Software To Create A Professional Email Campaign

In the modern era of email marketing, inboxes are spammed with countless and meaningless ads that
nobody wants. You do not want to fall into the trap of being another unconnected
and ambiguous corporation sending endless emails to consumers, but rather the
shining star in a sea of meaningless ads. Your company image is everything and
can make or break you, so ensuring that proper marketing techniques are being
used should be a priority. This blog attempts to summarize a series of different
ways to start your business on the right track in email marketing and to ensure
it has a bright future ahead.

Building Your Consumer List

All right, so you have yourself a company, product, or even just an idea, what
now? Now you must get your name out there! No matter where your business is in
ways of growth or sales, there is never a bad time to start marketing and what
better way to do this than through emails. Some may say emails are outdated, but
statistically, in modern times, they are revving back up as millennials became
the primary users of emails and the main target of email marketing. Now, this is
typically when you say to yourself, “I have no one to send emails to, let's buy
a random list from a sketchy website and start the endless cycle of spam
emails,” this must be avoided. Your business image is everything and quality
will always stand out (in a good way) to quantity. There are three very useful
ways to get your name out there on top of many more. These methods are:

Use Social Media Marketing It is simple, free, and gets your name out
there. Post articles and updates on your company and encourage people to visit
your website and sign up for your email list.
Get Out There in Your Community There is always some form of fair or
local business convention where you can get your name out there. This way can
bring a wide range of audience and will provide a strong foundation for building
up your consumer base, especially in the local area.
Ask For Their Email After a Purchase This way is the best in terms of
keeping customers who are interested in your products informed on your company.
Following up with customers is key for a quality business image.

Staying Connected

Stay as personal with your customers as possible. Make sure your marketing is
geared toward quality over quantity to both avoid being SPAM and to solidify a
strong consumer base. There are multiple ways to prevent an email from just
being another ad, but rather make it something personal that a consumer could
enjoy.

Permission Marketing “Permission Marketing” is a term coined by the
author [Seth Godin] (https://twitter.com/ThisIsSethsBlog) and it discusses that
the customer should blatantly consent to receive your emails. Make sure they
know exactly what they are getting into and that they will learn about your
exciting company and what it has to offer if they subscribe to your email list.

To do this, make sure you ask and don’t force people to subscribe. This
prevents them from feeling forced into your email list. Pop up Models like
BounceX that block the screen are a bad idea.
Provide an introductory (Welcome) email with an option to unsubscribe as
well as an overview of the emails you will receive and your contact
information. This lets them know exactly what to expect plus it is a nice way
to welcome someone into your company.

24 Hour Rule This rule is important when it comes to customers.
It states that a response should be sent out within 24 hours after receiving an
email. Customers are not patient people, any longer than 24 hours and you may
test their patience.

Auto-responders may seem useful to quickly reply to a
customer, but you are just fixing the short-term problem. To build long-term
relationships with people, there is no shortcut; you must personalize a response
and make them feel connected. This helps your image as well as make the
experience unique for your customer. Once your list grows to a size you cannot
sustain, get an Email Service Provider(ESP). ESP’s are useful in standardizing
your customer data and making it easier to manage.
In cases of a lot of emails
pouring in, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is very useful and
can help you stay organized.

Encourage Customer Feedback In order for the customer to feel a part of
the team, give them a seat at the table. Take their input into serious
consideration and tailor your product to provide something that everyone could
enjoy and use.

Whether the feedback is positive or negative, take it to heart
and provide more of what people like and fix what they don’t.
Make sure you reply to feedback. This will let the customer know that their
suggestions are read and being put to good use.
Forums or social media are useful in providing a dedicated location for
customers to talk about your products.

These three methods will already give you a significant step above your
competition. Most companies treat marketing as a way to feed constant ads to
people, which does not treat their customers with the respect they deserve.
Cater to your consumers and respect them and it will pay off through both an
improved company image and a greater appreciation from customers.

Creating an Email Campaign

You must cater your emails in a way that will appeal to who you are trying to
sell to. Make the emails personal and to the point. No one wants a boring long
email with long drawn out sentences, as well as no one wants an unclear email
filled with pointless pictures. Test some emails out with people and learn
exactly what works for your image and your customers. Make sure you mix up what
emails you are sending, sending the same old emails will drag on and discourage
customers, but make sure you have a method to your madness.

Welcome and Thanks Emails There is no better way to be personal than
welcoming a new email address to the list and sending them an email that tells
them about the company! Make sure you provide adequate contact information.
Thank You, emails are important to acknowledge the customer and to introduce
them to your company. A good ESP will be able to accomplish this task seamlessly
and easily.
Promotions These emails are core to any email marketing campaign. These
should not, however, be treated as an ad the customer won’t see any point to,
but rather they should represent the company. Each email that is sent should be
an extension of the company and the image you are trying to give off.

Cater the email to the audience. An email sent from a law firm will look
significantly different from a company trying to sell kids colored goo.
Make promotions a way to get people excited about a product and not just a
way to give out a coupon.

Newsletters These are important to provide your consumers a personal way
to see into your company, what's new and where things are headed.

These should also be catered to the audience and should include plenty of
information and pictures in a very straightforward way.
Encourage participation from customers for questions and concerns and strive
to keep them engaged.
If you haven’t heard from a customer, or they haven’t purchased anything in
a while, cater a special newsletter to them and show them what’s new and what
they are missing.
Encourage use of your company's social media.

Make sure you always include your company name and information as well as a
way to unsubscribe. To not be considered SPAM make sure you follow the rules
of the CAN-SPAM Act and prevent using caps and click bait words in your
subject!

Next Steps

What to do now that your email list is up and running, people are interacting
with your company, and you have sent out multiple successful email campaigns.
Now is where the concept of selective marketing comes into play as well as
further opt-in lists

Selective Marketing Marketing to certain groups of people is one of the
best ways to make your emails much more relatable and personalized. You would
treat a 55-year-old man differently than a 19-year-old college student.
Different groups of people respond better to different things, and this should
be incorporated to your email lists.
Nested Opt-in List Want to find out who reads your emails constantly and
wants even more information and deals? Create an opt-in list inside your normal
email group. People who take the time to sign in for the second list shows you a
group of people who are genuinely interested in what you got, and you can cater
to this fan base using more email lists they can choose to be in.
Experiment Not sure what picture will be preferred? Is Tuesday night
really the best time to send an email? Split your list up and send out two
different emails. See if different setups provide different results. It can
never hurt to see what gets the best response! It can only help you later down
the road!
Constantly Update Your Contact Lists Having an outdated list can cause a
lot of pointless emails to be sent. Make sure you occasionally send out emails
that give users the chance to update their contact information. As well as
update your list, clean it up as well. Your emails keep bouncing or wrong email
address? Clean it up! You will quickly see better results. If you are running
your email campaigns through an ESP, it will automatically keep your list
cleaned and organized.

Conclusion

To conclude there are a great many ways to start your successful introduction to
the busy world of marketing. In this world, quality, and personalization both
need to be priorities in order to stand out. There are millions and millions of
emails being sent out, make sure yours stand out. Treat each email as an
extension of your business, be professional and to the point while catering to
your audience.

Some extra reading:

Seth Godin: Permission Marketing

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