PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE EMAIL MARKETING

Gail Lockyer

www.halfdaypa.com.au

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED....

Whilst there may some excitement to commence a marketing strategy, like all good decisions, there needs to be some planning involved to ensure you achieve the desired outcomes.

There are a few questions to ask first. If you do step by step, the return on your investment will be favourable. It won’t happen overnight but you need a clear goal in mind and prepared to adjust the goal posts if required.

So, let’s begin..........

TARGET MARKETING AND BRAND POSITIONING

Who is your target audience? Who is most likely to buy from you?

Create a clear core marketing message that speaks to your target market and tells customers why they should buy from you – its about the BENEFITS for the customer.

Determine the position that your brand can hold with your ideal customer

Look at new and interesting marketing methods to add to your marketing mix

UNDERSTAND STRATEGIES FOR DIRECT, ONLINE AND OFFLINE MARKETING

Effective ways to send messages direct to your customers and ask for the sale, while avoiding wasting money and time

How to ensure your marketing is measurable. Without some measurement, how do you know if it is working?

Look for easy methods for marketing automation and systemisation

Ways to use the internet to leverage your message and drive your marketing

Consider the role social media can play as part of your marketing strategy

WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?

Depending on the goal you wish to achieve, then you will need to consider segmentation of your database. Not all products/services suit all your customers. Grouping your customers into appropriate lists: Customers of Product “A” Customers of Product “B” Wholesale customers Affiliated partners Commercial customers Domestic customers Male or female etc.

WHEN IS BEST TIME TO SEND OUT?

Depending on your customer’s demographics, will depend on the most appropriate time to send out the email campaign.

If it was real estate relating to your auction this weekend, then Thursday or Friday would be best. However, I would recommend that you also give them prior notice earlier than that – send a series.

If your message is more to do with social activities i.e. Sale of jet ski or a pet, then over the weekend is more appropriate.

For business related emails, usually Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 10 - 2pm achieve the best results.

HAVE A PLAN IN PLACE HERE IS A BASIC EXAMPLE:

Monthly Marketing PlanMonth January February March April

List/Group

Topic

Goal

Who is responsible?

Release date

BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS

How much time is allocated to preparing your email campaign? What is the cost of labour to produce? Do you need to buy any resources? Will you outsource it or handle in-house? If outsourcing, what is the cost? How will you measure the return on

investment? How long will the campaign run for?

SUBJECT LINES

Subject lines are you main headline and will ultimately determine whether your campaign is opened or not.

There is nothing more engaging for a reader than to see his or her own name. Use personalisation in the subject line and inside the body of the email. Do not over use this technique or it may have the reverse effect. The subject line is like the front door – make it attractive to open.

Keep your subject lines short… generally, shorter email subject lines produce higher open and click- through rates.

Consider the value of ‘key words’ within your subject line and repeat it once through your email.

EXAMPLES OF GREAT SUBJECT LINES1. Exclusive offer for <club> members

2. 20% off all men's at <name>.com

3. Your Web Site's Findability

4. A personal message from <your name>

5. A personal invitation from <your name>

6. A quick message from <your name>

7. Announcing: Guaranteed Outcome Marketing

8. How to get $128 in Brand new, UNIQUE Free Gifts!

9. Hi !*FIRST_NAME*! … just checking in

10. An Invitation to Ski & Save

11. Fly Delta & Ski for Free

12. [[firstname]] - I'm finally spilling my guts...

13. [[firstname]] – Announcing Autoresponder Magic

14. Free Food, January 18!

15. CUSTOMER NAME, here's something I think you'll like...

16. PROFIT INFO NEWS FLASH!

17. <name>, it's been a while...

18. <name>, here is the process I used...

19. [[firstname]] - A special event you don't want to miss...

20. Important...<firstname> - I just found out about this...

21. [[firstname]] - Find out what's really working on the Net NOW...

22. [[firstname]] - A special offer you don't want to miss...

23. Warning: Why Almost Everyone Is Dead Wrong About Internet Marketing!

24. Who really wants to be a millionaire?

25. CUSTOMER NAME, here's how you can land the deal and close more sales....

26. What do you want for Christmas?

27. CUSTOMER NAME, here are 30 success secrets.

28. <name> and Marketing Magic

29. <name>, you've got to see this...

30. <name> - marketers spill the beans...

Nothing kills an email subject

line like “July

Newsletter” or

“Report # 24”

SPEAK PLAIN ENGLISH

Use plain, easy to understand English. Nobody cares if you can use xenophobia and ostentatious in a sentence. Write as if you are talking to a buddy over a cuppa.

Be friendly and personable in your writing and above all be authentic and transparent. Your readers will reward you for following this basic rule.

Be enthusiastic! If you’re not enthusiastic, why should they?

WIIFM

Write to one person Everyone relates to WIIFM (What’s In It For Me), so try to think of the ideal prospect as you are writing and personalise that message just for them.

Even if your email or website will be read by thousands of people each day -- every person will read it one at a time. Use “you” and “your” liberally.

Focus on them, not you.

KISS (KEEP IT SIMPLE .........)

Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and simple. It’s always a good rule of thumb to keep any solo broadcasts to a maximum of 150 words. When writing articles for an E-newsletter just include the first paragraph and link through to your website or blog to read more……the benefits are outstanding.

