A guide to email marketing
We have been working with many clients on their email marketing over the last few months and so it seemed the right time to put together a short guide to running successful campaigns.
Spindogs are strong advocates of the Email Marketing tool Campaign Monitor, it’s great because of it’s extremely comprehensive and offers great reporting, it allows you to track your campaigns, analyse results and find out what works and what doesn’t, so that your campaigns become more successful every time.
There are many other email marketing tools available, many of which have been recommended to us by our clients, if Campaign Monitor isn’t the one for you, fear not there are many other solutions out there!
What makes a great campaign?
Use a mass marketing tool!
It may sound obvious but many people are still sending bulk emails through their personal email accounts; this increases the chance of your email being labelled as junk or spam, and so you may not reach all of your intended recipients. If you forget to add them to the BCC bar you also run the risk of breaching data protection or upsetting your valuable clients.
Use quality data!
Old, out of date databases are not going to be of any use to you. Cleanse your data regularly and only send your email campaign to those you know will genuinely want to receive it. We all know how often we delete emails that come from an unknown sender and look as if they are trying to sell us something.
Keep your content relevant and of value
This will ensure your open and click through rates continue to improve and will also encourage your recipients to forward the email to their contacts.
Encourage people to subscribe to receive your campaigns via your website and social media, being clear about the benefits they will receive by doing so.
Keep the subject line relevant
What would encourage your recipients to open the email?
Include an unsubscribe option
Ensure you have the option on your email for an unsubscribe, you want to ensure you are GDPR compliant along with making sure you don’t annoy someone who no longer wishes to receive your information (no-one likes an angry email asking you to leave them alone!)
Include a call to action!
If people like what they are reading they will want to act, whether it is to find out more info, view a video, or email you to book. Without call to actions it will be harder to track how successful your campaign has been.
Trial and error
If you are not sure which day or what time to send your campaign try a few different possibilities and track which time and date generated the most activity by your recipients.
Test!
All of the available tools will allow you to send a test (multiple if needs be) before you send the campaign to your list, this will allow you to view exactly how your email will be viewed by those on your list and will help you spot any areas that need tweaking.
Always read the reports
They will help you make informed decisions in relation to your email marketing strategy.
For more information on how Spindogs could help you with your email campaigns, whether it be with your template or campaign management get in touch with us today, we’d love to have a chat!