Email marketing has become
one of the primary methods of communication for companies looking to
generate incremental revenue from new and existing customers.
The strengths of email as a
marketing tool lie in its ubiquity, speed and economy, and when used
correctly it can be an invaluable tool to generate revenue, drive
customer retention and encourage repeat business.
However, with so many
companies trying to capture the public’s attention, the competition for
click-throughs is fierce, and there are important considerations to keep
in mind when starting an email marketing campaign.
With this in mind, The Rocket
Marketing Group present a guide to the dos and don’ts of email
marketing.
DO choose your
audience
Many companies make the
mistake of using email as a blanket marketing tool, sending campaigns
out to as many addresses as they can find. In some cases this means
buying email lists from data collection companies and sending out
campaigns to everyone on the list whether they’ve requested it or not.
Spam email like this is not
only unethical and extremely annoying for the recipient, but will prove
to be a waste of time and money in the long term. At best, the
recipients will have no interest in your company, and at worst they’ll
remember your name, and help to get your address blacklisted.
DO offer consumer rewards
to your subscribers
As mentioned earlier, the
competition for subscribers attention is now pretty fierce and most
people will only accept a limited number of sites sending them info. You
can overcome this by offering them something for signing up to your
newsletter.
You can use a discount on
one of your own products or purchase consumer rewards from a specialist
company, such as a 2 for 1 voucher, or a specially
created collection of savings and discounts.
DO choose your moment
Timing is really important
in creating an email marketing strategy, and while the received wisdom
is that Tuesday or Wednesday are the best days for delivery, it really
depends on what you’re marketing.
If you’re sending a regular
newsletter, it’s good to be consistent and send it at the same time and
day every month. E-shots featuring one very simple message can be more
varied, especially when targeted to a certain event.
For example, an e-shot
offering a gambling promotion for the World Cup final should be sent out
close enough to the event for it to be key in people’s minds, but with
enough time for them to actually use the offer before the game.
DO be
consistent
Your newsletter is an
extension of your brand, and as a result should be easy to recognise and
carry consistent messaging. The easiest way to do this is to design a
template for your newsletter, and simply alter the content to suit each
new issue.
This will not only help your
communications appear professional, but help build a relationship of
trust with your subscribers which should help drive customer retention.
DON’T put all
your eggs in one basket
It may be tempting to use
one email to deliver multiple sales messages to your customers to save
on time and money.
However, the more messages
you try to cram into an email, the higher the chance that the
recipient’s eyes will glaze over, and they’ll reach for the delete
button. Try and stick to a few key messages in each newsletter, keep
them short, and make sure the most important messages are easy to grasp.
DON’T be
afraid to experiment.
Although the general
template of your email should be fairly consistent, experimenting with
using different amounts of copy and images can help you hone in on what
your customers respond to the best.
Even small changes like the
size and format of the links on your page can make a big difference to
your open rates. Consider splitting your subscribers into three groups,
varying your design for each one, and then comparing click-through
rates.
You can use the results when
sending marketing emails in the future, so you know your message is
positioned in a way that will attract the most click-throughs, and
generate the most incremental revenue.
DON’T forget
the subject line
With so many emails arriving
in inboxes daily, many people find themselves deleting all but those
deemed most urgent without even reading them.
This means that the subject
line is probably the most important message of the entire email. It
needs to be punchy, appealing, personalised where possible, and ideally
no more than ten words long.
Most importantly, make the
subject line relevant to the email. If people are hooked in by a subject
line promising ‘50% Off All Orders!’ and your email doesn’t deliver
this, they’ll be unlikely to open in the future.
DON’T get
caught by spam filters
As a result of more and more
companies sending unsolicited email, most email clients now scan any
messages sent to an inbox for words and formatting that is common in
spam emails.
It’s important to try and
maintain clean, relatively simple formatting and where possible try and
include a plain text version as well as HTML. Avoid excessive
capitalisation and exclamation points in your subject field, do not send
the mail with attachments and try to personalise your subject line with
the recipients name.
Finally, make sure you add
an unsubscribe button. Failure to do so is illegal in some countries and
is a sure-fire way to seeing your address blacklisted by potential
customers.
The Rocket
Marketing Group specialises in developing, implementing and managing
loyalty and membership programmes and consumer rewards to drive
customer retention and generate incremental revenue. If your are
interested in Rocket’s range of consumer
rewards or membership
programmes, please contact us
on 0845 241 2135.
