Creating a Successful Email Marketing Campaign
It would be easy to write hundreds of pages about making the most of email marketing campaigns. However, very few of us have time to read that much. For that reason this article will summarise some of the key points, pitfalls and opportunities you should be aware of when creating your email marketing campaigns
email marketing campaigns aren’t sales pitches but they can produce sales
Many marketers fall into the trap of either selling too hard in their email marketing campaigns or not selling enough. There is no magic combination of words and images. Nor is there a specific balance of sales and marketing that result in the perfect email marketing campaign. However, there are some basic guidelines you should follow:
- An email marketing campaign should be more editorial than advertorial. That means you should be marketing more than selling, but this doesn’t mean you cannot sell on an email marketing campaign. Just ensure you keep a good balance between your sales and marketing messages.
- An email marketing campaign should seek to build your brand values. Communicate what makes you special and re-enforce these points with examples and evidence of expertise. Recipients want to know what your unique selling points are, otherwise why should they buy from you?
- Focus on the benefits of buying from you. You don’t need to explicitly state these benefits. Simply work them into your email marketing campaigns. A great way to work a sales pitch into a newsletter is through customer testimonials and case studies. These are a great way to provide interesting content and feature benefits.
- Don’t forget to ask the recipient to take action. If you don’t ask you won’t get. It’s important to tell the recipient what you want them to do. For example if you want them to sign up for something. Ensure the link to the sign up page clearly explains where the recipient is going to land and what they should do when they get there.
- Train recipients to focus on the key areas of your communication. Try to create hot spots in your email marketing campaign design. Train the recipient to look at these areas on each communication and then utilise this behaviour when you want to sell to them. Featuring an offer in these hot spots can dramatically increase click-through rates and exposure.
Never mislead your subscribers
If you promote an email as a newsletter, ensure that’s exactly what you’re sending. The modern consumer can see when they’re being sold to. Over step the mark and you’ll alienate your subscribers forever. When someone signs-up to your newsletter they build an expectation. Manage this expectation by explaining exactly what they will receive from you and how often.
Plan, test and review your email marketing campaigns
Plan your email marketing campaigns. This plan could be as simple as outlining when you will send your email marketing campaigns and who you will send it to. The aim is to ensure two things:
- That you produce and send the email marketing campaign regularly. Newsletters build business over time. They produce long term results if they’re sent on a regular basis.
- To outline who will receive the newsletter email campaigns and help you plan content and resources accordingly.
Test your email marketing campaigns. The aim is to find out what content is most popular with your readers, when the best time to send your newsletter campaigns is and how you can improve and return more on your investment.
Review your email marketing campaigns. A yearly review will help you identify any shortfalls in your email marketing campaigns. It will create a forum for discussion and can help maintain content quality and improve results. If possible, try to involve your readers in this process. Ask them what they like to read and what type of content they’d like to receive in the future.
By following these email marketing guidelines you’ll make the most of your email marketing campaigns.