When talking about email marketing it’s hard not to think about that famous AOL voice saying, “You’ve got mail.” If you’re not old enough to remember, it’s kind of hard to explain how exciting that was during the infancy of email communications. Today, in the world of spam and unsolicited emails, many emails aren’t even opened by the recipients which isn’t good news when it comes to email marketing. Duffy Marketing is here to help with some common sense tips to increase those open rates and show you why email is still a powerful marketing tool.
Powerful & effective
That’s what email marketing can be when done correctly. Email gets your message directly to existing clients and strengthens your company’s relationship with them. It also allows you to reach out to targeted prospects, reminding them what you offer and why they should choose you. Now let’s discuss how to improve your efforts starting with the types of emails you might send:
Marketing emails
Most often these are informational or promotional messages. They are generally sent to people who have asked you to keep them updated. They can be prospects, existing clients, media members, and vendors. Common marketing emails include:
- Newsletters
- Sales promotions
- Press releases
- Client follow-ups
- Surveys
Transactional emails
Customers most often trigger these. Some examples include:
- Payments received
- Order tracking
- Welcome messages
- Appointment confirmations
Do not miss out on these email marketing opportunities. Transactional emails are highly likely to be opened because there’s an existing relationship and the emails are trusted. These provide opportunities for cross selling and product promotion.
Operational emails
These can include important information about things like holiday closures or changes to available services. They may feel like a formality but there can be hidden value in these announcements. For example, if services won’t be available on a given day because of staff training, emphasize how the training will provide greater value to the customer.
The only good email is a read email
If your email is never opened did you really send it? In a marketing sense the answer is no. So, while the content we talked about above is important, the key to any email marketing campaign is getting the customer to read the email. As part of its marketing services, Duffy Marketing will work closely with you on some of the key strategies including:
- Interesting subject lines to make your emails stand out and improve your “open” rate
- Make the content entertaining & distinctive with good writing
- Personalize emails as much as possible
- Strategies to avoid triggering spam filters
- Include interesting links and a specific call-to-action
- Make it easy to unsubscribe to avoid customer complaints
- Email designs need to be mobile friendly. (mobile devices account for 66% email opens)
- Test, test, and test again internally before hitting the send button for the outside world
Ready to help
If you are ready to upgrade your email marketing strategy, call Duffy Marketing today. We will never return to the excitement of “You’ve got mail,” but working together we can make sure your emails aren’t lost among the trees in the modern digital forest.
