What are email marketing best practices? Email marketing has been used for a very long time now by marketers even though, to this day, there are many who do not realize the full usefulness of it and do not practice it at all.
Email marketing involves building a list of customers who have agreed to allow a marketer to send them emails which may include marketing materials. There is a familiar saying ‘the money is in the list’ and it refers to the great future value a list represents.
Essentially it is easier to keep an opt-in once he is on the list, than it is to get another to opt into the list. It also means that for each opt-in to an email list a marketer earns $1 per month. The list is a marketer’s valued possession.
Through email marketing, a marketer has a way to reach a large number of targeted customers very quickly and inexpensively, with the use of many tools available on the internet. What follows gives the practices that should be followed to create an email list for your business.
Best Practices in Email Marketing
- Build a List – There are many ways to build a list but the most popular ways involve offering to send subscribers a newsletter with information on the particular niche your business is in. Another way to get a customer on the list is to offer them a free report, again with information related to your niche or product.
- These offerings are made through the use of an opt-in form on a website or through a squeeze page, where the customer gives up his name and email address in exchange for the offering.
- Automate the process – The process of emailing customers is best handled automatically through software known as an autoresponder. With this software a marketer can pre-write marketing emails, some offering free valuable information and others offering marketing products for sale.
- These emails can be scheduled by day and time, and a whole marketing campaign can be set up for a whole year in advance if necessary. The whole system can be easily modified after it has been created.
- The great value in this automated system is that a marketer can earn thousands of dollars in a day through sending just 1 email to his list.
- Ensure Double Optin – It is usually advised that a marketer should double optin his customers who sign up to receive email communications from him. What this means is that after the customer completes the optin form with his email address and name, he should be sent an email confirmation asking him to verify that he requested the information.
- Only after confirming, will he receive the requested information. Within the autoresponder software, it is possible to bypass this confirmation extra step. Some marketers report that requiring double optin loses a large number of customers who simply do not confirm their request.
- Build a Relationship with the List – Some marketers will say that the money is not in the list but in the relationship with the list. This is indeed a very true statement. Developing and maintaining a good relationship with the customers on the list is vitally important.
- Regular communications that involve sharing free valuable information with your customers, instead of constantly bombarding them with marketing offers, is the best way to manage your list.
- Customers will opt out of the list if they feel they are no longer receiving value from the marketer. Show then you understand their issues and provide solutions that will help and inform them.
To employ the email marketing best practices does not involve technical knowledge on the part of the marketer. All that is required is an adherence to specific procedures involving the use of an auto responder to automate the process of contacting your list members, and providing valuable information, advice, and making occasional offers.
Tags: autoresponder, bulk email marketing, email list, email marketing, email marketing best practices, email marketing software, email marketing tips