6 Tips for Creating a Killer Email Marketing Campaign
Posted By Larry ~ 15th August 2012
Having a great product or service and perfect copy doesn’t guarantee that your email marketing campaign will be successful. Nor does adding in an eye-catching design or spending large amounts of money for a “proven” list.
You can do all of these things right and still miss the mark if you don’t have a solid foundation in place to assess what works, identify what doesn’t, target your messages, and make adjustments as you go. So, to help you make the most of your next email marketing campaign, here are six tips for forming that foundation.
- Use a Professional Platform
Don’t use your regular mail platform like Outlook or Gmail for your email marketing campaigns. These tools are great, but they are not designed for this kind of activity and lack the tools you need to really take your email marketing to the next level. Use a tool with integrated list management capabilities, in-depth reporting functionality, and market segmentation tools.
- It’s All About Your List
What makes a good list isn’t the number of subscribers – it’s the value those subscribers have to the list owner. After all, you can send emails until you’re blue in the face – if your list doesn’t care about what you’re selling, those emails aren’t going to do your company any good. And to build that kind of valuable, qualified list, you need to do your research and understand how to connect with your target market.
- Give Your Best Stuff Away… For Free
And speaking of research, figure out what it is your target market wants and then give at least some of it away… for free. If you’re selling informational products, this might translate into a free report, ebook or CD. If you’re selling a service, then you might offer a free consultation or a free stand-alone service when customers purchase a package. Selling a tangible product? Then look at Amazon as inspiration. When you buy an electronic product for example, you receive a nice discount credit that can be used for your next electronic purchase. Shipping is free on a variety of items and there are plenty of other, more general discounts to be had. This kind of offering makes it very easy to send out promotional emails that spark interest and produce results, because their market wants what Amazon is offering.
- Create a Calendar
The best way to create a cohesive campaign with a consistent message and keep yourself on track is to create an editorial calendar that outlines the strategy, who you will target when, what promotions will be happening when, and what messaging needs to go out to keep everything going.
- Provide Value with Every Email
You may consider including emails in your overall campaign that are primarily designed to keep your business in front of your subscribers, but fluff emails that don’t provide any real value for the recipient will rapidly degrade your entire campaign and have people racing to unsubscribe. Make sure you provide something of value with each touch point and keep your subscribers reading and your conversion rate increasing.
- Test Everything
You may realize that you need to test the tools you are using to make sure people won’t hit any issues when the email arrives. You may also think to test your messaging with a small group before a mass distribution, but you need to go a little farther than that. Test your headline, your layout, your design, your message, your links, your call to action, and your tools including any landing pages or linked pages. Make sure you are making the best possible impression every time you communicate with your customer base.
