If you are anything like me, you find yourself constantly wading through a sea of email on a daily basis.
Everything from work related emails to personal emails, funny emails, nonsense emails was probably waiting for you in your email inbox this morning.
Some of these emails may have come from newsletters you are subscribed to, blogs you follow and businesses whose lists you are on.
And if you are like me, you found yourself quickly putting emails in to three categories:
- Emails you deleted without taking a second look.
- Emails you opened right away to at least take a quick glance at.
- Emails you kept because you want to see what it’s about but just didn’t have time for at the moment.
Some days, you might actually go through and quickly unsubscribe to emails you find annoying or that simply no longer apply to you.
Guess what. Your subscribers are going through the same process on their end. They are quickly making decisions about the emails they receive, including yours, and they are taking action.
How can you, as a small business owner, make sure that your readers stay subscribed to your emails, open your emails and click through your links to read more? Even better … how can you make sure that your your readers share your emails and newsletters with others and bring even more subscribers to your list?
The key to this sort of success is to become a highly effective email marketer. Before we go any further, let’s be cleat that when I say “email marketer” I do not mean that you become one of those sleazy spam spewing monsters that loads email inboxes with sleazy slimy offers of little to no value. What I mean is that you learn and apply tried and tested principles of successful email marketing that can take your email open rates and click-through rates through the roof.
What I am going to share with you now is 16 Highly Effective Email Marketing Tips can can help you get more from your email marketing.
Tip #1 Get Your Subscribers’ Permission First
Think about it. Of the emails you receive every day, when you get some email offer that you know you did not actually ask for, your first instinct is to delete the message, right? Make sure you are sending email messages to only those subscribers who have actually requested the information.
But when you get emails that you know you have asked for, you are more inclined to read them right away or to save them for future review. Your subscribers are the same way.
Always make sure you get the permission of people to send them emails. Do not add people to your list without permission even if they are past customers or current ones. Direct them to your sign-up page or capture page so they can request your information for themselves.
Tip #2 Pay Attention To What Your Audience Wants
Be sure you actually do your homework before you send out emails
You should regularly be using tools like Google alerts, conduct surveys, participate in online forums and keep an eye on your competitors’ sites to keep in touch with the latest trends.
When you pay attention to and answer the questions your audience is asking, your message are simply more relevant.
This simply means your email marketing message is more likely to be opened.
Tip #3 Have a Specific Purpose
Never start writing an email marketing message without first deciding what it is you want to accomplish.
Why are you sending this email to begin with? Are you wanting to deepen your relationship with your subscribers? Are you wanting to send your readers to a particular page on your web site or blog?
Are you wanting your readers to share the article with their associates? Are you wanting to make your readers an offer?
Be absolutely clear on what you want to achieve before you even start writing your message. If your message is unclear, even if it gets opened, it is highly unlikely your readers will take any action at all, much less the action you want them to take.
Tip #4 Write To One Specific Person
Who is your ideal reader? Write your messages for that one ideal reader.
You should know exactly who would be interested in hearing from you. You should also know who might not be a good fit. Becoming this specific improves the chances of your message resonating with your target audience and your response rate can go through the roof.
If you try to create a message so broad it won’t offend or target anyone in particular, there is a big chance your message will appeal to no one.
Tip #5 Address One Person
Never start an email with “Hi, Friends” or “Hello, Everyone”. This makes your message look like mass spam.
Sure, you are writing to everyone on your big list. Every ready knows this but they still want to feel like you are speaking directly to them.
Be sure to use the merge tokens in your email management program to automatically populate first names. Then, as you create your message, imagine writing it to that one ideal prospect that you want to do business with you.
Avoid group phrases like “As you all know” or “most you already realize that … ”
Tip #6 Stay Consistent
When people sign up to your list, they are basically letting you know they want to hear from you. They are placing their trust in you. Never take that for granted. Never send them content they didn’t ask for. Don’t email too much. Don’t send nothing but promotional emails all the time.
