Email Marketing Essentials for 2014

For many firms email marketing has become the second sibling to social media marketing, but by neglecting this massive market they could be missing out on many opportunities.

Email marketing should remain a key tactic in business marketing plans and can be an important part of building relationships and acquiring and retaining customers. Whether you are just getting started with email marketing or need to refresh your processes, read on for our essential tips for getting it right in 2014 and beyond.

• Right message, right people, right time
  Not every communication you want to send will hit the mark with all recipients. This means it is vital that you have carefully composed your data so you can target your messages accordingly. Your emails will need to differ slightly according to metrics such as age group, whether they are previous customers, how you obtained their details and so on. You might also need to experiment with sending messages on different days and at different times.
• Be clear on your goal
  If you don’t know what you are hoping to achieve from email marketing there is no way you will be able to write a clear and engaging message. Align your call-to-action with your main goal and make this the highlight of your email.
• Shout about the benefits
  Customers generally want to know “what’s in it for me”. Yes, price will be a deciding factor, and people always have preferred brands, but if you can solve a problem or bring them a big benefit they will see extra value in what you are offering.
• Be compelling from the start
  We all get many marketing emails each week and most of us only scan through each one, if we even open it at all. Begin with an enticing headline that makes readers want to open the email, and get your key info and selling points in quickly.
• Be creative
  Use images and graphics in your email to help showcase key elements without being too wordy. But avoid putting everything in there just because you can. Encourage people to visit your website or blog by giving them snippets of what to expect and promising extra content like videos.
• Avoid the spam trap
  Certain words are likely to trigger spam or unsafe filters and must be avoided. You should also avoid using capitals and exclamation marks in subject lines as they may get your message flagged straight to the junk folder.
• Think mobile
  Smartphones are the norm these days and there is a good chance your email will be read via a mobile or tablet while the recipient is on the bus/in a queue etc. Make sure that your message can be viewed clearly on a range of devices and avoid massive image files that will take a long time to download away from WiFi.
• Be shareable
  Make it easy for readers to share your content or offer with their friends, family and colleagues. Include social media buttons so they can create a post quickly and easily – you could get to a whole new world of potential customers without having to do anything!
• Test, analyse and update
  Be sure to assess which elements of your marketing emails are working, and which are not, and then alter accordingly. Also keep an eye on which contacts go on to interact, share or purchase – these are key people who are actively interested in your product or brand and you should consider them hot leads for further engagement.