Convey your message in a clear and concise manner – Be

ruthless when editing your email campaign and include lots of white space to make it inviting. Long blocks of words are scary, so keep your writing simple and to the point. You don’t like long emails or want to spend all day reading something - nor does your reader.

INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION

Include your CTA (call to action) link at least 3 times within your 150 words. Try one at the beginning, next in the main body and one towards the end or even in the P.S (if you use this). Experiment and alternate between the full URL website address such as www.takeactionnow.com and a hyperlinked call to action like. Go ahead and book your seat now!If adding a picture,ensure you hyperlink it.

Try using some fresh alternatives like "read the full story", “learn more about it” "download this special report now", "save 20% immediately” and so on.

SUB-HEADINGS & GRAPHICS

Subheads should be like mini-headlines. Use them to break up large bodies of text and to bring people back into the body of the letter. This is more applicable when writing your E-newsletter rather than a solo broadcast or campaign.

A lot of people will scan your email so you need to make you subheads “stand-alone” and be a unique selling message themselves.

Also, be sure to use different graphics to capture attention.

POWER WORDS

Don’t be afraid to include power words that spark action and are benefit orientated. They are used in promotional campaigns and email subject lines. For example:

How to, Ultimate, Hot, First, Big, Discover, Save, Create, Premiere, Easy, Amazing, Extraordinary, Now, Help, Easy, Exclusive, Health, Powerful, Immediately, Guarantee, You, Learn, Best, Win, Know, Understand

Also people like reading lists “Top Ten Things..…” etc.

AVOIDING SPAM

Avoiding spam means that we have to work a lot harder to get our emails to our reader's inboxes.

All reputable email programs have in-built spam filters that scan incoming emails to determine if they are spam. One of the things it checks out is the words in the content of the email and in the subject line - if it finds words that are 'spam', the program will mark your email as spam and the recipient will probably never see it.

Avoid spam by testing, testing, testing and perhaps again! Also avoid sending out your email campaign through your

regular email account i.e. Outlook or Entourage.

WHAT WORDS MAKE SPAM?

Some of the words are common business phrases, like 'web traffic' and 'free offer', so it is difficult to avoid them.

If you must use one of these phrases, just use it once per email otherwise you are risking getting your email blocked. If you can, try to use synonyms like 'Complimentary' instead of 'free' or changing the wording slightly so you don't get picked up by the spam filters.

If you are unsure, test the email for spam prior to sending. Send the email to several different email addresses.

I have a comprehensive list of spam words available if you contact me.

A FEW MORE CONSIDERATIONSDON’T Send attachments

By attaching heavy files to your email campaign this is a sure way of grabbing the attention of SPAM and some servers will automatically block your email.

DON’T Use heaving selling tactics – focus on the benefits not the product

The purpose of your e-Newsletter should be to engage and educate to help build a loyal following of raving fans. You will receive more referrals and gain more respect from your readers by avoiding the heavy sales pitch.

DON’T Overload your branding

While branding is important your readers are more interested in the benefit and outcomes rather than you and your branding. Try to keep your branding to minimum and use it in the footer or signature of your email campaigns. Nobody wants a billboard stuffed in their face.

DON’T Make them scroll down too far

Do you like ready long winded email campaigns? Neither do your subscribers. Keep it short, relevant and to-the-point. Long winded Newsletters will often get filed or put in the “read later” which may convert to never.

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA

After you have written your email campaign, ensure the step up has enabled it to be posted directly onto your social media pages to maximise your content marketing.

There are also several portals available to make this easier like Hootsuite www.hootsuite.com where you can load the URL for your newsletter or email blast in one hit to reach several social media platforms in a single click.

There are also other websites like LinkedIn and Facebook together with your email signature that can expand your market reach depending on your business model.

Well worth the investment of time.

BOUNCED EMAILS

You will then get a report back fromthe email program so the ‘bounced’ emails can be managed. They usually bounce because the client has changed their email address or it was typed in incorrectly.

After the first initial e-newsletter is sent, there will be additional management to the database to follow to amend incorrect email addresses. The report will indicate the reason why they have ‘bounced’ to assist in the management of the database.

After each e-newsletter, it is proposed that the number of ‘bounced’ emails is dramatically reduced to a minimal amount.

REPORTS

It is vital to read the reports from your campaign. No matter what program you use, there is a reporting system within it. See who read the email, who unsubscribed and most importantly, who clicked on the links.This can drive the next level of your campaign.

EXAMPLES OF GOOD NEWSLETTERS

Each email has no more than 150 – 200 words for each item, links to drive traffic, corporate branding, graphics and call to action for auction campaign.

SO NOW YOU CAN UNDERSTAND, THERE IS MORE TO AN EMAIL CAMPAIGN THAN JUST WORDS ON A PAGE.

CONSIDER ADOPTING S.M.A.R.T. PRINCIPLES TO ENSURE AN EFFECTIVE EMAIL CAMPAIGN.

HALF DAY P/A SPECIALISES IN EMAIL MARKETING FOR CLIENTS OF VARIOUS INDUSTRIES, WHY NOT CONSIDER A CONFIDENTIAL MEETING TO DISCUSS YOUR NEEDS?

www.halfdaypa.com.au

Mobile 0439 756746

info@halfdaypa.com.au