email marketing how to

An excellent tip for email marketing is to follow up with some type of update on your products or services that you are providing. For example, you could add a "buy now" feature onto your email. The ending of your email could inform your readers to keep in mind the up-sell as well.

Always get permission! Unsolicited email is not welcome, and in certain cases, can get your ISP blocked. When contacting someone, always include a newsletter or an offer - this way the customer has the chance to agree to receive your messages. The last thing you want is to be branded a spammer.

Minimize traditional email marketing activities during the holidays. Customers are preoccupied with family and friends, and are less likely to be paying attention to business email. Your odds of ending up in the spam box are considerably higher, which could have longer term implications for your bottom line. The major exception to this would be a business directly related to the holiday activities. Otherwise, give yourself a break and enjoy some downtime yourself. Business will be back on track in a day or two.

When emailing your customers, an excellent suggestion is to follow up with lower prices. For example, you could link a phrase that says, "Grab it," onto the email. In addition, the end of this email could include a phrase that says, "Become a member in order to have lower prices on our products."

Before using email marketing, create a test email and send it to a friend or family member. Your loved one can see how the email looks and give you feedback. This way, if any changes need to be made, you can do it before sending the emails out to customers.

Target your audience. Once you have a few readers, think of ways to encourage them to sign their friends up. Always include a Subscribe link in your email; hopefully people will pass it on to their friends who might have an interest in what you have to offer. This way your base will grow organically.

Slowly build your contact list. Start with those who have already appreciated what you offer and then move on to areas where you can engage your prospects. It can take a while to pick whom should be receiving your emails, but it'll be worth it in the end to build a reliable contact list.

Before you put someone on your email marketing list, you need to have their permission. If you don't have their permission, you will be responsible for sending spam and there will be many complaints. Your email provider may even dissolve your account if they get wind of what you're doing. Prevent that from happening by requesting that people subscribe to your list.

Create one clear message per email. You do not want your customers to become bored or overwhelmed by the amount of content in your marketing email. Develop one message, and keep it reasonably short, and to the point. Your customers will appreciate not being weighted down with extraneous information. 

Proofread anything you send out via email. You need to make all emails and newsletters are correct. Before you send the message, test the layout of the email so you can assure everything shows up how you want it to. Also, if you place links in your email, test them to make sure they work. 

Test variations of your subject line via A/B testing. Choose one email, randomly split in two the mailing list and send each half the same email with different subject lines. This will let you see which types of subject lines increase your open rates and, conversely, which types of subject lines get ignored in the inbox. 

Be predictable in your emails. Send them on a specific schedule. Make sure you send something at least monthly, this will help keep your customers interested. If you can send emails on or two times a week, that is even better. Test out which days give your site the best responses, and then use these days as your normal days to send emails. 

To get the most of your email marketing, invest in a program that personalizes your emails with every customer's given name instead of a generic greeting. Ensuring that every email starts with the recipient's name is key to encouraging your customers to see your newsletters as valuable information and not just more sales spam.

Provide your customers with useful tips or information in each marketing newsletter. Think of the newsletter as an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise in your field. Your customers will trust you more when they see how much you know and will be more likely to buy products or services from you.

Always get permission before contacting any customer via email. People will generally view unwanted emails as spam and will ignore them or delete them without reading them. You may also be in violation of your ISP's policies if you send out mass emails to customers who have not chosen to receive them.

Don't include the use of newsletters in your email marketing campaign.  You can send the people on your opt-in list relevant emails about particular topics instead.  You will attract more people when they know that they will only be receiving information that they are interested in, and that they will not have to sift through an entire newsletter to get it.

Remember that the purpose of email marketing is ultimately to sell your products. That means that every single email should bring readers closer to buying. You can do this by writing an email that offers information on a new product, that expounds unexpected benefits of an old product or that promotes a special new promotion.

It is a very good idea to require people that are interested in receiving emails from you to double opt-in. This may seem like a lot, but it guarantees that the person is interested in receiving emails so it eliminates the chances that you or your email service provider gets into any trouble.