Effective Email Advertising Strategies

Posted by Steve O'Bryan | Internet Marketing | Friday 2 October 2009 1:04 PM

Email marketing is a wonderful way to promote your business, keep in touch with loyal customers, and increase sales volume from prospective customers. Unfortunately many business owners do not have the time to become expert marketers. The following is a short list of simple things you can do to maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.

First, you want to be sure that you are testing. In sales they tell you ABC means always be closing, but in marketing you should, “ABT” – always be A/B testing. Multivariate tests are great but can be very expensive, so stick to A/B tests and do them often. Test all sorts of elements in the emails you send out and track how they stack up against each other. If something works better use it and then try to beat it. Testing should be fairly simple and should be seen as a fun activity because with every successful test the knowledge you gain will translate into more revenue for your company.

Surveys are a great way to obtain very useful information about the preferences and buying habits of your target market. The more you learn about your customer the more customers you will have and the more customers you will keep. Be careful in your approach when asking for certain types of information. Do some research on this topic and it will pay huge dividends because the more your clients and potential clients trust you the more information they will voluntarily share with you.

Keep a record of all the information you gather from testing and surveys. This should not be too difficult because most email marketing campaign software provides you with the tools you need to store it all. Ideally you will want to choose an email marketing provider who has a good analytics package or allows you to implement one. Over time you will be able to customize your messages in a way that will be very powerful. As with anything else in your business, always keep any personal information extremely safe and secure.

Nothing you send out should ever have the appearance of junk mail. Consider the interests of your audience and cater to them. Do not misuse the connection you make through email advertising, but always try to send out useful information. Do not harm your message by junking it with sloppy advertising tactics like giant fonts, too much bold text, or hyped up testimonials. Your customers will reward you with their business if you will strive to share good information and to be honest in your tone.

Invite people to forward coupons, information, ads, or any other message you send out. If you give the people on your email list something of value and invite them to share it with their friends – it is likely that they will! Referral incentives, discount coupons, special offers to certain demographics , for example offering discounts to veterans on Veteran’s Day or mothers on Mother’s Day, will prompt people to forward those messages to people they know who would be able to use them.

The final strategy on this short list of golden nuggets is to maximize the use of the autoresponder. This is by far one of the best reasons for finding a good email marketing provider. The autoresponder will let people know you are there, even when you are not. It can make sure everyone knows you appreciate their business, it can send out a welcome message to all the new customers you hope to get during the next few months, and it can do so much more. Automation is the key to hitting a home run with email marketing!

Spend some time reviewing the different email marketing campaign software providers and choose the one that fits your organization best. Sign up for the free trials with a few different email marketing providers and put them to the test. Pay close attention to how you like their customer service, tools, and templates. Once you select the one you like best you will already be well on your way to utilizing one of the most powerful marketing tools available.

Learn more about email advertising. Stop by Steve O’Bryan’s site where you can find out all about email marketing campaign software and what it can do for you.

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