So, you have built a list with your email marketing and have quite a number of loyal subscribers who are beginning to trust you. Some have even bought your products and services, or products you recommended.  But then, how do you increase your conversion rates?  So, how do you get to sell, to those who have not bought and how do you induce your subscribers to buy more from you and not your competition?

There are various methods you could use, of course, all with email marketing campaigns.  From some you will obtain results in the short term, while others will grow over a period of time.

Offer great deals

Offer your subscribers high quality deals. If you are promoting a product, refrain from jumping on the bandwagon as soon as the products start rolling in. There is a tendency with internet marketers to believe, one can make much more money, from subscribers, because they assume, that they trust you.

The other day, in a certain forum, everyone was raving about, a specific product, which they were buying and promoting.  A remark was passed by a forum poster, which I thought was extremely appropriate. He stated that he bought this product, as a “great deal” through the recommendation of an individual, whom he thought had his best interest at heart. But that the process was now obvious, this person only wanted to make money off of him, the same as most others. Well, maybe that says it in a nut shell, perhaps email marketers can learn a lesson from this, on how easy it is to break down relationships and loose loyal customers.

Build trusting relationship

Send your loyal subscribers gifts occasionally.  Offering your readers a gift once in a while, is a sure way to make them realize, that you do have their interest at heart. Try to give them something different, not the everyday items, they receive from everyone else. Give them high quality gifts, which are useful. It could be access to a membership site, a very valuable e-book, or some helpful software.

Keep the value in the relationship, by continually building stronger bonds. Create a database of their birthdates, so they receive a happy birthday greeting on their day. Surely one can remember how it felt, to receive a birthday wish, from a company, for example an Insurance organization or a cell-phone provider, just for giving them your business. With just that singular act, you could have a lifetime customer. Remember email marketing, is not about how much money you make, it is about building relationships, with people you value.

Create a contest or give discount coupons

Let people participate in your contests, such as generating the most referrals or perhaps create a platform for individuals to submit input and ideas. Most people enjoy receiving gifts and also giving help, at the same time. Give out, are some of the most-searched-for keywords on the internet. These methods have been responsible for increasing conversion rates.

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Effective email marketing writing is persuasive to your audience, enhances your image and credibility, and adds clarity to the message in your newsletter. Even the greatest email design graphics and layouts will lose their appeal, if subscribers are presented with email copywriting that is substandard. AIDA is an acronym used in marketing, which is short for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.  This can be applied to email marketing as well.

Attention and interest

Grab your audience’s attention with an engaging subject line, so they open your mailing, this is your invitation to your reader to hear what you have to say. Once your marketing email is opened, your audience’s attention can be obtained with the appearance of the newsletter, as well as the headlines and lead sentences.

When you meet someone for the first time and all you is talk about yourself, then you shouldn’t be surprised, when this individual gets up and walks away. This could be the point where your viewer quits reading your promotion email or newsletter, or opts out of your list altogether. However, if you include a person in your conversation, then they are going to want to stick around. Focus on advantages and benefits as they relate to the substance, of your communication.

Desire and action

Strong interest yields to desire. Use the power of persuasion in your conversation now that you have your audience’s interest. The better you can relate to someone in your conversation, the more they will want to hear. Use the body of your marketing email and newsletter, to convince your potential customer that you have what they want and they will feel a need, for what you are offering. You are writing to build up motivation for your subscriber, for what you are offering with your newsletter.

Your promotion email or newsletter should have a purpose and your writing should lead your viewer to a clear call to action. You’ve now convinced your listener that you have what they want. Make it easy for them to do something about it. This action could be clicking on a link, purchasing a product, or even replying to your newsletter. You should structure your mailing, in a way that is likely to generate a direct response from your reader.

Keep your writing concise

There are many stylistic ways of holding your subscribers interest. Be concise in your writing. This means giving your subscriber relevant information, in as few words as possible. The more concise your writing is, the more weight your words will carry.

Include the most important parts of your newsletter in the beginning. Subscribers will read the introduction first before they decide whether the rest is worth their time. Many readers are going to scan through, rather than read everything you write in your newsletter, so arrange your text accordingly. This may include using dashes and bullet points, as well as blocks of text, rather than chunky paragraphs. You would write a newsletter differently than you would write a term paper or a thesis.

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No matter what form of advertising and marketing your company uses, whether newspaper brochures, fliers or posters, always include your email address.  Prospective customers will contact your company online and this process will increase your consumer email marketing base, for future email marketing campaigns.

