The time that you spend on putting together your email newsletter should not be just busy work. Your newsletter should help you build a relationship with your tribe and eventually convert your list into clients/customers.
There are many facets of using newsletter as a marketing tool to communicate with your potential and existing clients - from list building to content creation to promotion and conversion. Here are 5 tips to boost your email marketing effectiveness:
Use permission lists only - meaning the recipients of your newsletter should have "opted-in" to your list. You don't want to turn people away before they even get to know you.
Don't just grab your outlook address book and start dumping contact into your list! One way to get your existing contact to opt-in to your list when you are starting out is to send a personal email to folks in your address book, tell them about your new business, your newsletter, your opt-in free gift, and invite them to join your list - of course, include the link for them to sign up.
Sending unsolicited emails is a violation of the CAN-SPAM act, and you can be in trouble when enough people report your communication as spam.
Create sub-lists - if you are promoting a program or product and need to send out more frequent communications around launch time, a good way is to ask folks in your main list to opt-in to a sub-list (e.g. through a free preview call, audio or special report pertaining to that particular topic; or folks who opted-in to the sub-list will get special pre-launch pricing) - these people have raised their hands to learn more about that particular topic so you can feel more comfortable about sending out more communications. You can even ask them to fill out a survey at some point to help you refine your offering (sweeten the pot with perks). Plus, if they find the communications to be too much, they would more likely to just opt-out of the sub-list, instead of your main list.
Pay attention to your open and click through rate - open rate can help you identify subject line formats or keywords that work, while click through rate can help you identify newsletter format, layout, wordings for an offer or types of offers that work.
Use content to build your expert status, and cultivate the "Like, Know and Trust" factor - make sure your content is relevant to your target market, succinct, and interesting. Remember, people are more likely to buy from experts, and pay a higher price for the services. To build your expert status, focus on a subject or a few topics that are most relevant to your target market. Don't try to write about anything and everything.
Incorporate your newsletters as part of a bigger content marketing strategy - look at your marketing calendar (you have one, right?) and see how your email communication can support your product or program launches. E.g. you can use your blog and your newsletter as a way to "drip content" a month or so prior to a launch to generate buzz, create anticipation and boost your expert status in that topic.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
3 Best Email Marketing Strategies That Will Help You Earn $1000 Per Day
Best practices for email marketing
If you are not performing the recommended practices for email marketing that are covered in this particular article then you are losing an opportunity to earn lots of money. The information provided below is very precise and tested on which you can definitely rely. After an experience of about a year in email marketing I am sharing the 3 best tactics for email marketing. These tactics are as below:
So shall we start with the tactics?
1: Foremost thing is to have a dependable Autoresponder
Never buy your own autoresponder where you need to be the host unless you are sure about what you are about to do. It is because most of the ISP blacklist a huge number of IP's, and it may happen that your IP address also must be added to this category even without your knowledge about it. Now, when your IP address is blacklisted, you won't be able to deliver emails to your subscribers.
2: Create convincing Subject Lines
The content of your marketing email may be the best but if its subject line is not up to the mark then your email will remain unread and ultimately it will be in a virtual trash box. You need to add such subject line which is useful to the viewers and generates curiosity to know about the subject and read your email. For an instance, the subject line "A quick way to build a large mailing directory" is much better than "email promotion tips"
3: Learn about creating a convincing email
For an instance, suppose that you are marketing the beauty products and you get a certain amount of commission for it. In order to promote your product you need to provide them 4 best tips to fit and glamorous skin after your email is plugged into your email. You can initiate with somewhat like, "The easiest and fastest way to healthy and soft skin uses ABC products if you don't want to do it in a traditional way".
You must always try to generate an electronic mail which is full of information and it is useful to the viewers before you start the promotion of your products. By doing this you won't come back as an unyielding salesperson. Now if you don't write any information and useful emails to your subscribers and just start promoting your products then they would soon unsubscribe your mailing list before you even start building up a relationship with them. Ultimately you will be the loser.
If you are keen enough and you know all the tactics of email marketing then you can earn a lot by promoting your product to your email list. In short, marketing through electronic mail is perhaps the fastest, most beneficial and easiest way of making money. All you need to do is build an email list, start sending the informative emails to the subscribers to build relations with them and then start promoting your products as well as carry out the campaign.
If you are not performing the recommended practices for email marketing that are covered in this particular article then you are losing an opportunity to earn lots of money. The information provided below is very precise and tested on which you can definitely rely. After an experience of about a year in email marketing I am sharing the 3 best tactics for email marketing. These tactics are as below:
So shall we start with the tactics?
