Digital marketing has become an essential ingredient in running a successful business; the majorities of people are now online and will respond quicker to electronic advertising than any other type. However, the digital marketplace is becoming crowded with the amount of advertisements and offers to join mailing lists appearing everywhere.
This is why it is important to have a well designed email marketing campaign. An email goes directly to a person who has already shown an interest in your service or product. You have already been invited into their life, now you simply need to use the right approach and tools to persuade them to purchase your product:
Names
The first stage has to be gathering a good list of names to go onto your email marketing list. These names can be collected via your website or social media site. But for people to sign up to receiving your email update they will want to know how often they will receive an update, why they might want this regular contact and what sort of information or offers you will send them. Part of this process must be to decide on the content that your customer base will enjoy receiving on a regular basis; you will then know what you have to create each week!
Once you have got these issues sorted correctly you will need to organize your mailing list. The best way of doing this is to use a database; this will also allow you to store information on each person which can help you to cater for their specific needs. Existing customers are the best place to start when building an email list.
White Listing
Unfortunately, it is very easy for your well intended email to end up in the spam box and your hard work to be wasted. To avoid this you need to ensure you are white listed; in effect this is the same as becoming a friend. The best way to ensure this happens is to provide instructions at the top of each email, preferably giving a step by step guide as to how to achieve this.
Live up to Expectations
There are two important things to consider when devising a marketing campaign; the first is how often your customer would like to receive an email from you. The second is how often you are able to send one. Hopefully you will be able to find some common ground where these two expectations meet! It is important to stick to the guidelines you have provided. If you promise to issue one email a week then do so! If you send one email every day the customer will soon lose interest. This will also happen if you send one per month instead.
The Pitch
As with everything else in an email marketing campaign, you must pitch new offers in keeping with the guidelines you provided when they signed up. You do not need to pitch via an offer an informative newsletter or news story can have just as positive effect; as long as it is relevant and in keeping with the guidelines you have set.
Communication
For your email list to be relevant and your marketing campaign to be successful the people you are contacting need to believe in you and your business. You can achieve this by staying in regular contact with them. If they receive an email out of the blue attempting to sell something they will not be impressed! However, if you send regular emails the relationship is already there and a sales push is acceptable. You can use an autoresponder to create emails and have them sent on specific dates; this will help you to build on the relationship you have created.
Targeting
It is best to split an email list into smaller segments which will allow you to target specific groups. This will provide the opportunity to send offers and information which is specific and relevant to people and make your marketing campaign more successful.
Finally, to run a really successful email marketing campaign you must follow up on your emails! Some will have bounced back as the email address is incorrect. If you have no other way of contact these people then you need to remove them from your list. Some people will have chosen t opt out of your emails and you should have a standard email to send stating that you will respect their wishes but have they considered a final offer. Even customers who wish to stay with you will appreciate a follow up email to thank them for their loyalty.