Confidentiality is very important to consumers. Make sure your email sign up clearly states that you will not sell their information and that it will be kept confidential and secure. You will be surprised how many people will not sign up for your email marketing promotions, if you do not offer this piece of information

Tips to email marketing

How important it is to make sure you are creating a database of people who want to receive your updates and are most likely to act. Be open to their comments, questions, suggestions, and concerns. Letting them know you are available for such customer service, is a great means to earn their loyalty.

It is easy to sell something to a consumer, but much harder to entice them, so they will come back again and again. It can take time to develop this kind of list and get the responses you want.

Focus on the message

If you’re sending non-newsletter email blasts, stick to one primary message for each email sent out. The more information you pack into an email, the higher the chance the recipient’s eyes will glaze over and they’ll reach for delete. Keep it to one focal point, right in the subject and first lines of the message, to make it easier for those just skimming, to absorb your message.

Email newsletters are expected to provide bits and pieces of several messages, making the information easy to grasp.  But do not make the mistake of thinking you know what your consumers want. If you really want to know what they are after, then take the time to ask, in your newsletter.

Customized message and call to action

Use the recipient’s name in your message whenever possible, because something this simple can induce the recipient to read through and act on your message.

Each email you send should spell out exactly what procedure the recipient should follow. Make links obvious and call attention to any special directions you are providing. And it’s okay to be repetitive when it comes to the call to action, include it toward the top of the message and mention it again at the end.

Keep track of your stats

Most email marketing services provide campaign statistics, so one can monitor the number of opens, clicks, bounces and also the un-subscribers. As you get started with email marketing, try a few different formats and link placements and then compare the stats to gauge your success.

And don’t be too quick to unsubscribe bounced addresses. An email can bounce for any number of reasons, and it’s best to wait, to see whether the address bounces more than once, before scrubbing it from your list. The law requires you, to offer a link where customers can unsubscribe.

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People unfamiliar with email marketing, often wonder what all the fuss is about. Those wondering about email marketing, in today’s ever-changing online and marketing environment, will find that promoting with email marketing, is still alive and doing very well. It works, businesses engage in email marketing, because it works and works well.

Why it works

Email marketing works for a variety of reasons. It is data driven and allows targeting, builds relationships, loyalty and trust. It drives direct sales and also, supports sales through other channels.

Modern email marketing services and solutions support database integration, segmentation and various other tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of outgoing messages. Advanced methods generate on-the-fly emails, customized down to an individual recipient basis. Every email marketing campaign you send out, generates a mass of actionable data, you can use to refine your approach and messages.

Email marketing promotions and offers generate immediate action: sales, downloads, inquiries, registrations, etc. Informative email newsletters and other emails send people to offline stores, events and prepare the way for catalogues. This method also builds awareness, contributes to branding, strengthens relationships and encourages trust, which cements loyalty. This is an extremely effective means, of going about your business.

Nothing happens when you do nothing

Remember, what you put in, is what you get out. So don’t think you just sit back and it all happens. In the same way a garden only bears fruit, when managed correctly, so it is with email marketing. We know it can work, but you have to manage the work, get the basics right. The basics of building a list of people who want to hear from you, creating a message, and ensuring the emails get through, to those on that list.

And once you have the basics right, there’s a whole spectrum of more sophisticated tactics you can employ, to drive further success. Because the metrics show us, that there’s plenty of room for improvement and plenty of rewards waiting, for those who do improve.

Simple basics

Every piece of written communication has a “sound” or tone. Most direct mail letters are written with a “hard-sell” style, hammering at the offer, the benefits, the call-to-action and in direct mail, that style works extremely well.

Not quite the same, when it comes to email marketing, because individuals feel differently, about their email boxes, than their post office boxes. The email inbox is an individual’s protected personal space. So the approach in your email marketing communications has to be more personal, friendly and low-key. Give your email message a more relaxed feel, no pressure. This is not the time for the frantic, relentless cadence of hard-sell direct mail.

Whereas, long copy works well in direct mail, email marketing should be short, initially, at least. Let your first message be brief, two or three short paragraphs. Rather allow the recipient, to request further information via a Web page or a follow-up email message. Use that second stage to do a more in-depth job of selling. As with direct mail, you should focus on the recipient rather than yourself.

