Permission-based email marketing is an important aspect of promoting your business, driving more traffic to your website and developing a network of regular clients. This marketing tool should not be overlooked as a good, cultivated mailing list allows a company to reach out to the right people with the right offer. You get a steady online market for your products and services and the people get timely information on offers they are interested about, without having to lift a finger - everybody wins. However, there are some rules to the online email marketing game, and following them is what will set you apart from desperate small business owners, Taiwanese factories and Nigerian Princes that rarely get past the spam filters.
Do ask people for permission
If you have a well-designed website, and some truly good offers, be they in the form of services or items for sale, and you ask people to sign up to your newsletter or email updates on special offers and discounts, there is a good chance that they will play along. This way you earn some devoted fans and you can begin to slowly, but surely develop a mailing list of clients you know are willing to spend their money on what you have to offer.
Do not spam random offers to random strangers
Quite frankly spam emails are infuriating, laughably ineffective, confusing and downright comical. You don't know who is getting the email or whether the recipient fits your target demographic, so you can be sure that the message will get deleted without even a second glance at the title.
Do pay attention to proper grammar
You need to reclaim the forgotten art of writing before you can even begin to address your online email marketing plans. First of all, have a plan and make the email simple, keeping good sentence structure throughout. Explain what the purpose of the email is, structure the information properly and stay concise. Keep the same, appropriate font throughout the email, make no changes in colors or font size and be sure to use the proper punctuation.
Don't sound like a spammer
You want to avoid Caps Lock and Bold like the plague, avoid using excessive exclamation marks and amassing keywords like Super Sale, Special Offer, Incredible Discounts, Cheap and Free. You also want to avoid particularly bad structures, like using repeated buzzwords and a bunch of short phrases mashed together instead of full, intelligible sentences.
Do offer a weekly newsletter for loyal customers
People that frequent your website may be interested to learn about your new projects, the company's development, plans for the future like expanding to foreign markets or technological developments in the field, so giving them a weekly news feed can be very advantageous to you. Giving the customers a glimpse behind the scenes, and information about projects ahead of time will help develop a strong and loyal fan base.
Don't send emails more than once a week
It's important to provide useful new information in your email, and if you are sending emails every day, chances are you are going to exhaust useful news very quickly and you will end up angering the people on your mailing list, which will cause them to mark your emails as spam or unsubscribe from your newsletter.
Do inform clients of important changes
It is important to have a reason for sending email, and it usually comes down to changes made recently with regard to your company's structure or pricing of your items. If you are launching a new product, organizing an event or offering bargain deals on certain items, your clients will appreciate the information. Sentences like: "This month we are offering discount prices on all purchases above $30…" or "During the holidays, certain items on our online store will come with free shipping…" are simple and to the point, without being too pushy.
Don't send the same message over and over
There are a few things more irritating than getting the same message over and over again. If you have nothing new to say, don't say anything at all. Give the people some time to breathe and don't assume you will gain new customers by repeating your mantra. Take the time to create a completely new email, giving it a personal touch instead of sounding like a broken record.
When you choose to engage in some online email marketing on your own be sure to follow the advice in this article to avoid some of the basic mistakes people all too often make, or you can approach a company that specializes in the field and already has dedicated mailing lists and an experienced workforce. Just know that permission-based email marketing can be a very powerful weapon in the right hands.
