by MikeSchinkel
When someone hears “email marketing” they usually cringe because they think of spam. To be effective, your marketing must not appear as a blatant attempt to solicit business. Read the following article to learn some strategies you can use right now to start an email marketing campaign or improve an existing one.
Create succinct subjects. If a subject line has less than 60 characters, it has a better chance of attracting attention. This means it will have a higher open rate than a subject that goes on for too long. If there is no way around using a long subject line, be sure that you mention the most relevant information first so it is not eliminated when it gets to the recipient’s inbox where it may be truncated.
If you’re embarking on an email campaign, the fact that you need permission to send people emails cannot be understated. If you don’t, complaints that you are spamming people will increase, and that may cause you to lose customers.
If your business follows branding guidelines, always keep marketing emails consistent with these guidelines. Design new correspondence to match the color tones you have been using. Also, make sure your logo is prominently displayed on all outgoing messages. If you have built up a strong reputation, then your emails will be seen in a good light.
Think about taking images out of your emails. Images do add a visual quality to email but only if they load correctly, and at times they won’t. Sometimes they don’t load at all. Be aware of the fact that different Internet speeds and types of devices can affect the quality of the images you send. High quality content is more important than cute images. By doing so, it is more likely that people will read your message.
Use A/B testing to test subject line variations. Create an email with two separate subject lines. Send an email with the first subject line to half of your list, and an email with the second subject line to the other half of your list. This strategy will show which subjects customers open, and which get ignored and sent to trash.
Have subscribers type in their email address twice when filling out the form to opt into your email list. Oftentimes people accidentally mistype their email. If they do so, it is much more likely that their email will be correct.
Do you want to be known as a spammer? Your emails could be flagged as spam if they are sent to customers that didn’t want to receive them. This not only hurts your reputation, but ISPs could end up blocking your emails if a lot of people complain about your unwanted emails.
Remember to consider your audience as you apply this information to create an effective campaign. Find out what people want to see. Write content that is interesting to them. How will you get sales based off of those desires? The tips you’ve read here should provide you with many of the answers you seek!