Email marketing is a powerful way to stay in touch with your customers. In spite of the rise of social media, checking email remains the most popular reason people go online. Widespread use of smartphones means that most people are able to check their email several times a day, and there are constant opportunities to get your messages read.
One of the challenges of email marketing is that most people have very short attention spans. If you don’t engage a reader enough they will scan and delete your messages. Your emails will also be competing for attention with hundreds of others. Research indicates that consumers are exposed to over two thousand media messages a day. If your email doesn’t grab attention, it may never be seen at all.
The following tips will help you to grow your business with email marketing.
Build trust with your audience.
Before you think about content or the details of an email marketing program, you must be aware of the need to build trust. Ensure the information you send in emails is accurate and true. Trust is built by providing good quality information without constantly trying to sell.
Provide relevant content.
Always consider why a customer has signed up for your emails. Providing relevant, quality content is a proven way to build a mailing list. For example, if a customer signed up for tips and news about digital cameras, make sure that’s what you provide. It’s acceptable to recommend products and generate sales from emails, but that shouldn’t be your main goal. Sales will come if you give your customers what they want.
Use compelling subject lines.
Email marketers refer to ‘open rates’ to assess the success of their work. One of the best ways to improve open rates is to write compelling subject lines to entice people to read your messages. Short and punchy headlines work best. An email subject line should be fifty characters or less. Use of capital letters and exclamation marks can make an email look like spam. Simple, short descriptions are the most effective. A subject line can be a question or it can invite a reader’s opinion.
Be mobile-friendly.
Research suggests that over seventy percent of consumers check their email on smartphones and tablets. If your emails don’t look good on these devices, a large proportion of your subscribers may not be able to view them properly. Using short sentences and use spaces between block of text. Images can make emails more visually appealing, but large file sizes can mean delays in download times for mobile users.
Track and analyze your results.
Building a mailing list and sending content to your subscribers is just the first stage of email marketing. It’s essential that you analyze the results to see what’s working. As well as tracking open rates and the frequency of people unsubscribing, you should track other metrics relevant to your marketing goals. For example, traffic to your website could be an important measure if you’re promoting an online store.
Email marketing is an effective way to develop relationships and increase sales. It can take time to build a mailing list, but all businesses can benefit from the strategy of maintaining regular contact and providing information of interest to customers.
