As a blogger and a business owner generating new leads that convert to business (money) is one of our main concerns. Having an online presence means that you want to bring new eyes to your website. When it comes to promotional emails, many users of the internet are likely to delete those which are irrelevant to them and their interests. However, email marketing still remains, for many companies, a critical tool for both attracting and retaining business. By creating compelling emails which grab the attention of readers you can help to garner interest, attract new clients and keep the interest of existing clients.
For small businesses, utilizing customer data to determine which route to take your marketing campaign can make sure that your emails are tailored towards what interests them, whether you’re looking to promote a product or to simply introduce yourself.
The overall look and feel of a marketing email can mean the difference between a click-through to your website, or a click of the delete button. Most bloggers have mailing lists for their blog. We hope that users will only sign up if they are actually interested in reading our content. However, it is also important that we continue to build our mailing list following. Often times this can a double edged sword. We use campaigns to build our list. However, the click through rate, or open rate may be a lot lower than we hope for, or users may unsubscribe. There are a number of crucial components that make up an email that readers want to open:
The Subject: This, for many, is the factor which determines whether we’re going to open an email or not, so getting your pitch right in this opening gambit is essential for making sure your customers are going to open the email to find out more. This can be particularly handy when you have seasonal promotion campaigns – particularly around Christmas – but also if you have a specific product that you can use to target certain demographics of your customer base.
Short and sweet can win the race in this respect, so creating engaging headlines in just a few words can be a challenge for any copywriter. Try using a variety of different headline options before sending out in bulk, or send out in snippets depending on demographic and use your web analytics data to see which was the most effective going forward. This can be tricky when using an automated mailing list service, but it’s doable.
Body of email: This should contain the information that your customers need to know, whether it’s about letting them know the latest news, both about the company and about upcoming product launches, exclusive offers or announcing new up-and-coming products.
This gives you the opportunity to use not just text, but also imagery and HTML to create engaging and informative emails to try and give your products and services a push. Be aware though that there are a number of different web browsers out there, and you must ensure your emails will be compatible with many of these.
The increase in smartphone users presents another challenge for advertisers, as many will tend to check their email on the move, so making sure your emails are presentable on a mobile platform is also very important if you want to reach your customer base, as you could influence a decision or purchase at a time when they may be out shopping.
Your Email Signature: This is where your most important contact information will be located, giving your customers the opportunity to find out more about you as a company, provide them with relevant web addresses, email contacts and links to your social media platforms to encourage further interaction.
Email branding can also be used to keep in contact with certain demographics of your email list, for example customers who are interested in particular products and services, or to put them in touch with certain departments within your business – such as customer service representatives.
With a bit of research and some clever creativity, your emails can be catchy and informative, which will in turn help to grab the attention of new and existing customers, promote products and to give useful contact information.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by GrowthMail. All opinions are my own.
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