When email matters, do it properly or lose your contacts. The most rewarding marketing venture available for super fast returns
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Table of contents
- Types of email that work
- The rules of email marketing explained
- Deleting customers from the list
- Future prospects should be kept in touch
- Understand the buying cycle and adapt to it
- The subject line brings on some excitement.
- When you want a delivery receipt
- Using analytics to improve your returns
- Conclusion
Types of email that work
- Single shot
- Thank You
- Invitations
- Autoresponders
- Newsletters
- special sales
- Promotions
Emails dominate our inbox so why is it we look at some and ignore others, even hitting the spam button when the mood hits?
The rules of email marketing explained
Many separate issues get your emails opened and if they are not followed then it is in the bin for you.
Like and Trust
I presume they know you or you would not be sending mail however have you worked on the like and trust features?
Like comes first and if you fail here you may as well clear their name from your account.
You can help this with your email headers, are you targeting your customer's needs?
Too often I see mail telling me how good the company is and how well they are going.
Hey Buddy, I don't care
Perhaps they use a false promise, “so many have bought this there are only a few left.”
Yea, tell me more or pull the other one.
Congratulations to you. You are a winner …
I am so excited I could just hit the spam button
Personalizing goes a long way
When you see your name pop up, half the job is done.
“Peter, Weekend website bonanza. “
I get quite a few from Joel Therion at GVO who does very well at this. Every mail starts with my first name so I am compelled to read the material.
What's more, I get them every other day all year around.
Consistency wins the race
Never be shy about sending mail, be worried when you are not.
The more I see your name the greater the chance of opening your mail.
We are often asked how often do you send emails and the answer is as often as we can every day is a great start.
My Newsletters are every two weeks and my autoresponder mail every two days over two weeks.
When they are finished they go on the newsletter list.
Deleting customers from the list
You will work so hard to get your list up and going but those that simply never open an email should be dropped off. You are wasting energy and destroying your statistics by keeping them on.
Many a company secretary or front desk assistant will just delete all mail every morning that is not directly related to their daily activity. The boss never gets to see these and never will so keep your list clean.
Other customers move on, they may have been looking for a certain object but plans change and they no longer have an interest. Delete them.
When email matters, do it properly and keep in touch
Future prospects should be kept in touch
My car retailer emails me every quarter even though I change cars every six years. This keeps me in front of my mind if I have a change of heart.
The Tyre retailer emails every two months even though my buying cycle is a couple of years.
They don't sell tires, they provide interesting articles that keep me in close contact just in case.
Understand the buying cycle and adapt to it
We said email everyday however this also depends on where the customer is in the cycle. If, for instance, a buyer rang me to get a price on a new set of Tyres for the family wagon then the cycle is now. However, After selling the tyres the next sale is maybe two years away so I would go to a quarterly plan.
The subject line brings on some excitement.
Readers take a very small part of a single second when deciding to read or delete your email. Therefore getting attention is paramount to success.
2 ways to increase affiliate commission, Hey Peter just dropping in to show…
This was by Monster Insights in my mail today, it shows promise, recognition, and interest.
“Does wordcount affect the performance of your posts” Neil Patel
Everyone wants to know about Word Count so this email from a marketer that knows his stuff will get read.
When you want a delivery receipt
I don't use this unless it is a financial or legal issue however it is an important tool to have
Get your read receipt with Microsoft
Using analytics to improve your returns
Emailing is all about figures. How many opened the mail, clicked the contents, or took an action?
Whilst results matter they will vary depending on your industry or what you are marketing.
When you know your figures the aim is to obtain a small improvement the next time. Even a low 1% improvement soon adds up to much bigger figures.
Look at your heading and ask yourself if you are writing for the reader. Do you promise to do something better, cheaper, or improve their future to get that all-important click?
Conclusion
Email marketing is one of the easy forms to gain big returns however so often miss managed.
Following these few recommendations, you may well get that 1% gain that you are looking for. Remember 1% could well be 40% better in a month if you applied all the best practices.
It costs no more yet it could return massive gains into the future.
When email matters do it properly by Peter Hanley