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Do you want to use email marketing to promote your business to consumers? One needs to determine, how often, to send an email marketing campaign to consumers. Creating a business newsletter and emailing it to consumers is a great platform, for starting your email marketing campaign. This is an excellent opportunity to keep your business name, in their view and mind.

You can also choose to send an email marketing newsletter, on a regular basis, a monthly newsletter is very common. The choice depends on the type of business you operate, the amount of content you have, and the time and budget, available to invest in the project

Encourage consumers to give input

To obtain consumers interest in your newsletter, ask them what they are looking for. Let them know you encourage their questions, suggestions, comments, and feedback. Ensure that they are aware that you will address their concerns as well. Include some of these consumer replies in each newsletter. This proves that you care about them and their satisfaction. It is also an intelligent means, for your business to establish what is working and what you still need to improve on.

A productive newsletter talks about various aspects of the company, upcoming events, sales, promotions, and new products. Try to arrange the information so that it is informative, without appearing to be directed at only sales. You want the consumer to look forward to your future newsletters. Keep the information useful for the reader, while laying the ground work for future sells. Always remember who your target audience is and write articles that will appeal to them.

Give tips and updates

Your newsletter should also offer tips, perhaps some safety tips, also unique uses for the product. These all serve to keep the reader interested, as well as promote your business. Offer a great promotion or discount in each newsletter as well. Make sure such promotions have an expiration date. This will motivate the consumer to make a purchase now rather than in the future.

Newsletter layout is important as well, as the visual of nothing but a jumble of words does not work easy on the eyes. Try using a distinct break in the articles or using a two column layout. Your newsletter must be visually appealing and have good content, to grip the focus of the reader. Be realistic about the amount of content you can put into one newsletter. Do not use small text, just to cram more material in, rather try some basics, in the beginning and then expand. You can add features and regular sections, as your email marketing newsletter evolves.

Marketing staff

If the newsletter is going to be your main source of marketing, then make sure you have staff dedicated to its development. Too many businesses just expect their employees to take on one more task, leading to a newsletter that is done, but not producing results. If you have a team dedicated to the development and strategy behind each newsletter, this will result in more productive outcome.

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Email marketing alone is powerful but combined with social media it is a compelling means to amplify your message, across the internet and it’s only going to become more important, in the future. Below are a few areas to consider, when you combine email marketing with social media.

You must present an email that is shareable

Some emails are interesting enough to share, but it’s possible, that some emails, you send, will only be of interest to your customer and certain subscribers. Although any email marketing newsletter or campaign could be of interest to a great cross section of people.

Decide how you want to encourage your subscribers to share. Simply adding sharing links to your email won’t be enough. Come up with ways to encourage your customers and subscribers to click and share. You may want to consider adding incentives into the mix.

Keep testing to find which methods work

Decide on the social sites you should have your customers and subscribers, share your content on. You should survey, which social networks, your subscribers use most and then try to highlight those options, in your share with your network section. A long list of options can be counterproductive, because the most popular networks may get lost in the shuffle.

Keep testing your emails to see what methods work best for increasing the amount of sharing that your subscribers do. Integrating social media and email marketing can be difficult, but it’s worth the effort. You can improve your deliverability and response rate, by using social media.

Choose medium wisely

Content doesn’t work equally well across all mediums, choose your medium wisely.
Include prominent share with your network links that are well-integrated. Host your own social community and invite conversation among subscribers and use the content to fuel future discussions.

Tie it back to the email, by including opt-in forms for your email list, on all your social media accounts. Allow a choice, let people mix and match your social media and email offerings, as much as possible. Listen to your subscribers and let them know that you’re committed to doing it. Engage people on all your social accounts and participate in the community that you’re building

Site overloading and important landing page

If you’re running a large email marketing campaign and you expect a great deal of click-through, to your site, you may not want to hammer your website all at once, although this a great problem to have. A good way to avoid overloading your website is to split your campaign into multiple segments and gradually release them, over a period.

Getting readers to click through to a page on your website can be a difficult task in itself. But even if your email design leads to a huge number of subscribers clicking through to your site, it won’t matter if your landing page doesn’t provide them any value. Just like your email, your landing page should give visitors a clear idea of what to do next. Failing to do so, will always lead to poor results for your email marketing campaign.

