The Number 1 Guide to Email Marketing
Emails are one of the easiest ways to get “up close and personal” with your target audiences. Better still, they cost nothing. However, you do need to invest time into getting them right.
Here’s a handy email marketing guide to help you make a measurable impression.
Databases and the EU GDPR
The starting point is to thoroughly check your database, to ensure you are sending marketing emails to appropriate target audiences.
Previously, companies sent advertising information to recipients who had engaged with them in any form – for example previous customers. The emphasis was on providing the opportunity to unsubscribe.
Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, from May you must ensure that all customers have clearly opted in to receiving marketing emails. If you’re working from an existing database, you need to approach them soon to secure clear opt in.
Keep it personal
No matter what software and systems you use to generate responsive emails or a timetable of marketing messages, you must not let the email appear “mass produced”.
The content has to make each recipient feel like you are talking specifically to them. Even the heading must sound personalised. Statistics show that open rates improve with a more individualised appearance.
Ref: (Statista, 2014) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
Timing is everything
For either triggered or periodic marketing emails, make sure timing is effective.
If this is a follow-up marketing email, speed can be of the essence. It needs to land in the inbox while your company is still fresh in their mind.
What you must avoid though, is a series of emails that appear to bombard the potential customer. They will register their annoyance with the unsubscribe feature, relegate you to their spam filter or simply trash all future emails from you.
Crisp, concise content
Because emails are free to send and relatively unfettered on size, there has been a tendency to pack them full of information. Get to the point quickly, keep the content tight, and drive traffic to your website for additional information.
Purposeful marketing emails
Millennials quickly see through smoke and mirrors and have little patience with flowery marketing-babble. The phrase of the era is “added value”. It’s recommended that you never send marketing emails unless they have a clear purpose and offer. For example, to provide useful information about a product that’s been purchased already or to communicate an attractive incentive to buy.
We can’t compile an email marketing guide without a reminder that you must make your call to action clear and decisive.