Marketing via email has been around almost as long as email itself. Its common practice for businesses to adjust their tactics to every new form of communication that comes along and it’s a good practice as well. The more methods of communication that consumers utilize, the more options businesses have for being seen, heard and winning customers over. But there’s a dark side of methods like email marketing that businesses have to be careful to stay away from repeating, so we’ve compiled a list of some of the do’s and don’ts associated with this type of advertisement so you can avoid the pitfalls and identify the strengths of this electronic phenomenon.
DON’T: Use confusing subject lines
Your subject line is the lead in to your topic and just like the title of the article, should be short and clear in what the email is presenting to a potential consumer or interested party. Make sure it’s relevant to your topic and eye-catching. Like the title of a book, the subject line of your email should draw a reader in and make them want to know more.
DO: Focus on a single topic
Your email isn’t a Sunday sale’s paper. Trying to force information about a lot of topics, services, deals and upcoming projects into one email sent out to your customers bombards them with information that they may not want, may not care about or may not be able to easily digest. When you put a lot of information into an email it comes out looking disjointed and might be overwhelming. You risk missing getting the most important information to your audience so always carefully edit your emails down to a single topic and arrange them to avoid overloading your readers.
DON’T: Skip Quality Assurance
Your email is essentially part of your identity when it comes to portraying yourself to your loyal or potential consumers. Your colors, brand logo and name are likely all over the email you send out to your list of subscribers, so don’t forget a quality check before you hit send. Broken links, empty graphics and grammatical errors are all easily resolved problems, but their presence has a powerful impact on customers, who are likely to notice and remember if you misspell a word or direct them to a link that doesn’t go where you say it should. Always make sure to check before you send, in order to put the best foot forward in terms of quality.
DO: Personalize
The simple act of adding the customer’s name into an email goes a long way towards making them feel like they’re getting individual attention and that can be a way to make a positive impact on a consumers. You should absolutely personalize your emails in strategic ways. Don’t send out irrelevant information to customers who have shown no interest in one of your products and services if they’ve shown a clear interest in another. Make it applicable to their interests and desires and personal to what you know about them, even if it’s simple and basic information.
DON’T: Spam
This cannot be stressed enough; never spam current or potential customers. Spamming can occur in a number of ways and all of them are bad for your image and for your potential business. There’s no quicker way to get someone to unsubscribe from your email list than by sending them loads of emails that have little to no interest generating content and even less information in them. NEVER send emails to customers who have not chosen to receive information from you. EVER.
DO: Keep It Short
You want to give your customers enough information in each email you send to keep their interest and generate some excitement about your products or plans for the future, but a long email, even a well-organized one, is likely to go at least partially unread. Customers today have a lot of things they’d rather be doing than reading emails. Many emails get deleted or archived unread, or only briefly skimmed. Keep that in mind when drafting emails to your list and make bold points in simple paragraphs, bullets or through the use of small graphics. Companies like Designhill can help you create the impact you’re looking for without going overboard. Email Design by Designhill helps make it easier for customers to digest the information and more likely to retain it.
How To Appeal To Any Customer
These are just a few of the things that you should keep in mind when starting or updating your policies when it comes to email marketing campaigns. There are many more suggestions that fall into the do’s and don’ts categories but these six will get you off to a good start and help you appeal to customers without spamming them or feeling like you’re trying to present too much information for their inboxes. Email marketing can be a powerful tool when handled correctly and is an easy way to increase your exposure to customers on a platform that’s not expensive to maintain.