How To: Use Email Marketing

We met with a new client recently who runs a brick and mortar retail store, and with the help of a Magento ecommerce solution we'll be implementing for them, they will soon be reaching a bigger market online.

We weren't surprised to learn that this client was open, even excited, about the potential of using email to reach new buyers. When used as part of a cohesive Internet marketing strategy, email marketing (e-newsletters, e-blasts, etc) are an effective and sometimes, lucrative way to bring specific messages to specific audiences.

Here at August Ash, anytime we include something as part of a comprehensive SEM plan, we begin with a strategy, and email marketing is no exception. If you're entertaining the possibility of beginning a new email campaign, or refocusing an existing one, consider the following.

5 Keys to Effective Email Marketing

Audience
One of the inherently great things about communicating via email is your ability to control (to some degree) the scope of your audience. Rule number one in communicating an effective message is to know your audience, and by being selective in your email list you can do just that. In fact, by creating customized newsletter sign-up options on your site, you'll have the luxury of choosing between multiple segmented audiences with which to communicate.

Tone
Recognizing who your audience is will help you determine what the tone of your message should be. Keep in mind that email marketing can be whatever you want it to be, whether formal and strictly business, casual and fun, or somewhere in between.

Keep the tone of the message consistent throughout, though, and every time you re-read your work before sending it, look at your content through the eyes of someone in your targeted audience. Is the information in this email substantial enough to be worth their time? Is it written in a way that the reader will be interested enough to make it all the way through the message?

Writing for the Medium
This could easily be its own blog post, and there are whole books devoted to the discipline of writing online content. Writing effectively for the Web is very different from most other styles of writing. Similarly, the approach to writing a useful email newsletter is not the same approach that would have been used to write a print newsletter 10 years ago.

Start by considering that almost every pair of eyes that sees your message is going to begin by scanning your content. Help readers help themselves by employing useful headlines, smaller paragraphs, occasional lists, and simple sentences.

Consistency and Restraint
The frequency of your emails or newsletters is very important. Send them too infrequently and readers will forget about you; send them too often and readers will likely unsubscribe or have them automatically sent to a junk folder. There's no magic number here, but for many organizations once-a-month is an ideal pace for their email marketing campaigns.

Thoughtfulness
Bear in mind that the efficacy of email marketing is very much a collaborative effort. It takes two parties to make it work: the sender and the reader. Everything you've done up to the point of actually sending that message is necessary, but once the recipient gets the email, it's up to him or her to make something productive happen. That's why we advocate marketing campaigns that help and empower the customer.

You can do this by ensuring that your list is made up of people who agreed to be on your list. Also, we recommend giving readers the option to unsubscribe. By showing this courtesy to your audience, you'll earn more trust and reduce the risk of alienating potential customers.

At August Ash, we thrive on the success of our clients. Whether you're in the infant stages of your own Internet marketing, or are starting to see the need for new direction in your current plan, our Minneapolis Internet marketing professionals can help. Contact us to find out more.