5 Steps To A Great Email Marketing Campaign

By Stefanie Neyland, Small Business Content Developer at BizLaunch.com

If your small business hasn’t experimented with email marketing yet, now’s the time to give it a go. It’s a great way to reach your customers, find new leads and convert those leads into buyers, but the best thing about it is this: it’s very effective, and very cheap.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. People don’t give out their personal email addresses to just anyone; so if they’re allowing you to have it, there are some considerations that should always be at the forefront of your mind. Follow these five tips to build fruitful and long lasting relationships with your email subscribers.

1. Make it easy for your customers to subscribe (and unsubscribe)

The golden rule of growing your email marketing database is to make it easy for your customers to subscribe. Post signup forms on the homepage of your website, your blog, Facebook page—and wherever else your customers are likely to spot it. But don’t go too over-the-top with required fields—having to divulge too much personal information is likely to scare customers away. Similarly, it’s equally important to make it easy for customers to unsubscribe from your list.

2. Welcome new subscribers with a note

It’s always a good idea to start building relationships with your customers from day one, and an easy way to do this is by sending an automated (but personalized) welcome email. Reiterate the benefits of them subscribing to your company’s list and give them a taste of all the great things to come—you could even include a special introductory offer or exclusive discount code as a way of thanking subscribers for their interest in your business.

3. Keep newsletter branding consistent with your business

Your email marketing campaigns should match your brand’s identity. If you’re using a newsletter template, try to customize it by incorporating your company’s colours and by placing your logo at the top of the page. The more in line your email communications are with your brand, the more familiar your customers will feel with your business when you begin contacting them on a regular basis.

4. Don’t overload customers with content

Your subscribers are busy people who likely receive a deluge of emails on a daily basis. You only have a few seconds to capture their attention, so make those precious moments count. Don’t overload them with text-heavy information—keep it clean, simple, informative and most importantly, easy to read. Break up text by separating copy into short paragraphs with alternating sentence lengths, and add subheadings and images to make it easier to scan.

5. Share content subscribers want

The key to any successful email marketing campaign is this: Make content that’s interesting and relevant to the people receiving it. Only send newsletters when you have something important to say—content is king, and must come before creation. Some email marketing software allows you to segment your customers, meaning you’re able to target certain subscribers on your list with products or services most relevant to them. For example, if you’re having an in-store sale and your brick-and-mortar is located in Surrey, BC, then you can ensure your marketing database is segmented by location so only people who can actually attend your sale are being told about it. Sending content that’s relevant to your readers will keep them engaged with your brand, more likely to purchase, and less likely to unsubscribe—and it’ll also encourage them to share the newsletter with their own network.

Bonus Tip: Share and share alike

Broaden your network by not only creating content that people want to share, but by also making it easy for them to do so. Include a URL link to your newsletter so those that aren’t  on your list can read it, and also add social sharing icons for sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn (depending on where your customers hang out). The goal is to encourage your friends to share with their friends, and for them to share with their friends, and so on (you get the idea).

And one more for good measure:

Measure! Always keep tabs on your newsletter campaigns so you know whether you’re on the right track with your efforts. Most email marketing software offers free analytics that contain useful information such as open-rates and most popular links, etc. Learn how to read and interpret these reports and use the information moving forward.