E-mail marketing — the term itself might sound passé, but even in today’s age of instant messaging, live tweeting and Facebook updates, e-mail still has powerful advantages in online promotion strategy and customer relationship-building. E-mail campaigns are great extensions of your business’s marketing efforts, and — with a bit of creativity and facility — relatively effortless, and more dynamic than social media.
As one of the most successful direct marketing techniques used today, e-mail is low-cost, efficiently targeted and easy to measure. An e-mail marketing message is also something a consumer can keep and refer to at a later date. And it can look a lot more professional than social media. (Sorry, Twitter!)
So how can your business use e-mail marketing to build better relationships with potential customers? Here are five tactics you can use to create more engaging e-mail marketing:
1. Integrate E-mail Marketing Into Your Social Media Marketing Plan
- If you currently use social media for work, then it would be smart to invite your followers to subscribe to your e-newsletter or blog. Promoting your e-mail campaign through various social media channels like Twitter or Facebook is an efficient way of recruiting prospects.
2. Ensure Your Message is Relevant
- Content is king in e-mail marketing, so make sure your messages are clear, convenient — and most of all, relevant. Be sure that the quality of information you send is consistent with what your audience members expect and that the information is applicable to their needs. Readers won’t visit a link that doesn’t appeal to them, and e-mail subscribers are fickle and easily bored. If your recipients continue to see the same content repeatedly, they’ll be less likely to click.
3. Always Measure the Results
- Ensuring a job well done means routinely measuring the results, including sales and how many times your e-mail has been opened, forwarded and unsubscribed from. Tracking your stats offers a glimpse into how successful your e-mail marketing campaign really is, or where it’s falling short.
4. How Frequent Is Your Send?
- One e-mail per month is generally considered to be the time-frame in which a customer will remember you when making a purchasing decision. Customers will ignore you or unsubscribe if they only hear from you several months apart — or if they hear from you too often. Always remember that your goal with e-mail marketing is to keep your brand top-of-mind, in a positive way, for the consumer.
5. Reposition Old Content
- Leveraging relevant content that may never have been opened is a smart way to maximize your investment in a dynamic way. Creating a good e-mail campaign takes time, so the opportunity of repurposing content should not be wasted. Consider moving older content to your website, or circulating the information through your social media channels to build credibility and push users to your site.
Now, it’s up to you to creat more engaging campaigns. Just remember to always time your sends appropriately, consider your audience and check out your stats.