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For a small business or online business of any kind, email marketing is extremely important. It is a great way to remind customers of your existence and to keep them coming back for more. Through email marketing, you can also keep your community informed about any changes that your business is going through, and offer deals when needed to increase your sales and traffic.
Holding onto loyal customers by connecting means not only their sales but an increase in word-of-mouth referrals as well. Email marketing is also low to no cost on your end, but it does require doing it right to make sure it has the desired impact. Here are some tips on the best email marketing techniques.
Table of Contents
Email Marketing Tips And Techniques
#1) Make Subscribing a Breeze
To get your emails, people are going to have to be on your email list. The best way to get people to subscribe to your newsletters is to make it easy for them to do so. Your website should have a one-click option in multiple places so that no one has to go looking or it. If you have a blog put it there as well, and if you have a Facebook page there should be a signup option there as well.
#2) Create a Call to Action
To spruce up your subscription button, create a call to action on your website. This is the part where you (truthfully) tell them what you have to offer and ask if they’re ready to dive in themselves. Make it helpful without being bossy. Consider yourself as an outsider and decide if you would be inclined to sign up, or if the cheese factor of your pitch is a little too high.
#3) Let People Know How Often They Can Plan on Hearing From You
It can be helpful to let your subscribers know how often they can plan on hearing from you before they sign up for your email list. No one wants to get bombarded with emails every day, but perhaps if they are prepared to get two a week then they won’t be overwhelmed by the idea when it actually happens.
Whatever you are planning to offer from updates, newsletters, or deals, let them know ahead of time so they can decide if signing up is the right choice for them.
#4) Always Send a Welcome Email
When people first sign up for your email list they should get an email that expresses your thanks and what they can stand to gain from continuing to subscribe. To really hook people from the start you might reward them in some way. Offering free shipping on their next order for example might be enough to make them feel like they made the right decision.
#5) Make Sure Your Newsletter is You
To make the newsletter that goes out in your email list seem relevant to your brand and company, it should visually and stylistically mimic your brand’s style. People are going to be every kind of confused if they get a newsletter that has a totally different voice and color scheme that on your website. They might not even realize that it’s the same company and trash it before they read it.
#6) Make it Easy to Read
An email or newsletter should be well written but it should also be easy to glance at and get the overall gist of it. If you write in long paragraphs people are just not going to read it. Studies have found that people scan online pages even more than they do in person because they are harder on the eyes.
To make sure that someone gets all the main points of your post even if they are just scanning in, break it up into bullet points with the appropriate amount of space between points, and bold important words or key phrasing.
#7) Make it Relevant
You might want to consider splitting your email list up into more specific demographics. If occasionally you do local events for example, you would certainly want to announce this to some of your subscribers, but not necessarily the ones on the opposite end of the country.
People are more inclined to unsubscribe from email lists when they don’t feel like it is relevant or personalized. Do what you can to keep it relevant without going overboard. You can’t tailor your email for each individual so just try for a healthy middle ground.
#8) Keep it Consistent
If you are going to start sending out a newsletter you need to keep it up at regular intervals. Sporadic emails that are unexpected have a higher chance of being marked as spam which you definitely don’t want. Your customers don’t need to know your schedule exactly, but they should be aware that an email is coming. After all, they opted into the mailing list, to begin with, they should be expecting something worthwhile.
#9) Make it User Friendly
Be sure when you’re sending out a newsletter that it is optimized for mobile devices! Some studies say that over half of readers will just delete an email that isn’t easy to read when they check their messages.
You also want to be sure that your emails are reader-friendly, in the sense that they are free of typos and grammatical errors. You’re emails and newsletters are a representation of your company so they should be as professional as possible while still giving off a friendly, approachable vibe.
Are you getting ready to start building your mailing list database? Let us know if any of these tips will help you out along the way or if you have anything else to add!
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