Email marketing campaigns have become an increasingly important part in many businesses’ armouries. They can take a little time to set up and manage effectively but, once they are in place, communication is instant.
They are also incredibly cost effective when compared to traditional marketing techniques such as print and broadcast advertising. Properly targeted email campaigns from reputable firms such as Little Green Plane are also less likely to end up in the recycle bin than paper mailshots as lists can be created to only target customers who opt in with information and offers they are likely to be interested in.
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A successful email campaign can be broken down into four basic stages.
1. Creation
Many email users find their inboxes inundated with messages they consider to be valueless. Email marketing needs to pass the spam test; grabbing the attention and delivering information of value and interest to the individual recipient.
Titles are important in capturing the attention and ensuring that the email is not deleted unread. Once opened, the contents of the mail itself should be professional and attractive but also functional. Any call to action, whether it’s to visit your site, make a purchase, forward to a friend or anything else, should be clear and prominent.
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The copy should be concise and engaging and any images used should be attractive without being overwhelming or impacting on download times. Once an email or series of emails has been created, templates and saved formats can be reused and adapted for further messages.
2. Management
You need a good list management system to make sure your emails are reaching the right people. Quality management software should ensure that addresses which unsubscribe, are inactive or broken are removed from the list so that duplicate messages are not sent out.
Having searchable lists can enable you to update details on individual contacts without taking hours to scroll through all contacts.
3. Delivery
If you are mailing only recipients that have opted in then your emails aren’t spam but they may still be treated as such by automatic filters. Professional email delivery systems can help ensure your mails get through by sending via a range of IP addresses and checking inboxes with a test email first.
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Inbox previewers will also help make sure that your emails display correctly in all major systems.
4. Assessment
It’s important to assess the effectiveness of a campaign. This can help you measure your return on investment and also tweak and make changes in ongoing or future campaigns.
There are various tools that can allow you to measure receipt and responses and to change your strategy and lists accordingly so it’s important you make use of them.
