Get in there Inbox
Email Marketing can turn out to be a very valuable part of your marketing efforts. In this guide we look at some of the basics of Email Marketing.
Determine your campaign objectives
Before creating your first email campaign, decide what the aims of the campaign are and what you want to achieve. For example:
- Is this email to educate users? To promote your new product or an event?
- Who is your target audience – is it your current or prospective clients? Do you want to send it to all of them or just a segment?
- What is your call to action – do you want people to buy your product, to contact you?
- How will you measure the campaign’s success?
Choose a service provider
The well-known providers for bulk email campaigns are companies such as Constant Contact, Mad Mimi, Campaign Monitor or Mailchimp. They not only offer a great service for sending bulk emails, but also provide you with email templates and analytics – and are easy to use.
Build your email list
Perhaps you already have a database of your existing or potential client email addresses – even if it’s only 10 emails. Once you’ve gathered all the email addresses, add them to the email marketing service provider’s database. Also, when you ask new customers to give you their email addresses, make sure that you let them know what they can expect from you (so that they agree to provide you with their details). For example:
- How frequently they will receive emails
- What kind of emails-will they be promotional, monthly updates
- Will they get something in return- a voucher code?
Make people subscribe
- Add a clear call to action on your website
- Show them immediate value – tell people that by subscribing they will receive a free guide, deals or savings. Overall, you need to offer them some benefits.
- Make your Email shareable – Let your subscribers do some of the work for you! When appropriate, include a “Forward to a Friend” link in your email campaigns.
Play a fair game
- Include an unsubscribe link in all emails
- Unsubscribe a user within 10 working days of someone requesting to be unsubscribed (best to do it immediately)
- Marketing emails must include your physical company address
By doing this you will prove to your clients that they can trust you.
Timing
- Some websites suggest to avoid emailing people on Mondays, because people are already disgruntled about the end of the weekend. The first thing they do is delete all of those emails.
- Weekends tend to have low open rates, so probably it’s not the time you want to send out your emails.
- Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday have traditionally been favourite days to send email campaigns, as email marketers seek to avoid the Monday angst and Friday’s ‘I’m out of here – I can’t be bothered’. MailChimp confirms that Tuesday and Thursday are the two most popular days to send email newsletters.
- Best Time to Send Emails: Thursday 8 – 9 am. WordStream state that they get over 25% open rates with this time!
- Worst Time to Send Emails: Tuesday & Wednesday 8 – 10 am. WordStream found that Tuesday mornings result in under 5% open rates, while Wednesday mornings have below 5% click to open ratios.
However, these times might work as good guidelines, but you might find that the behaviour of your target audience is different. As with anything, it’s about learning by doing.
Automation
Automation is a great way to keep your customers engaged and updated. What kind of automation can you set up?
- Welcome email series – Schedule an automated series of emails that starts when you capture a new email address. Better yet, create multiple series of emails and move people between each series based on their behaviours.
- Content marketing – Releasing a new product? Create a content stream and see which topics interest your customers and which content pieces they share with others.
- Follow-up – Whether someone makes a purchase, attends an event, or abandons a shopping cart, triggering timely follow-up emails is vital to driving action. Triggering emails can be set to send out immediately or after a specific wait-time – you choose.