Last time I explained the pros and cons of using images in
your email messages. Including high-quality images can have a dramatic effect
on the way customers perceive your business, but they need to be used
conservatively, as most email clients will block them from displaying unless
the email recipient allows them to be shown.
Today, I will discuss how
having a contest can be used as an alternative method for tracking your emails.
Constantly tracking your emails will help you improve your marketing
efforts by knowing who is opening and reading your emails over a period of
time. Tracking allows you to see how well a message performs with your customers.
If you see that recipients from a certain area or age demographic are reading
your emails more than other groups, you may want to segment your contact lists
and target those people specifically in a separate email marketing campaign.
iContact gives you several options for tracking your
previously sent messages, surveys, and Autoresponders. This can help you
improve the effectiveness of how you are creating and sending your email
messages.
Having a contest for your customers can be another way of
tracking your email messages. If you provide some incentive for reading the
email you send, such as a prize or discount of your services, it can increase
readership and allow you to see the customers who are truly interested in your
company. An occasional contest can also encourage more casual readers to pay
attention to the content of your messages. After you receive all of the contest
entries, be sure to thoroughly examine the contact information of each entry so
you can see where they are from, their ages, interests, etc. This information
will greatly improve your ability to conduct effective targeted marketing
campaigns.
Have a great weekend, and I'll be back next week with more
email marketing advice.
Cheers,
Ryan Allis