1: Foremost thing is to have a dependable Autoresponder
Never buy your own autoresponder where you need to be the host unless you are sure about what you are about to do. It is because most of the ISP blacklist a huge number of IP's, and it may happen that your IP address also must be added to this category even without your knowledge about it. Now, when your IP address is blacklisted, you won't be able to deliver emails to your subscribers.
2: Create convincing Subject Lines
The content of your marketing email may be the best but if its subject line is not up to the mark then your email will remain unread and ultimately it will be in a virtual trash box. You need to add such subject line which is useful to the viewers and generates curiosity to know about the subject and read your email. For an instance, the subject line "A quick way to build a large mailing directory" is much better than "email promotion tips"
3: Learn about creating a convincing email
For an instance, suppose that you are marketing the beauty products and you get a certain amount of commission for it. In order to promote your product you need to provide them 4 best tips to fit and glamorous skin after your email is plugged into your email. You can initiate with somewhat like, "The easiest and fastest way to healthy and soft skin uses ABC products if you don't want to do it in a traditional way".
You must always try to generate an electronic mail which is full of information and it is useful to the viewers before you start the promotion of your products. By doing this you won't come back as an unyielding salesperson. Now if you don't write any information and useful emails to your subscribers and just start promoting your products then they would soon unsubscribe your mailing list before you even start building up a relationship with them. Ultimately you will be the loser.
If you are keen enough and you know all the tactics of email marketing then you can earn a lot by promoting your product to your email list. In short, marketing through electronic mail is perhaps the fastest, most beneficial and easiest way of making money. All you need to do is build an email list, start sending the informative emails to the subscribers to build relations with them and then start promoting your products as well as carry out the campaign.
2 Tips For Making Effective Email Marketing Work For You
You will never come to know about the flaws in your campaign unless you run a few basic test runs and analyze it on a regular basis. This is a thing that not many marketers have no interest. It is as difficult as fighting the SEO battle for Google Page 1. One should simply add the lists of messages, try to sell the emails, and gain max profit from the least effort. This will get the traffic going and you will have a good amount of daily visitors.
If you are already on the path of marketing without any effective strategy, it's about time that you rethink your approach and analyze your campaign. If you are wondering how to do this and correct the flaws, Here are a few tips that will get you well on track with your rethinking of the email marketing strategy.
• Keep a nice subject
The first thing that annoys the visitors is a cheesy subject line. You should keep in mind, that visitors first see just the email's subject line in their mailbox. SO you should keep it catchy but not flashy. Going far on the flashy side may increase the risk of your mail going into the spam box. So try to keep a balance and make it interesting for the readers. It is as similar as giving a classified ad. You do not require any kind of writing skills to make an ad. Just the pure intellect and presence of mind is enough.
• Keep it succinct
Never keep your email's body very long like an essay. In email marketing the most important thing is to kindle the sense of curiosity in the reader's minds so that they will click on the links back and visit your website. So it is necessary that you keep the body of your email not too short and not too long. Try to keep a brief introduction, a slight overview and few positive aspects so that the readers will be excited to know more. Try to keep it around 250 - 300 words and excite them to click on that link and visit your landing page. Ensuring that all those who receive read is more important than ensuring that all of them just receive it.
The above two tips are the front runner changes which most of the novice marketers fail to implement in their first email marketing campaigns and so you too need to analyze it in yours now. The more the testing and analyzing goes, the more flaws you will detect at first. But later on removing these will help you immensely in running a very successful marketing campaign.
If you are already on the path of marketing without any effective strategy, it's about time that you rethink your approach and analyze your campaign. If you are wondering how to do this and correct the flaws, Here are a few tips that will get you well on track with your rethinking of the email marketing strategy.
• Keep a nice subject
The first thing that annoys the visitors is a cheesy subject line. You should keep in mind, that visitors first see just the email's subject line in their mailbox. SO you should keep it catchy but not flashy. Going far on the flashy side may increase the risk of your mail going into the spam box. So try to keep a balance and make it interesting for the readers. It is as similar as giving a classified ad. You do not require any kind of writing skills to make an ad. Just the pure intellect and presence of mind is enough.
