How To Get The Most Out Of Your Email Marketing
There is no debate that email marketing works. Businesses around the world are using email marketing to build prospect lists, follow up, and drive new sales.
So maybe you are thinking about putting email marketing to work for your business. Good decision!
The key is to make sure you set up your campaigns well so that you get the best possible outcome: Sales.
This article is designed to help you avoid come of the more common mistakes made by rookie marketers and maximize your campaigns to get the best possible results.
Some of the most common mistakes made include things like:
- Not personalizing your messages. Emails addressed to the individual receiver by name are much more likely to be opened than the same blind subject line.
- Incorrectly personalized messages. Proofreading can help you catch little mistakes in the tokens that can cause your email to be sent to **FIRSTNAME** instead of the actual name of your reader.
- Incorrect links. Let’s say your message gets opened, and your subscriber reads it. They want to know more so they click your link and … get lost. Proofreading helps here, too!
- Your messages getting routed to the spam folder. It can happen and it’s easier than you think for your messages to get routed to the spam or junk folder. When that happens, your message is lost. Check out these tips for improved deliverability to help you message get to the inbox.
- Bouncing email addresses. Having invalid or unknown email addresses in your list can cause your deliverability rate to tank. And many autoresponder services charge you for the size of your list, no matter how many are actually deliverable. It makes more sense to use a service that removes bouncing or unknown email addresses.
So let’s say you’ve done the research. You’ve done the proofreading. You’ve written a good subject line and it is personalized to address each reader by name. You’ve checked your links. Your list is good. Your list is clean. It’s time to send your email marketing message.
This is where the line gets drawn for many email marketing professionals. The days of just being able to send out a quick ad or offer are pretty well over. With a vast majority of email being labeled as “spam”, and a lot of valid emails falling in to boxes where people don’t actually read the message, it can be challenging.
Still, successful email marketers report outstanding ROI (Return On Investment). Some report email marketing returns as high as 4300%! So how do they do it?
Is there a secret to their success? Not really. Once all the technical and deliverability stuff is covered, the key is to use email marketing to build a strong relationship with your readers. Note that I didn’t say “sell to your readers”. They joined your list because they already want to know more about what you can do for them, how you can help them. And when you show them how you can help them, sales are going to happen.
So make sure your messages focus on providing real value to your readers. Build trust by sending them valuable relevant information so that they actually expect and watch for your email messages.
The email marketing world has become a tough place for sloppy email junkies that just send out blatant ad after ad, never providing real value, and never connecting with their readers.
But when you provide relevant and valuable information to your readers, you are giving yourself a tremendous competitive advantage.
Your readers, when they look at the many many messages in their inbox are asking, on some level: “Why would I want to read this?”. If you build a reputation that your messages are just going to be another sales pitch, your messages are getting deleted. But if your messages provide valuable information, your message has a much better chance of getting opened.
Is the technical stuff important? Absolutely! But the big difference between a technically correct email and a profit producing email marketing campaign is seen when you focus your content on providing real value to your readers. This means you are sending information that they asked for. Your message is directly focused on their goals and desires.
How Focusing On Your Readers Helps Your Business:
When your readers are looking for your emails, this makes it very easy to create traction and see results when you launch new products, enhancements, and services.
Your customers that trust you are more likely to buy from you again and again. Repeat business is much more profitable than constantly going after new business.
When your messages are being opened, your overall deliverability reputation improves. This is a huge long-term benefit that should not be overlooked.
How do you know what your readers are looking for?
Your capture page should be clear about the information you are offering. When someone requests that information, you know that is what they want to know about. Keep your message focused on the benefits you listed.
If your offers changed based on age group or specific interests, be sure to request that information. Many times, a name and email address is fine. But if you really want to target your messages, set up your forms to ask those types of questions from your visitors.
Or you can set up additional campaigns to further segment your list by interest as you move along in your email marketing.
The post How To Build an Email Marketing Campaign That Pays appeared first on Email Marketing.