Old but gold. Many companies and businesses still consider email communication as one of the best marketing channels. When you want direct response or communication with your clients and prospects, then email marketing is the best way to go.
However, email marketing is not always a godsend. One of the biggest challenges in email marketing is getting people to engage. You want recipients to click to open your email, not click to Delete or worse, flag as Junk. Never neglect the importance of your subject line because that’s your bait. Every subject line needs to provide value, be unique and stand out from the clutter that is most peoples Inboxes.
Let’s say your subject line pulled through and people clicked on your email, is your content good enough to make them stay?
Sadly, most recipients won’t even read the first sentence – maybe not even the first word. Can you turn this around? Of course, you can. Turn it around, flip it on its head, but don’t get dizzy. Stay on top of your stats, you will quickly recognise what works within your content and what doesn’t.
Effective email marketing can provide so much opportunity for your business and your employees. But before marketing your services or products, why not introduce your business first and the value it has to offer.
Hi, my name is…
Instead of going straight to full-on marketing mode and blasting a bunch of products and services, make sure to introduce your business first. This will be your business’s intro message to the world. In short, position yourself. No glam and no spam.
Before you start selling, consider a campaign of introductory, brand positioning emails to familiarise your customers or potential customers with you.
HTML vs. Text
More decisions… There is a fine line between the businesses crazy about HTML and the other side who are loyal to text-based emails. There is no doubt, both work as viable email marketing options.
For newcomers, HTML emails with great visuals, short but straightforward one-liners and a call-to-action button is a great start. But your content needs to hit it right on target. And when you’ve got their interest, you can start sending out emails with more content.
The next challenge is to keep things interesting or your recipients will find the nearest exit. This is where you can get more textual with your emails. Some will tell you this is the boring option, irrelevant in this day and age – well we believe they’re wrong.
If you successfully position yourself, your brand and your business, then people will want more information and they will find value in the content you give them. They’ll invest the time in the content they believe offers value, coming from a sender they want to engage with, a sender they know and trust.
The Challenge
Stay on point. Your email reputation is a really important factor within your marketing suite. Be confident in all your messaging content that when people receive your emails, from your email address, they know it’s going to be good – HTML or plain.