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An email marketing campaign may be the answer for a company wishing to advertise and gain internet attention, for the fraction of the cost of another type of marketing. Whether the email marketing campaign highlights an upcoming sale, or a new product, or a discount offer, the campaign can have a marked effect, on cash flow. When compared to sending out direct mail, flyers and other media, an email marketing campaign can be measured, at a fraction of their costs.

Track effectiveness

One of the most appealing features of an email marketing campaign is the ability to track its effectiveness. Using software, which many marketing companies offer any business can establish the exact impact, a campaign is producing.

For example, the means to establish the number of messages opened, deleted, and still unopened in the first hours of a marketing plan, is an amazing amount of feedback, which no other media can offer. The capability to track clicks on links provided within the email and to compare the campaigns to others, which have been conducted, is an amazing benefit.

Permission based

A genuine email marketing campaign is a permission based effort. An email marketing blitz is based on a mailing list, which has been compiled over time, through interested parties, granting permission to contact them, via the internet mail system. Companies conducting an internet mail blitz have worked over a period of time, to build a legitimate list of addresses, of individuals requesting to hear from them. Permission is given to send the emails and thus the effectiveness, of such a marketing effort is greatly increased.

But there are some companies who do conduct internet email marketing campaigns that are not permission based. In fact, they are just sent out based on purchased databases, which have no clear defining parameters, other than perhaps, just being businesses. Then the internet mail becomes spam which can be blocked effectively, by many security software programs, which companies have installed on their systems. When spam producing campaigns are developed, not only does effectiveness of the effort drop, but the resentment towards the company rises, harming future attempts to market successfully.

Newsletters and the “from” line

One of the most effective means to conduct an email marketing campaign is through the use of a newsletter. A newsletter can be self serving, but if created fittingly, can be a great value to its subscribers. When genuinely helpful articles, link to other websites and timely alerts and reports, include product reviews and promotions, the newsletter format, can be a welcome addition to a recipient, Helpful tips of promoting one’s own business and other relevant articles, can really give a newsletter or product promotion, an opportunity to be opened and read with excitement.

Some of the most common mistakes that a company might make in creating an email marketing blitz, is not understanding how important the “from” line is. After all, when a person receives an unknown email message, how likely is it to be opened? This is the most common reason, why internet mail gets dumped before being viewed.

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There are individuals in every email marketing list, who have stopped paying attention. They’re still subscribed, but they’ve checked out and are no longer reading your email marketing messages.

You need to explore different avenues to reactivate, these dormant subscribers. There are various offers, which one can use to entice non-engaged subscribers, if your list has a large number.

One-time discount or gift with purchase

Those who employ this tactic should do so with the understanding, that they may be training their customers to wait for better offers, but some revenue, definitely beats no revenue at all.

Also, this option allows marketers to test the value of different types of incentives, for example a percentage discount vs. free shipping.

Survey responses and changing tempo

Give customers the ability to sound off, about what they like and dislike about the email marketing campaign and to recommend content they may prefer. This approach works best if the marketer can use survey responses as preferences. For instance, if the customer merely wants less email, the marketer must have the ability to reduce frequency, for this approach to work best.

If a marketer has stuck to a single tempo for his email marketing, then even the living dead may respond to a change in frequency. Even unresponsive consumers notice, when a regular email disappears from their inboxes and then reappears.

Check interest and avoid poor targeting

Very often, the simple approach of asking subscribers, whether they still want to receive the email works well. This approach may involve sending a simple postcard-style email with the single call to action of “click here to continue receiving these emails.” A more subtle approach in this vein, may involve changing only the subject line, to remind subscribers what they receive. For example change the subject line for a newsletter, from brand name for the newsletter, to something like “your August newsletter from (Company Name).”

Sending an offer to someone who cannot take advantage of it, even if they want to, is practically the definition of poor email targeting. Believe me this has happened on many occasions, to me personally.  Individuals have sent an offer, to their entire list, even though; it was not available for South Africans, but only for Americans and Canadians.

Segment the mailing list

If you’re going to offer products that will only apply to small percentage of your subscribers, you should find a means to segment your email list.

If you don’t have that capability, due to technical problems or lack of data, you need to remedy that situation. Otherwise you may find your subscribers tuning out on a regular basis and dismissing your emails as irrelevant.

An easy way to persuade subscribers and users to segment themselves is by interests, occupations, gender and location. How simple can it be to basically send an email, requesting subscribers to identify which segment they belong to? An extra benefit to this type of email, is that it will help reveal the subscribers, who are most engaged with your campaign.

