It is easy to forget or discount the importance of email with all the new technology and marketing strategies being developed every day. With social media beckoning those who want to keep up with the times, email has been around for a relatively long time, and many underestimate its potential beyond simple communication.
Email marketing still generates the highest return on demand for marketers for ten years and counting, generating an average of $36 for every dollar spent. Due to the fact that an email is six times more likely to get a click-through than a tweet, email is 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter at securing new customers.
Any marketing strategy should include email marketing. In case you haven’t already established an effective email marketing operation, you may wonder where to begin. In the first place, you should consider three questions: how do I avoid violating anti-spam laws? What can I do to grow my email list? What kind of email campaign should I use? The answers to these questions will guide you on your way to a successful email marketing campaign.
Keeping up with email marketing laws
In many people’s minds, email marketing has negative connotations because of the amount of spam we all receive in our inboxes every week or day. Due to this, many business owners may be wary of spending too much time on email marketing for fear of damaging their reputations. You shouldn’t have a problem if you follow the rules around spam and remain considerate of your readers.
To accomplish that, you must comply with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, or CAN-SPAM. A violation of this law can result in fines of $16,000 per email that violates the law. The law established rules for businesses using email marketing, and the fines for breaking these rules are hefty.
You shouldn’t be discouraged from using email at all by the guidelines established by the law, however. They emphasize transparency and honesty most of the time.
You or your business must accurately identify yourself or your business as the sender by including your email address and domain name in the “From,” “To,” and “Reply-To” fields. It’s important that your subject line reflects the content of the email, that you clearly indicate that the message is an advertisement and that you include your address.
Messages primarily for commercial purposes are exempt from these guidelines. Transactional or relationship messages, such as those providing information about transactions already agreed upon or membership or subscription the recipient already has, can’t give misleading routing information but don’t need to adhere to the previously listed requirements.
Your emails must also include clear instructions on how to unsubscribe, and you must honor these requests within ten business days. It must not require a fee or identifying information to unsubscribe, and it should not be more complicated than replying to an email or visiting one website. In addition, you cannot send them any more emails or transfer their addresses.
Even if you outsource your email marketing to another company, the law still applies to you, so you should always be aware of how your business’s email marketing is conducted.
Email Campaign Types
You can consider what type of content you want to send out now that you know what not to include in your emails.
It is generally possible to divide email campaigns into two main categories: informational emails sent out to your mailing list, and transactional emails sent out automatically when a recipient triggers them.
New offers and other content are typically highlighted in informational emails. They can also present these in a clear, straightforward manner with weekly newsletters or monthly digests that round up new developments or products. Another type of promotion your email can highlight is an event, inviting recipients and demonstrating its value
You’re probably already familiar with several types of transactional emails. A welcome email can be sent when a recipient signs up for a product trial or newsletter, a confirmation email should be sent after every online transaction, and a “thank you” email should be sent if a recipient fills out any type of form on your website. Also, you can be creative here – for example, sending a reminder email after a member leaves items in a shopping cart without checking out for a set number of days.
A lead conversion email campaign is one of the most important types of email campaigns. In this method, you identify a subset of your list that you want to convert to sales, and then send them a series of targeted emails.
You can use these emails to notify customers of product updates or to send them personalized sales pitches. While this can be a delicate process, you should generally identify that they’re getting these emails because they’ve shown interest in related materials through previous activity, and keep the content relevant to their interests. Although lead nurturing generates 4-10 times more responses than standalone emails, the results should prove worthwhile.
To grow your readership, build a mailing list
In order to establish and maintain a successful email marketing strategy, you should grow your mailing list.
Put out as many opt-in subscription forms and call-to-action links as you can. Put them on your website’s homepage, about page, contact page, and blog’s main page. Make sure to include them in your social media profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as your YouTube videos.
Other strategies can also be implemented from there. You can host online promotions like free giveaways or sales that require an opt-in email address, or that encourage recipients to share the email. Even partnering with another company for a promotion, such as a seminar, can help you reach each other’s mailing lists.
Email marketing as a whole and list building in particular are ongoing operations. In many ways, you have to tread a fine line. Emails must be sent regularly enough to maintain your brand, without overdoing it and losing your recipients’ attention.
In addition, you must decide whether the email should have a lot of content or very little, and how much time should be spent on the design. Creating a newsletter that builds your brand requires great copy, while an event invitation needs visuals to help the recipient visualize themselves at the event, and a confirmation email simply needs to present the information the recipient expects.
Developing an effective email schedule and loading your emails with great designs and content can be challenging if you’re not experienced.
Contact Wet Coast Marketing if you have questions or want someone who knows what they’re doing to take the burden off your shoulders. We will keep your business’s email strategy up-to-date with all the emerging trends and best practices, ensuring that you make the most of this valuable resource.
