From time to time, articles are written in newspapers and magazines declaring the death of email. And while it may be true among tech-savvy, 15-year-old iPhone users with Facebook and Twitter apps, for the rest of us, email remains an effective and popular way to stay in contact with clients, promote services, discount offers, and any other info useful to building relationships and business.
Here are a few tips on how to become a more successful email marketer …
Keep it Small: The best thing about being a small business and not a giant corporation is the ability to form personal relationships with your customers. And, because you’ve established that relationship, you can be assured your emails are being received by people that want to do with business with you. Which is to say, don’t be shy about asking for email addresses. After all, the first step toward better email marketing is building a mailing list. Tell people you’re starting an exclusive email program for your best customers and, if they sign up, they’ll receive promotions, relevant info, and members-only discounts and incentives.
Offer Options and Incentives: And speaking of incentives, the simplest way to avoid offending your list and receiving more unsubscribes than subscriptions, is to give them something they want. If you’re mailing out the same promotional flyer week after week, you’re likely to become a nuisance with fewer and fewer subscribers. Offer them something attractive that they can’t get anywhere else. And, if you’re still losing subscribers, suggest instead that they follow you on Twitter or your Facebook fan page or anywhere else you’re communicating with potential partners and clients.
Address the Subject: As anyone with an email inbox already knows, without an effective subject line, your email – regardless of how good the deal or irresistible the offer – will end up deleted before ever having the chance to interest anyone. If you want more people to open the emails you’re sending out, address the subject line first. Keep them as short as you can, if possible fewer than six words. The longer the subject, the more likely it’ll be cut off or ignored. Also, feel free to be creative. Try to imagine what would grab your attention and test it out. And then keep testing. Once you’ve found a subject line that drives up your open rate, stick with it and keep on it.
The Ibis Network / www.theibisnetwork.com
You do a really good job of keeping it crisp, clean and to the point. You practice what you preach.
This sounds like good practical email marketing information.
If you can create several, different types of smaller email groups who would be interested in receiving specific targeted emails of interest to that group, that might work better than general emails to one large email group. What do you think?
In real estate staying in contact without being annoying is indeed a challenge so thank you for your brief but informative information.
I really love your material. Very informative and to the point. Social Networking is a weakness of mine and I am trying to improve. Thank you!
This is a great blog, easy to read. Thank you!
I hope email never dies out. It is good to be able to separate email from Facebook as two different platforms and purposes. Unfortunately, my daughters already hardly use email. They check it once a day just because. Occasionally, they do get something from me, or church, or school related. Anyway….. for now, I still rely heavily on email marketing.