An email marketing program is not only an efficient and cost effective way to stay connected to your customers, but it’s also a great way to directly impact your bottom line. Whether your sharing valuable information with your audience or offering specific products and services, email marketing is a powerful marketing tool.

The Basics

Email marketing is defined as the electronic distribution of newsletters and e-mails to you’re “opt-in” subscriber list. This means that the recipients must have signed up or requested or to be placed on your list. By creating a database of individuals who actually want to receive your emails, the chances that they will open and access the information greatly increases.

The Benefits

Stay Connected – Email is a perfect fit for “drip marketing”, which is the practice of connecting with customers on a consistent basis. Formats for this could include a monthly newsletter or monthly offer delivered via email or linked to from an email.  This is a great way to remind your customers that you are always thinking of their needs.

Trackable Results – With the right analytics in place, you know if and when an email is opened and which links were accessed. Utilizing this insightful information can help you refine and evolve your message in order to allow for maximum acceptance. Add a landing page to the mix and you have a roadmap from first contact through conversion.

Peak Efficiency – Once you have created your design template, you can reuse it for future emails, thus allowing you to focus your time and energy on perfecting your message or offer and tracking the results.

Essential Elements

A Powerful Message – Keep your content focused on a single call to action such as a “request for more information”, a special offer or additional links that will drive traffic to your web site. For better deliverability, avoid “flagged” words such as “free” or “cash” in your email content or subject line as they can raise a red flag for spam filters.

Great Design – In order to get your email noticed, it has to shine. Every email you send should be designed and developed with care to differentiate it from the large amounts of… let’s just call it “non-relevant” email we all get everyday. In additional, the design of your email should be visually consistent with your web site in order to maintain and build brand equity.

A Communication Strategy – Dynamic emails can be used to create brand awareness, be coupled with special offers to drive web traffic to your site or to send out newsletters. Whatever your approach, take care to consider the frequency you send your emails. Sending them too frequently can annoy your recipients and thus lead to “opt-outs”.

Nobody likes Spam

Email marketing is sometimes referred to as “permission-based email” to remind marketers of the importance of the concept of “opt-in”. The rule of thumb for sending email is that the email must have been authorized. This can be done through a form, verbal consent or a previously established relationship. Also, be sure the Privacy Policy on your website includes a clause regarding information usage for communication and promotions. See FTC.gov for more information on this topic.

In closing, dynamic email marketing is cost effective tool for connecting with your customers while helping to improve sales and brand awareness.

For more information or to create your own email marketing campaign, contact us.