Effective Email Marketing Techniques

Most of us are all addicted to our email. In fact, more than 90% of Internet users between 18 and 72 say they send and receive email, making it one of  the most popular online activity.

E-mail is a powerful marketing tool because it is intimate. You are among friend’s party e-vites, family messages and funny forwards that everyone can’t get enough of. You need to develop a relationship with the consumer as well. Otherwise you are just an intruder in a house you don’t belong in.

Treat your email marketing like a friendship and follow the proper etiquette that all good friends stick to:

Get to the point
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to read an e-mail that just won’t end. People are pressed for time, so keep it as short as possible to get across what you are trying to say. Write the email first and then cut it down by half. It will take longer to make the email shorter but it will be worth it in the end.

Write good emails!
I can’t stress this enough. There is a good way to write emails that is effective and increases your business, and there is a bad way to write emails that can potentially harm your business. Have someone revise your email and get feedback. Remember that you aren’t writing the email for yourself, you are marketing to a wide range of people. There is an art to writing effective emails. Make sure you are utilizing the following in all of your mass emails:

• Use a hook
• Support the hook
• Be succinct
• State the most important things first
• Write for scanability
• Use an active voice
• Use the right tone for your audience
• Avoid using long URLs
• Don’t ever use ALL CAPS
• Use line spacing to make your text easier to read
• Use hyphens or bullet points when presenting a list of items
• Use a simple and clear subject line
• Use supporting imagery to break up the text
• You email format should match your branding

Maintain consistency
You want your emails to maintain a consistent flow that is steady and reliable. Keep this in mind with elements like your company logo, overall email design, from address and name, as well as tone. This will make your email more recognized in a crowded inbox and recipients will appreciate the familiar look so they can better navigate the different elements.

Email with a purpose
Make sure you are giving your subscribers what they want whether it is information or special deals, which should be hinted at in the header of your email. Don’t send pointless emails; all of them should have a purpose. Give the people what they want.

Consider a mobile website
Since the number of users checking e-mail on their mobile devices continues to increase, you should consider developing a mobile platform. This will involve upgrading your campaign to perform properly on the iPhone, iPad, Android phones, Windows mobile platforms and other devices as well as adjusting your content to the smaller screen size.

The unsubscribers
If a person wants to stop accepting your emails, they shouldn’t have to jump through leaps and bounds to be able to. Make the unsubscribe link clearly visible because it’s way better to receive an unsubscribe than a spam complaint! Let your audience provide you with the reason they are unsubscribing so you can prevent future losses.