The Key To Email Marketing Success!

A Guide to Effective Email Marketing Campaigns...

In modern day marketing, engagement is the key to success. Businesses need to build relationships with their customers in order to gain an competitive advantage. Email marketing is a great way of communicating with your target audience, whilst at a low cost. As you can see for the chart on the left, email marketing has a high return on investment. Hughes (2012) stated "According to eMarketer, this year U.S. companies are spending about $64 billion per year on TV, $34 billion on print ads, and $39 billion on Internet advertising. And how much are they are spending on email? only about $1.5 billion."

Email marketing is a direct form of marketing with the customer, whereby a email is generally sent to the customers promoting products or offers. However, emails can be viewed as a nuisance or 'junk' and therefore in order to be effective, an email marketing campaign must tick a number of boxes. Below is a number of ways to ensure that your email marketing campaign is effective.


1. Opt-In Software

Businesses can develop their email list through two methods. One way is by sending emails to customers who have already had an experience with you. Another method is to offer potential subscribers a free gift or incentive in exchange for their names and email addresses. Any websites, blogs, or presence on social media should include an opt-in feature with email broadcasting software. This will allow your business to avoid breaking legislation regarding SPAM emails, whilst increasing the number of email subscribers.


2. Send People What They Want
When sending out emails to customers it is important to create different groups and segments within your target market in order to ensure that the content that people receive is relevant. Segmentation allows the business to target certain subscribers on your list without assigning them to a group. For example, if a certain retail store is having a sale then you could send a promotional email to anyone within a 30-mile radius of their postcode (Kent & Brandal, 2003).  However, it is important not  that you do not neglect the other segments.


3. Make it Mobile-Friendly

As the number of users of smartphone continues to grow and grow, it is highly important that any marketing campaign is mobile friendly. Users that have a smartphone or tablet are likely to have their email registered to the device. If the email sent to your audience isn't mobile friendly, then the chances of them viewing it again on a desktop machine are very slim. Lee (2012) suggests that 63% of Americans and 41% of Europeans will delete their email if it is not mobile compatible.


4. Include Great Offers

Ninety percent of the email content should be enriching your business, whilst ten percent should be dedicated to whatever you are selling. To improve customer engagement, ensure that you are not constantly sending your customer the same content or offers, unless you want your customer to hit the unsubscribe button! Generally speaking, customers want to know what the deals are and how they can get them!


5. Be aware of SPAM

Many small businesses send out SPAM emails out by mistake. Businesses new to email marketing must ensure that they are aware of legislation regarding SPAM, as this could be detrimental to your businesses reputation. You are only allowed to send emails to people who have subscribed to your services. Also, ensure that you include an unsubscribe button, so that anyone who wants to unsubscribe are able to do so easily. If your marketing campaign is a nuisance to people, then they are likely to share their bad experience.



In contrast, peoples inboxes are constantly flooded with emails everyday. Thus, many people set up SPAM and Junk filters in order to lessen the number of emails they receive. Therefore, your marketing email could end up in one of these folders and never get viewed. In order to ensure your marketing campaign isn't a waste of money and resources, email marketing campaigns must be engaging and effective. These guidelines should allow your business to ensure your marketing campaign is effective.

If you want to find out more, please follow the links below. 

http://socialmediatoday.com/monica-romeri/2113896/unlock-power-your-email-marketing

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_marketers_should_keep_sending_you_emails

References:

Lee, Kate. (2012) '15 Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses'. Forbes [Online] 15 October . Available at http://Http://www.forbes.com/sites/katelee/2012/10/15/15-email-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses/ [Accessed 1 May 2014].

Hughes, H. (2012) 'Why Email Marketing is King'. Harvard Business Review [Online] 21 August. Available at http://Http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/08/why-email-marketing-is-king/ [Accessed 1 May 2014].

Kent, R., & Brandal, Hege. (2003) 'Improving email responses in a permission marketing context'. International Journal of Market Research 45, (4) 489-503. Available at http://Http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/ehost/detail?sid=9e145943-3df7-482f-ab0d-