• Keep it succinct
Never keep your email's body very long like an essay. In email marketing the most important thing is to kindle the sense of curiosity in the reader's minds so that they will click on the links back and visit your website. So it is necessary that you keep the body of your email not too short and not too long. Try to keep a brief introduction, a slight overview and few positive aspects so that the readers will be excited to know more. Try to keep it around 250 - 300 words and excite them to click on that link and visit your landing page. Ensuring that all those who receive read is more important than ensuring that all of them just receive it.
The above two tips are the front runner changes which most of the novice marketers fail to implement in their first email marketing campaigns and so you too need to analyze it in yours now. The more the testing and analyzing goes, the more flaws you will detect at first. But later on removing these will help you immensely in running a very successful marketing campaign.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Don't Ask Too Much From Strangers
One of the best ways to start a relationship with somebody online is to offer them something free in exchange for their name and e-mail address. But don't make the mistake of asking for too much too soon!
I recently went to a Web site to download a free report. The report sounded interesting, but I decided not to get it, because the Web site expected me to fill in seventeen
fields before I could get the report! This is a ridiculous amount of information to request on a form, especially for a form that's the first contact with strangers. Many people wouldn't bother completing it; and some others would complete it with false information. So it's probably not very valuable information for the Web site owner anyway.
The big mistake on this Web site is that it's asking for too much too soon. It's unreasonable to expect complete strangers to take this much time and part with this much information. It's even stretching a friendship to expect this of long-term clients!
Broadly, a number of studies have shown that the more information you ask for on a form, the less likely it is that people will complete it. And even if they do complete it, some will use false information just to get through to the other side.
So, if you would like users - especially strangers - to complete an online form, here are some guidelines to increase your chance of getting accurate information:
Ask for as little as possible. Consider what information you absolutely must have in order to fulfill your part of the bargain (for example, an e-mail address so you can send the free report), and eliminate everything else.If you want other information for marketing purposes (for example, the person's name), keep this to a minimum.If you really want to ask for more, make this optional.If it's not obvious why you are asking for the information, explain it.If you're asking for sensitive information, allow them to remain anonymous (in other words, don't ask for their name or e-mail address).For unavoidably long and complex forms, give them an estimate of the time required to complete it.
Above all, keep in mind that starting a relationship will usually be more useful to you than gathering demographic information. In other words, ask for as little as possible initially, knowing you can ask for more information in the future.
I recently went to a Web site to download a free report. The report sounded interesting, but I decided not to get it, because the Web site expected me to fill in seventeen
fields before I could get the report! This is a ridiculous amount of information to request on a form, especially for a form that's the first contact with strangers. Many people wouldn't bother completing it; and some others would complete it with false information. So it's probably not very valuable information for the Web site owner anyway.
The big mistake on this Web site is that it's asking for too much too soon. It's unreasonable to expect complete strangers to take this much time and part with this much information. It's even stretching a friendship to expect this of long-term clients!
Broadly, a number of studies have shown that the more information you ask for on a form, the less likely it is that people will complete it. And even if they do complete it, some will use false information just to get through to the other side.
So, if you would like users - especially strangers - to complete an online form, here are some guidelines to increase your chance of getting accurate information:
Ask for as little as possible. Consider what information you absolutely must have in order to fulfill your part of the bargain (for example, an e-mail address so you can send the free report), and eliminate everything else.If you want other information for marketing purposes (for example, the person's name), keep this to a minimum.If you really want to ask for more, make this optional.If it's not obvious why you are asking for the information, explain it.If you're asking for sensitive information, allow them to remain anonymous (in other words, don't ask for their name or e-mail address).For unavoidably long and complex forms, give them an estimate of the time required to complete it.
Above all, keep in mind that starting a relationship will usually be more useful to you than gathering demographic information. In other words, ask for as little as possible initially, knowing you can ask for more information in the future.
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Email Disclaimers
"This email and the documents accompanying this email contain information which may be confidential or privileged and exempt from disclosure under applicable law." Many get emails with disclaimers and warnings that begin like this. When you see this kind of notice at the bottom of an email, what should you do? I think in most cases, you can safely ignore such disclaimers and warnings, and just use common sense.
Such warnings and disclaimers usually continue with text like this: "The information is intended to be for the use of the individual or entity named on this transmission. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is without authorization and is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately."
This article is my opinion, and not legal advice. I am a judgment broker, not a lawyer. If you ever need any legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact a lawyer. Emails sent to you that have disclaimers and warnings are not contracts, because contracts are not unilateral. Both sides must agree to the terms of contracts, and usually consideration must be specified for both sides. When someone (only) sends you an email, that does not usually obligate you, except to perhaps admit you received the email.
