Sales are down. Money is tight. You need to increase your bottom line. But you don’t have the money to launch a full fledge marketing campaign. In the past, you would’ve had only a few options: buckle down and spend the money, launch a mediocre campaign, or simply go without and pray for the best.
In today’s market, technology has changed the playing field. Businesses now have an inexpensive and extremely effective solution–email marketing. To launch a successful email marketing campaign, consider the following tips first.
Get Subscribers
To actually start your campaign, you’ll first need subscribers (people who want to hear from you). An easy way to start building your subscriber base is to reach out to the people you already interact with professionally and personally and ask if you can add them to your contact list. Be ready to give them reasons for subscribing though. No one wants more junk mail. Also, don’t think you’ve arrived once you have an email list. Getting subscribers is easy. Keeping them, however, is the key and getting them to engage is the golden egg.
Make it Professional
Consider your design. Remember, your subscribers have no obligation to read your email. If they click on your email and find it cluttered, ugly, or disorganized, they likely will delete it without reading. Setup an account with an email marketing company (like eConnect Email ). We can provide our users with a library of professionally designed email templates that can be customized to fit your existing branding.
Say Something
Make sure your newsletters actually say something. Your customers don’t want another pointless piece of mail. In addition to alerting them about your specials and promotions, keep them informed about your industry. Set yourself up as an industry expert your subscribers can trust. Once you build a rapport with your audience, they’ll want to be in the know.
Respond to Criticism
Finally, be willing to respond to criticism. Criticism can come directly or indirectly. Direct criticism may come as a customer responding to your newsletter with things he or she disliked. Take their comments seriously but don’t overreact. Indirect criticism could come by monitoring how many people are viewing or possibly unsubscribing from your contact list. This is where we can help. Our software keeps track of the number of times an email is opened and by whom. If overall readership starts dropping, it’s time to start making some adjustments to keep your subscribers engaged.
Of course, these tips only skim the surface. Be willing to make changes and adapt to the ever-changing market place. If you have questions or need help getting started we’re happy to give you a helping hand.