Email Marketing Best Practices

The business world that is running the world now is obsessed with getting the most customer intelligence to further their businesses. Businesses need to know what customers need, how and what they think, what services or products are they looking for, etc. And they turn to all sorts of media blitz and campaign in order to get more customers for their business. Big businesses’ spending on TV and print ads and Internet advertising are staggering and unbelievably huge. And the advertising industry absolutely enjoys every bit of it.

One marketing technique that has not been maximized is email marketing. Compared to all the other popular marketing strategies and techniques, email marketing does not cost much. The investment will probably be on Internet subscription, minimal human resource, desktop computer and electricity bill. Hence, email marketing is deemed the most cost-effective advertising technique there is today.  

In order to get the best results from email marketing, the following lists down some of the known and proven email marketing practices which you can use as a guideline when doing your email marketing campaign.

• Create Incentives-oriented line opener for your email. This will increase the open rates of your email. Recipients are likely to open their email if they read something like, “Get an iPad free by signing up for a demo”, or “Free shipping for first order.” Don’t just do this for the sake of converting; make sure you can deliver what you promised.
• Keep your email clutter-free. Sending an email full of junk will not likely end up in a conversion.
• Highlight call-to-action above the fold. Putting your main message and call-to-action towards the end of the email will most likely result to them being ignored or not read by the recipient. Call-to-action should be repeated throughout the email the least of which is 3 times.
• Put your logo where it can be easily seen – at the upper left hand side of the email. Studies have shown that people look for the logos at this particular and specific area.  
• Create eye-catching and compelling subject lines. Like the email line opener, you can write a subject line of 30 – 50 characters with a sense of urgency. This line should give the readers an idea of what the email is all about.
• Tie your email to landing pages. Craft your email such that it will be able to link to landing pages which should have the same headline, copy and content. Use tracking tools to monitor the email and landing pages for performance.
• Use auto-responder for Opt-ins. It’s normal for recipients to forget they opted in. You need to set up auto-responder to remind them and it should be sent out in 1, 5 and 10 days after the opt-in registration. Auto-responder email should contain additional content or bonus material for opting in.  
• Make your email with a personal touch. This is where the power of email lies – the recipient needs to feel that the email was sent on a personal capacity and as such deserves a response. Use email as your way of reaching out to your customers and making them feel important.
• Timing. Know exactly when you need to send the email, which is when the recipient is around to read it right away or almost immediately. Studies and surveys showed that more people are using their lunch hour to check their email, Facebook and Twitter accounts. This should be about the right time to send your email.  

Email marketing is still a great way to generate leads and eventually more conversion prospects for your business, if done the right way. Compelling email marketing campaigns still get high success rate. People abhor getting junk and suspicious looking email marketing materials. Just follow the simple guidelines presented above to elicit chances of your marketing materials ending up in junk mailbox.

Email marketing is just part and parcel of online marketing. You have to understand online marketing as a whole to have holistic approach and have a more effective campaign. You can take a look at The Do’s and Don’ts of Online Marketing for better guidance.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Online Marketing

In this day and age of internet and advanced technology where online marketing outsourcing is just as anybody’s business, the success of any business is largely dependent on effective online marketing strategies and campaign programs. It opens up business doors to a broader consumer audience.

There are however, important considerations when it comes to acceptable online marketing for many outsource internet marketing experts. These online marketing do’s and don’ts will help differentiate good marketing practices against bad marketing techniques.

Online Marketing Do’s

• Simple and accurate website information. Your main concern is for users to be able to get the information they want from your website easily and quickly. Making your website user-friendly is key to an effective internet marketing campaigns.
• Simple and easy-to-remember domain names. If your website’s domain name is extremely long and hard to remember, gaining repeat stream of traffic to the site is not likely to happen. Imagine a secretary dictating to a business affiliate over the phone a domain name made of hardly read words - a jungle of letters and numbers.
• Learn SEO. For any online marketing outsourcing experts, effective search engine optimization strategies are a helpful lot in supplementing online marketing campaigns for implementation into the website. If your website is found by the various search engines, traffic to your site will definitely improve without spending extra for advertising.
• Have a specific and clearly defined USP. Unique Sales Positioning (USP) is like a single online ad which describes your core business. It should eliminate generic connotations to set your business apart from generic competitors. Example : Domino’s Pizza’s USP is “pizza delivered hot in 30 minutes or it’s free”. The recall factor is strong and people will easily associate the ad to the business.
• Use a short email signature. When using email marketing, use an email signature with a URL attached linking to your website. This is a great way to get traffic to a website. By keeping it short and easy to remember.
• Keep an interactive website. Your website should stimulate interaction from the users. Use online polls, surveys, etc. to get more information about your website’s audience.
• Pick your medium. Whether it’s paid search (PPC) or media buying (banners, pop-ups), choose the logical medium where your targeted prospects are.
• Blog posts. Creating blogs for your website will facilitate user interaction and will cause your website to gain traffic. Make sure to post new blogs in order to keep the users wanting for more new information to read.   

Online Marketing Don'ts

• Use Blackhat SEO techniques. As search engines regularly updates their algorithms, using these techniques will get your website penalized or banned. Online marketing outsourcing companies shun this practice.
• Over-Publicity. There’s nothing worse than a publicity overkill especially when your website is not fully ready for traffic. This is a sure way to drive users away from your website.   
• Conditional access to information. Websites requiring registration prior to gaining access to the information will definitely turn off users.
• Forget the user. Most of the time internet marketing outsourcing companies are so caught up with their campaign that they forgot the users – the people the website is designed for and the people in control of revenue.  
• Send spam and long email messages. This kind of online marketing will end up in the trash folders of email recipients or worse; people will block you. You might as well filter out people who you will send email marketing materials to.
• Slow loading and poorly designed website. Your website is your best asset. Websites that takes time to load will cause user boredom and you’re leaving the users with the option of hitting the back button.

Even conventional marketing firms are slowly moving towards online marketing and nothing beats expertise when it comes to digital marketing. However, if you’re new to the digital marketing world, you might as well want to get informed on how does its mechanism work to avoid unnecessary actions that might be detrimental to a marketing campaign.  Of course, mistakes and experience are the greatest teacher but being a bit cautious could let you go the extra mile.

Being audacious with your internet marketing campaign can be widely accepted and at the same time, may not be accepted at all. But, knowing the foundations and the rules of how marketing or advertising should be done can actually defy any hurdles that may come along the way.