Such email warnings and disclaimers usually mean one of two things. First, if you received the email accidentally, they want you to delete it; which is what most people would do anyway. The other meaning is, do not share this email with other people. Usually, you would not want to share it anyway.
If someone sends you an email with a warning not to copy their email, does that prevent you from later writing something that overlaps in the same topic area? Often not, if someone emails you that the sky is blue, nothing stops you from later writing or emailing someone about the color of the sky. If you forward an email that causes direct harm to someone, there might be problems, whether there was an email warning or not. You should not post or forward someone else's emails without careful consideration. Whether you do or not, should depend more on common sense, than on boilerplate legalese.
Consider this example: "This email may contain confidential or legally privileged information that is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2510-2521. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or reliance upon the contents of this email is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email transmission in error, please delete the message from your inbox."
They emailed you, so by definition you are the intended recipient. You cannot copy it? The average person usually does not have to worry about such warnings, because if such warnings were often enforced; how could you back up your computer? (which would copy the message), or tell someone you received the email, etc. Notice the email says you cannot even rely on what the email says. Thank goodness you still have the right to delete that email.
One last example: "If you are not the intended addressee you must not use, disclose, or copy this transmission. We give no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this email. We shall not be held liable to any person resulting from the use of any information contained in this email and shall not be liable to any person who acts or omits to do anything in reliance upon it."
Wow, that email must not have been very important, because they do not care if you pay attention to it or not. Some disclaimers borderline on being silly, and they are not binding contracts, so why do some people and companies add disclaimers to their emails?
Some disclaimers are legally useful, and some are required, however most of them have limited effect. They rarely do any harm, which is why they are used often by lawyers, and others. Email disclaimers are used to try to prevent future legal claims. A few recipients of emails might otherwise think they are getting professional advice or representation, so disclaimers are used.
Lawyers have a good reason to use disclaimers, because they must be clear about whether they represent someone or not. The Ninth circuit Court of Appeals held that a disclaimer written in plain English can avoid the creation of an attorney-client relationship
Businesses use disclaimers to try to prevent unintended contractual obligations. A company answering your question by email is usually not obligated to do anything more, and that is the reason that many businesses use email disclaimers. IRS regulations require disclaimers, and they are sometimes also required by law, especially in the healthcare and financial services industries.
Such warnings and disclaimers usually continue with text like this: "The information is intended to be for the use of the individual or entity named on this transmission. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is without authorization and is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately."
This article is my opinion, and not legal advice. I am a judgment broker, not a lawyer. If you ever need any legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact a lawyer. Emails sent to you that have disclaimers and warnings are not contracts, because contracts are not unilateral. Both sides must agree to the terms of contracts, and usually consideration must be specified for both sides. When someone (only) sends you an email, that does not usually obligate you, except to perhaps admit you received the email.
Such email warnings and disclaimers usually mean one of two things. First, if you received the email accidentally, they want you to delete it; which is what most people would do anyway. The other meaning is, do not share this email with other people. Usually, you would not want to share it anyway.
If someone sends you an email with a warning not to copy their email, does that prevent you from later writing something that overlaps in the same topic area? Often not, if someone emails you that the sky is blue, nothing stops you from later writing or emailing someone about the color of the sky. If you forward an email that causes direct harm to someone, there might be problems, whether there was an email warning or not. You should not post or forward someone else's emails without careful consideration. Whether you do or not, should depend more on common sense, than on boilerplate legalese.
Consider this example: "This email may contain confidential or legally privileged information that is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2510-2521. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or reliance upon the contents of this email is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email transmission in error, please delete the message from your inbox."
They emailed you, so by definition you are the intended recipient. You cannot copy it? The average person usually does not have to worry about such warnings, because if such warnings were often enforced; how could you back up your computer? (which would copy the message), or tell someone you received the email, etc. Notice the email says you cannot even rely on what the email says. Thank goodness you still have the right to delete that email.
One last example: "If you are not the intended addressee you must not use, disclose, or copy this transmission. We give no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this email. We shall not be held liable to any person resulting from the use of any information contained in this email and shall not be liable to any person who acts or omits to do anything in reliance upon it."
Wow, that email must not have been very important, because they do not care if you pay attention to it or not. Some disclaimers borderline on being silly, and they are not binding contracts, so why do some people and companies add disclaimers to their emails?
Some disclaimers are legally useful, and some are required, however most of them have limited effect. They rarely do any harm, which is why they are used often by lawyers, and others. Email disclaimers are used to try to prevent future legal claims. A few recipients of emails might otherwise think they are getting professional advice or representation, so disclaimers are used.
