other type of business communication. Here are some tips to turn the emails you send into the kind people like to receive. Use a professional email platform. The old email “blast” should be dead but people still do it. Before you select all 500 people in your address book and hit “send,” consider the following: · If there are too many emails coming out of a single outbox, your internet service provider can label the entire domain as a spammer and it’s very hard to get that decision reversed. ·

It’s considered bad etiquette to show everyone’s email address, and doing so opens up the possibility that someone will scrape out those addresses for their own purposes. (Putting the addresses in the Bcc field hides them from view but doesn’t help the spam issue.)

There are several affordable professional email services out there. We like Emma for its ease of use, personal service from actual human beings, and overall look. Generally, the annual cost of using a professional email platform is less than the cost to print and mail ONE issue of a newsletter. Don’t seem spammy. Another practice that can get you labeled as a spammer is the use of words like “free” and tons of exclamation points. In the subject line, they look over-promotional and the recipient will be more likely to delete it. From a style standpoint, too many exclamation points cheapen the writing; let the words do the talking. Spam may be in the eye of the beholder, but the CAN SPAM law is real and the penalties are stiff. continued...

The Essentials of Email Marketing

Build your list naturally. The old saw about direct mail also applies to email: the three most important things are the list, the list and the list. The best information and nicest layout will be ignored if they don’t reach the right people. Don’t rent or buy lists; build your own from real contacts with real people. The best email services guard their reputations zealously and won’t accept rented or purchased email lists. Be relevant. If your business is a retail store or e-commerce site, you’ll likely need a good incentive, like a discount offer, or another reason the recipient of the email should open it, like “New Summer Styles” or “Preview Sale for Preferred Customers.” A nonprofit may need an emotional appeal or personal connection to a hot-button issue. A tech business should establish themselves as the go-to experts. No matter what your business, your email should promise—and deliver—valuable information. Self-serving sales information solves your problem, but not the reader’s. Put the good stuff up front. The subject line of any email is the single biggest factor in whether the email gets opened. A subject line like “May Newsletter” doesn’t say anything of interest; we know it’s May and we know it’s a newsletter. The first few words of the body of the email are the second-most important thing. Some people use a viewing pane that shows them the first little bit of an email, which they can either continue to read, or delete. Give them a reason to stay with it. Make email just one of your tools. Some people pay more attention to email, others to social media sites like Facebook. Your website probably has far more content than you can convey in an email, and your blog may be more personal or in-depth than any of these other channels. Make sure continued...

The Essentials of Email Marketing

all the communications channels you use invite people to the others. Don’t forget direct mail; it can be a powerful way to generate online traffic. Online retailers know that people love to look at their products in the catalog but will likely head to the internet to buy them. Engage the recipient with an active experience. The addition of contests, surveys, videos, and links to related content will keep the reader involved. YouTube isn’t just for funny pet videos; you can post the podcast of your shareholder’s meeting there and share it in an email. Use a unique email address for your email marketing. Some people have filters set up to direct their emails into folders; if you use your personal email address for everything, your business messages may not be read, and vice versa. If you send emails for a variety of transactional reasons, it is helpful to the recipient to know instantly what they are being contacted about; shipping@bigcompany.com tells me there will be information about my order. If it isn’t practical to send email requests and responses to one person within your company, consider an address like info@bigcompany.com for a professional contact point. Get your own domain. If you have a small business, get yourself a web domain even if you’re not ready to put up a full-scale website just yet; use a web-based email service like the one at GoDaddy.com. An address like susiecutie9212aol.com is not as professional as susanq@sitters.com. You can also put up a simple blog site and redirect traffic to it; for example, www.sitters.wordpress.com can be redirected to www.sitters.com to give you a more professional web presence.

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The Essentials of Email Marketing

Do your homework. There is a ton of good information on the internet about email marketing best practices; check out the major email services and see what they have to offer. Some give you lots of help and many whiz-bang extras. Decide what you need most. When you receive an email newsletter that appeals to you, save it and study it. What was it that captured your attention? Notice who the email service for that email is; it’s usually noted at the bottom, and you’ll see the names of the good ones over and over. On the flip side, before you hit delete or “unsubscribe” on an email, ask yourself why. Learn what to do...and not to do...from others.

The Essentials of Email Marketing

Kim Phillips has been an advertising professional for over 30 years. You may share this knowledge drop online in whole or in part, provided you include a link to this pdf. More information at www.getlucid.net

ÂŠ 2011 l u c i d m a r k e t i n g