Email Marketing – 4 Golden Rules to Follow

Email marketing is crucial to your business success.

No matter what business you’re in, you probably know that the cost to acquire new customers is substantially greater than that to retain existing customers.

A perfectly executed email marketing strategy is one of the best ways to engage your existing customers; offer them valuable information they want to receive and they may even share it with their friends.

Here are 4 golden rules you should be following for email marketing success:

1. Get off the starting blocks – If you haven’t started to build a database of your clients do so now. An email marketing list will always add value to your organisation. Build this list offline by adding a sign up form at your point of sales or any trade events you attend. Add capture forms to your online channels too. Once you have started your list, sign up to an email marketing programme. There are hundreds out there, MailChimp, AWeber, Constant Contact. It’s just a case of researching costs and features and choosing the best email marketing programme for you.
2. Perfect your proposition – To get your customers to want and need what you’re selling, you have to resonate with them. This can be achieved through telling a great story (or an existing customer story), and solving a problem is always a winning strategy here. Of course, you have competitors, so you have to differentiate from them and let your prospects know why they should buy from you rather than spend their money on the other available options. Lastly, your customers need to believe that you follow through on your promises, or that your product does what it says on the label. To substantiate your value proposition, use customer testimonials.
   
3. Craft great copy – Images are really important in your email marketing campaigns; your newsletter needs to be visually appealing but copy matters too! An attention grabbing headline can be the difference between your campaign being opened or added to trash as soon as it hits the inbox. The body of your email should be sectioned and bulleted, making it scannable for your customers, remember they are busy people, it’s likely that you don’t have their undivided attention.
4. Light up your links – The main aim of your email marketing campaign should be to direct traffic to your website, and if you’re selling online specifically your product pages. So providing clearly visible, clickable, links and buttons within your campaign is imperative. When your subscribers click on these links you’re on your way to converting them to purchasers. Make sure your content has as many links as possible, and ensure that these are directly to the product or service you’re selling. Don’t put unnecessary steps in the way, such as contact me for more information on this product… Let your customers buy the product they’re interested in now!

At KateCoote. we create email marketing calendars and campaigns for our clients. If #3 in the list above is your stumbling block visit our sister website and fill out the form, you’ll love CopyKate, (it’s still us, but it’s where we concentrate on copy!)