Lawyers have a good reason to use disclaimers, because they must be clear about whether they represent someone or not. The Ninth circuit Court of Appeals held that a disclaimer written in plain English can avoid the creation of an attorney-client relationship
Businesses use disclaimers to try to prevent unintended contractual obligations. A company answering your question by email is usually not obligated to do anything more, and that is the reason that many businesses use email disclaimers. IRS regulations require disclaimers, and they are sometimes also required by law, especially in the healthcare and financial services industries.
How To Create an Email Marketing List Fast
For those people who are a novice to email marketing, you must have heard about "creating a list". You might be wondering that what is meant by a list and why is it needed?
The list of your interest is a list comprised of email addresses. These addresses are not just common addresses but they are the addresses of the persons that have a curiosity in your section of a market. For instance: you are involved in the "health" market and you are promoting the products like vitamins - so your "area of market" would be a bit like: healthy eating, supplements or increased energy.
In order to understand the need of an email list you must first understand the process of email marketing.
Initially you must create a single page website.Get perspective customers to the single page website.To attract people to register for your list provide them gifts through your single page website. Any digital media like eBook can be a gift.Build up your list for a considerable time.After having a list of sufficient size you can start marketing services and products to it as the people in your list are all those who have an interest in your market area.
This entire process is basically an engine of email marketing. Once its setup is complete, it will work with minor inputs from you - which will leave you a good amount of time to market your products. In order to generate a list you must increase traffic to your single page website. Visitors to your single page website will find a selection box on your single page - this is the box wherein they will provide their name along with an email address. All you need to do is to give the viewers a reason to provide you with their email address - you can attain this by giving them gifts such as a subscription to a newsletter or an eBook that have content related to your niche.
To create a list you must drive traffic to your single page website - so now the main question is how you can drive more and more traffic to your website? By using some marketing techniques you can attain traffic in your website
Few or these techniques are:
Search engine optimization.
It is a process that helps to improve the visibility of your website to various search engines.
Newsletters
The newsletters are mailed to your e-mail marketing list - this technique will work only if you have some definite number of people on your marketing list.
Forum marketing
Do interactions with forums that discuss about your niche. Reply and post to the contents in such forums. Remember to attach your signature to every post you make - a signature comprises of the address of your website.
Social networking
A social networking website is comprised of the people that are having common interests. The most famous social networking website on the net today is Facebook. You can post anything you like on it to let people know what you are offering.
The list of your interest is a list comprised of email addresses. These addresses are not just common addresses but they are the addresses of the persons that have a curiosity in your section of a market. For instance: you are involved in the "health" market and you are promoting the products like vitamins - so your "area of market" would be a bit like: healthy eating, supplements or increased energy.
In order to understand the need of an email list you must first understand the process of email marketing.
Initially you must create a single page website.Get perspective customers to the single page website.To attract people to register for your list provide them gifts through your single page website. Any digital media like eBook can be a gift.Build up your list for a considerable time.After having a list of sufficient size you can start marketing services and products to it as the people in your list are all those who have an interest in your market area.
This entire process is basically an engine of email marketing. Once its setup is complete, it will work with minor inputs from you - which will leave you a good amount of time to market your products. In order to generate a list you must increase traffic to your single page website. Visitors to your single page website will find a selection box on your single page - this is the box wherein they will provide their name along with an email address. All you need to do is to give the viewers a reason to provide you with their email address - you can attain this by giving them gifts such as a subscription to a newsletter or an eBook that have content related to your niche.
To create a list you must drive traffic to your single page website - so now the main question is how you can drive more and more traffic to your website? By using some marketing techniques you can attain traffic in your website
Few or these techniques are:
Search engine optimization.
It is a process that helps to improve the visibility of your website to various search engines.
Newsletters
The newsletters are mailed to your e-mail marketing list - this technique will work only if you have some definite number of people on your marketing list.
Forum marketing
Do interactions with forums that discuss about your niche. Reply and post to the contents in such forums. Remember to attach your signature to every post you make - a signature comprises of the address of your website.
Social networking
A social networking website is comprised of the people that are having common interests. The most famous social networking website on the net today is Facebook. You can post anything you like on it to let people know what you are offering.
