Sending a well designed and targeted Email can complement any Marketing strategy and will ensure that your customers receive relevant information that will improve your brand awareness and potentially revenue.
Email Shots have become a more accepted part of Marketing and are now used by many businesses, as apposed to SPAM which are untargeted, invaluable and irrelevant Emails – also see our blog on: Email Marketing or SPAM
If you are intending to send an Email to your client base here are several top tips to ensure that you get results:
Target your Audience
Ensure that your audience is relevant and targeted, this will not only make sure that your Email is read by a larger proportion of the recipients but fewer clients are likely to unsubscribe and will continue to want to receive your e-shots. If you have your own database of existing customers that you can use then this will ensure that your audience is as targeted as it can be. Be very careful about obtaining random databases of customers as these are likely to be totally useless unless they are purchased from a reputable company.
Make your Call to Action Clear
What do you want from your targeted customers or clients? Make sure whether you want them to call you, Email you, buy now, subscribe, write to or join ensure that it is clear, concise and well placed on the Email. If necessary repeat it, but make sure it stands out and is prominent on the page.
Company Brand
Ensure that your Email Marketing reflects your existing company brand to so that your client’s are already familiar with the look and feel. This not only subliminally links your brand together but will put existing customers at ease with the Email and ensure they do not think it is SPAM and in turn deleting it.
Succinct and explanatory content
Ensure that your content is succinct and explanatory, you do not need to be too wordy with Email shots, as recipients will often not be willing to read pages and pages of text (this obviously depends on how specific your Email client base is).
Emphasised words
Emphasise your words and text, stylise headings and sub headings, make your Email exciting to read by breaking the text up with good use of font style and weight. Also use sporadic imagery to break the text up, but the key is good placement of your text and the messages that they give in a way that is easy on the eye and making important words stand out.
Check Spelling and Punctuation
Punctuation you would have thought is not even worth mentioning, well you’d be wrong! You have spent weeks getting the content together for your Email Marketing, you have canvassed your staff for great and exciting stories to include and you have a raft of imagery that will really catch the eye, you have compiled it all and it is looking absolutely fantastic.. Send, send, send - right? Wrong. Check spelling and punctuation before sending. This is very important and often overlooked.
Track, Analyse and Act on Results
You have sent your exciting, interesting, well worded targeted Email, so that’s it - great job! Hold on, not quite.. You will need to track the progress of your Email if you are to understand exactly what is going on with regards to your recipients reading, opening, forwarding or acting upon your Email. If you have compiled a well targeted Email you want to ensure that your readers are getting the most from it, also you want to be able to see where are what recipients are interested in so you can follow up with them and in turn generate opportunities and leads. By using an effective tracking and analysing tool you can then improve your next email based on the stats you have collected.
So there you have it, several key ways in which you can ensure your HTML Email Marketing gets off to a great start. We will be covering Email Marketing and E-shots in more detail in future blogs.
Article Written by David Taplin
Visit Inferno Designs for more on Email Marketing, eShots and Online Marketing.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Tips For Surviving a Recession
For those that hadn’t noticed, our country is emerging from one of the worst recessions of all time. Unless you have buried your head in the sand, been trapped in a cave or been living on your own private island with no TV or means of communication (in which case, feel free to share with me), you might have noticed that disposable income has reduced and competition between businesses and debts have increased...
Consumers are now placing emphasis on different factors when purchasing products. Price is extremely important, with less disposable income customers are being increasingly savvy with the money they do have. Talking about money is no longer taboo and people are openly discussing details of their finances with their friends and family. Now when customers find a bargain they are proud to tell their reference groups. In an uncertain world consumers are wanting to take control of their lives and are expressing this through their power over their purchases.
So what can companies do?
Return to their core values or develop some new ones
Consumers are looking for purchases to fulfil a higher need of self-actualisation, they want to feel as if they are doing something good. Whether that be for the environment or for farmers in foreign countries. Businesses that embark on cause related marketing will introduce the consumer to another reason as to why consumers should buy their product. Sustainability is moving up the agenda for consumers – so make sure it’s moving up yours.
Transparency
There has been a marked reduction in consumer’s levels of trust of big companies and institutions so transparency is key. Engage with consumers and give them truthful information.
Engage and encourage consumer involvement
CGM (consumer generated media), UGM (user generated media) or UGC (user generated content) – Whatever you call it, encourage consumers to take the lead in your marketing efforts. If they have used the product and service get them to tell their friends over social networking sites, write a blog about it or tweet. Consumers increasingly trust others who have been in contact with the product or service over so-called ‘experts’.
Get close to consumers
Gone are the days when transactional marketing is enough. Build a relationship with consumers and make them feel special. Relationship marketing is key in building brand loyalty, which is vital to market share and revenue.
Be more creative
Consumers are becoming increasingly dubious of believing adverts and obvious marketing techniques so mix in more creative methods such as PR, guerrilla marketing and expeditionary marketing. Add some more tools into your tool kit...
Environmental scanning
Trends are changing and will continue to shift for years to come so keep an ear close to the ground and keep up to date with trends and patterns in consumer behaviour.
The effects of the recession will be felt for years to come and consumer behaviour may have changed forever. Consumers have realised that they can be sensible with money and don’t always have to purchase products that they don’t need. In the words of Karl Lagerfeld, ‘Bling is over’, being thrifty is fashionable.
Learn it and embrace it. Don’t get left behind...
Article Written by Carli Smith
Visit Inferno Designs for more on Company Branding and Company Web Design.
Consumers are now placing emphasis on different factors when purchasing products. Price is extremely important, with less disposable income customers are being increasingly savvy with the money they do have. Talking about money is no longer taboo and people are openly discussing details of their finances with their friends and family. Now when customers find a bargain they are proud to tell their reference groups. In an uncertain world consumers are wanting to take control of their lives and are expressing this through their power over their purchases.
So what can companies do?
Return to their core values or develop some new ones
Consumers are looking for purchases to fulfil a higher need of self-actualisation, they want to feel as if they are doing something good. Whether that be for the environment or for farmers in foreign countries. Businesses that embark on cause related marketing will introduce the consumer to another reason as to why consumers should buy their product. Sustainability is moving up the agenda for consumers – so make sure it’s moving up yours.
Transparency
There has been a marked reduction in consumer’s levels of trust of big companies and institutions so transparency is key. Engage with consumers and give them truthful information.
Engage and encourage consumer involvement
CGM (consumer generated media), UGM (user generated media) or UGC (user generated content) – Whatever you call it, encourage consumers to take the lead in your marketing efforts. If they have used the product and service get them to tell their friends over social networking sites, write a blog about it or tweet. Consumers increasingly trust others who have been in contact with the product or service over so-called ‘experts’.
Get close to consumers
Gone are the days when transactional marketing is enough. Build a relationship with consumers and make them feel special. Relationship marketing is key in building brand loyalty, which is vital to market share and revenue.
Be more creative
Consumers are becoming increasingly dubious of believing adverts and obvious marketing techniques so mix in more creative methods such as PR, guerrilla marketing and expeditionary marketing. Add some more tools into your tool kit...
Environmental scanning
Trends are changing and will continue to shift for years to come so keep an ear close to the ground and keep up to date with trends and patterns in consumer behaviour.
The effects of the recession will be felt for years to come and consumer behaviour may have changed forever. Consumers have realised that they can be sensible with money and don’t always have to purchase products that they don’t need. In the words of Karl Lagerfeld, ‘Bling is over’, being thrifty is fashionable.
Learn it and embrace it. Don’t get left behind...
Article Written by Carli Smith
Visit Inferno Designs for more on Company Branding and Company Web Design.
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