Being Consistent means fulfilling the promise you made to them. Remain consistent in your desire to be of service to your readers.
Tip #7 Create Subject Lines that Beg To Be Clicked
The first step to getting a click-through is to make sure your message gets read in the first place. The key is to create a subject line that makes your readers want to click on it just to find out what’s in the message.
Tip #8 Don’t Deceive Your Readers
Don’t you hate when you click an exciting subject line that capture your interest only to find out that the content doesn’t have anything to do with the subject?
This technique is called “bait and switch” and if you do it, your subscribers will start removing themselves from your list very quickly. They feel tricked. You have violated their trust and they don’t want to read any more messages from you.
Make sure to give your readers what you promised in the subject line. If you want to use ultra-casual email subject lines such as ‘hey’ or ‘I forgot to tell you …” or ‘have you ever felt this way?”, give them content that is personal because this is what they expect.
If you promise benefits or actionable tips in your subject line, then give them that. If you tell them that an offer is about to expire, then this is the information they expect and not a link to another offer.
When writing your subject lines, follow the 4U formula (Urgent, Unique, Ultra-specific and Useful) follow up on the promise for the continued trustworthy relationship.
Tip #9 Avoid Spammy Words and tricks.
You know those emails where people intentionally mask commom spam words or just type use them. These are the messages that typically end up in your spam or junk folder, or they just don’t get through. Pay attention. If you do that same stuff, chances are that your messages are not going to get through.
Tip #10 Create Messages People WANT To Read
Remember that time you signed up to someone’s list, got a confirmation and welcome message and then … silence? Maybe you heard from them again a few weeks later but by then you had forgotten that you ever asked for the information.
Stay in touch with your subscribers on a regular basis. Send them your content as soon as they sign up. This builds your credibility with your readers and makes them more likely to want to hear from you again.
This is one of the great benefits of using an service. You can schedule several messages in advance and let the system send them out automatically. This helps keep your brand in front of your subscribers and helps build your reputation as a dependeable resource.
Tip #11 Stay True To Your Brand
Your email message doesn’t have to be extremely fancy but should look and feel like your web site or blog. If you have a logo on your site, include the logo in your email marketing template. This helps your ready feel like they are dealing with someone who is professional and reliable.
Tip #12 Help Your Readers Reach a Goal
Every message you send should provide some sort of solution or access to a solution for your readers. Your goal should never be to simply demonstrate knowledge or show off writing skills. Focus on your readers’ needs and show them how you can help them get what they are looking for.
Tip #13 Keep Your Message Relevant
If your subscribers joined your list to learn more about gardening, don’t send them information about binary stock trading options. Keep your messages focused on the content that made your readers subscribe to your list in the first place.
Tip #14 Have a Clear Call To Action
Your message should have one clear goal and that message should include clear instructions. Your message should not be filled with a variety of options but should contain that one clear call to action, whether that is to watch a video, visit a blog post, take a survey, forward your message to their associates, etc… Give them one clear step to follow and make sure that step is easily found in your email marketing message.
Tip #15 Become a Detective
Be willing to experiment with your messages and always check your results. Measure your open rates and your click-through rates. This is how you find out what is working and what isn’t working for your email marketing.
When you find something is working, keep doing it and never stop testing. Perfection is probably never going to happen but one of they keys to success is continuing to make improvements as you learn more.
Tip #16 Care About Your Readers
If you want to experience outrageous success in email marketing, find a way to let your readers know that you care about them. How can you make them smile? How can you help them solve a problem? How can you help them learn a new tip or trick? When your readers feel that you care for them, they are more likely to open and read your messages. The more that happens, the better your chances of success become.
What other tips would you add to this list?
Perhaps like most newbies, all of the tips provided in this blog are very important. And I understand the need to have a good lead capture system including a auto responder. Perhaps like most would be marketers, I have purchased auto responder programs but I have found NO Simple instructions to successfully set these up. I am hoping the current program I have become involved with will provide that training.