Email Marketing Segmentation
In this week's article I want to touch on an area that I have previously mentioned - segmentation - and expand on it a bit further. When I start working with clients on their email marketing strategy there is often a big temptation for the client to want to tell everybody their sales message and scatter gun everybody with the same email. If this worked it would be great and life would be a lot simpler. Not for me, because I would be out of a job, but experience dictates that this kind of broad brush approach to marketing doesn't cut the mustard in today's marketplace. You need to be a bit more sophisticated and work a lot smarter if you want to maximise on the success of your email campaign. Remember you are competing with a plethora of other emails that your prospects/customers are probably getting and if yours doesn't stand out then you might as well forget it. So where do you start? Here are a few simple tips to get you going:
Objective setting
This is a great starting point. Lay down what you want to achieve with your email campaign and determine what will make it a success. Always treat your prospects different to your existing customers because they will have a different perception of your brand. Typical objectives that you might have could include growing your response rates, increasing your return on investment or increasing your email open rates by new prospects. The important thing is that you have an outcome in mind and that you tailor your email segmentation strategy towards achieving that outcome.
Choosing the right data
Sounds simple enough but it can get complicated. There are several ways you could segment your email contact list and the challenge you have is determining what makes most sense for the product or service that you are offering. Take a look at what you already know about your email database - do you know your existing customers from your prospects? Do you know what industry they are in? Do you have the decision maker's name? Think about how you can get the answers to these types of questions in the future and study analytics from previous email campaigns or how customers/prospects currently interact with you. This will give you valuable insight and enable you to determine key segments for the future.
Profiles or behaviours?
Breaking your email database down further will lead to highly targeted campaigns that reach specific audiences that you are trying to attract. Profile based segmentation is looking at the demographics of your database such as age, gender, geography etc and is a very simple and effective way of targeting your message. In order to do this you will need to capture this type of information up front so think about how you can get this information when your customers/prospects interact with you.
Behaviours are looking at the clicking, browsing and purchasing actions of your customers/prospects. By studying these analytics you will get a deeper understanding of their needs and an understanding of how to engage with them in the future.
Getting creative
Once you have decided on how you want to segment your email campaign it is time to get creative. Think about compelling subject lines for your email, whether you want to integrate a competition, special offers, discounts, capturing information such as birthdays so that you can target these dates in the future with special rewards. There are several ways you can spice up your email campaign and make it more relevant and engaging.
With a bit of thought you can really tailor an email campaign so that it sends the right message to the right people so that you get the right result. If you would like help in creating a segmentation strategy for your B2B or B2C email campaigns then please contact Hayley Cashmore on 0845 116 2723 or email info@threespiresconsulting.co.uk
Objective setting
This is a great starting point. Lay down what you want to achieve with your email campaign and determine what will make it a success. Always treat your prospects different to your existing customers because they will have a different perception of your brand. Typical objectives that you might have could include growing your response rates, increasing your return on investment or increasing your email open rates by new prospects. The important thing is that you have an outcome in mind and that you tailor your email segmentation strategy towards achieving that outcome.
Choosing the right data
Sounds simple enough but it can get complicated. There are several ways you could segment your email contact list and the challenge you have is determining what makes most sense for the product or service that you are offering. Take a look at what you already know about your email database - do you know your existing customers from your prospects? Do you know what industry they are in? Do you have the decision maker's name? Think about how you can get the answers to these types of questions in the future and study analytics from previous email campaigns or how customers/prospects currently interact with you. This will give you valuable insight and enable you to determine key segments for the future.
Profiles or behaviours?
Breaking your email database down further will lead to highly targeted campaigns that reach specific audiences that you are trying to attract. Profile based segmentation is looking at the demographics of your database such as age, gender, geography etc and is a very simple and effective way of targeting your message. In order to do this you will need to capture this type of information up front so think about how you can get this information when your customers/prospects interact with you.
Behaviours are looking at the clicking, browsing and purchasing actions of your customers/prospects. By studying these analytics you will get a deeper understanding of their needs and an understanding of how to engage with them in the future.
Getting creative
Once you have decided on how you want to segment your email campaign it is time to get creative. Think about compelling subject lines for your email, whether you want to integrate a competition, special offers, discounts, capturing information such as birthdays so that you can target these dates in the future with special rewards. There are several ways you can spice up your email campaign and make it more relevant and engaging.
With a bit of thought you can really tailor an email campaign so that it sends the right message to the right people so that you get the right result. If you would like help in creating a segmentation strategy for your B2B or B2C email campaigns then please contact Hayley Cashmore on 0845 116 2723 or email info@threespiresconsulting.co.uk
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