Email Marketing: Rules to Live By
Email marketing is one of the fastest growing niches of Internet marketing. There are several steps you can take to ensure your email marketing efforts result in success. Here are some important email marketing tips every business owner should follow:
* Do follow the rules. There is legislation that governs email advertising and email marketing. It’s CAN-SPAM. These rules tell you not to spam your clients or prospects. You can’t pretend you are someone else. You have to put the name of your company or your name in the “from” field in your email. You have to be honest about what your email is about. You also have to include an address in your emails, and provide your recipients with an option to opt-out of your emails. Make sure you know what the law is before you engage in any email marketing campaign. Too many faux pas can cost you your ISP service, and that is not something you want to mess with.
* Do be polite. Greet your recipients and then thank them for listening to you. The purpose of email marketing should include building rapport with your audience.
* Do try to build relationships with people.
* Don’t bombard people with email advertisements.
* Do remember to include a call to action. If you don’t ask people for the sale, they won’t know to buy something. Surprisingly, many people forget this part of the email.
* Don’t sell too many things in one email because this can be confusing to people and cause them to quickly move your email to the junk folder.
* Do try to up-sell when possible. You can do this in the form of a transactional email or follow up email after a client has already made a purchase. Someone who buys once is likely to buy again.
* Do respond to inquiries promptly, because most people will forget about you if you don’t. You also want to show people that you are attentive to their needs and offer the best possible customer service. This is going to get their attention and is likely to help you win more repeat customers.