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The tone you use, when writing an email marketing campaign or newsletter, can be as important, if not more important, than the actual words, themselves. There are various means, to ensure, that the tone of your writing is correct, for your email marketing campaign, to gain attention and produce the intended results.

Focus on the real issues

If you have news, to share, which you feel might have a negative effect, make sure your tone stays positive. Avoid zeroing in on the problem itself and instead focus on how you’re planning to solve the problem. Let your readers know, that it is a temporary hic-cup, which will be avoided in the future. Keep your tone positive and confident.

Always apply the simple to understand method, ensure your email is straightforward easy to follow and helpful. Resist the urge to include too much information. Focus on your core message and make it effortless for your readers to grasp…

If your goal is to entice individuals, to take an action, such as click a link, buy something, etc., don’t waste time by including peripheral information, which can be read by a subscriber later.

Match tone with products and services

If your business relies on consumer trust, such as banks or attorneys, it’s probably a good idea to keep your tone more serious. On the other hand, if your business is focused on the younger generation, using a formal tone would perhaps backfire. You need to figure out, which works best, with your target market and then deliver it. It is wise to stay gender-neutral, so unless you know the gender of your audience, stick to a gender-neutral tone.

Don’t miss out

While it can be annoying to receive multiple automated responses, every time that you send out an email marketing campaign, it’s still important to use a valid reply-to email address.

By not using a valid email address, you’re missing out, on an easy way to interact with your subscribers. And if there’s not an open line of communication between you and your subscribers, you’re throwing away a source of valuable feedback, on your email marketing campaigns

Soft sell tone works

If a customer abandoned a product, the remarketing message should always contain very relevant and targeted details for optimal conversions. This includes specific details about the dropped transaction, such as the products the customer abandoned and a direct link to return to the cart session, to complete the check-out process.  Any data you capture at the time of abandonment is worth including in the follow-up email, to ensure the communication is personal to the customer.

You can optimize your remarketing emails by setting a good, soft tone. In marketing this is often called soft sell, and it means that when you make the first remarketing contact with the customer, you use a gentle, service-based tone in the email.  Instead of using the heavy sales tone, remember that the customer could have abandoned for any number of reasons and until you know why, it is best to be gentle and offer assistance.

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Email marketing is it. These days, just about every profession and industry has an email marketing campaign. What is the thing with email marketing? Why is everyone exploiting the seemingly cheap opportunity of advertising?

Recent estimates have shown that email marketing is one of the cheapest forms of advertising that has ever existed, right next to “word of mouth”.

Almost everyone has an email these days. What is the cost of the email?  Sometimes nothing.  Currently, an estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide have email addresses. This means that approximately one in every six people on earth has an email.

Marketing to a huge audience

The potentials of email marketing are staggering. Never in the history of mankind has such an avenue to sell and market one’s products to a huge audience, presented itself as it has this time. As a result, people are harnessing the potentials of email marketing which is still growing. The benefits of email marketing are astounding.

Some benefits

With email marketing, the whole world is in a manner of speaking, available with just a touch of the button. You can sell your products services, consultancy to so many people across the globe. Clients and customers are no longer restricted to a specific geographic location as the market now exceeds all boundaries.

You can be in one corner of your room in South Africa and send an offer to someone in faraway Iceland. People outside a geographical territory can benefit from the goodies previously restricted to that territory. For instance, it was hard to get someone in the Bahamas to see your adverts. Now, all you have to do is send them an email.

Relatively quick feedback

The cost of email marketing is far below any current advertising cost. You get feedback as quickly as two days after your first message is sent out. Unlike the snail mail, which takes approximately six weeks to process, now feedback and orders can start pouring in almost immediately, after the mail is sent out.

Moving in the fast track

It is easier to meet and exceed sales targets in less than half the period it used to take. For instance, Robert Allen who is the Co-author of the One Minute Millionaire bestseller stunned the world when he said he was going to gross $24000 in just 24 hrs. The Press obviously believed it to be nothing but a big joke, when he set out with nothing more than $100 in his pocket on that Fortune-filled day. To cut the long story short, he not only exceeded his target, but made almost four times the stipulated target, grossing in total over $90000 in 24 hrs. What was his secret?

He sent an email to his subscribers some of whom were not residents of the United States, with an irresistible offer who bought the products from him in 24 short hours. The potential of email marketing is still being exploited. As time passes by, there will be more innovations in this aspect of advertising campaigns.

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