Email Marketing: 5 things We’ve Learned We have over twenty-five clients using our mass e-mail system. We created templates custom for roughly half of them. We have also written e-mail content for most of our clients at one point or another. After a decade of e-mail marketing we have come up with a short list of guidelines.
1 – Do Not Spam Your List. If you send too many e-mails people will stop paying attention. Your e-mails will become background noise or worse; people may unsubscribe to stem the tide of your over-zealous mass emails. Pay special attention to your subject lines. Marketing-heavy subject lines risk being filtered out by spam filters.
2 – Unless You Have Something Important to Say, Refrain. Sending an e-mail is like spending some of the equity you have built up with your contacts. If you constantly spend with no benefit to the customer then your equity will go down. If your messages are genuinely interesting or valuable to your contacts your ‘equity’ will increase.
3 – Keep It Simple. Seriously… This one seems so simple. Everyone sets out with the intention of keeping it simple but make sure your message really is short and to the point. One of our clients on Canyon Road sends out one email per month. The e-mails include 3 images of 3 new paintings for sale. There is no writing at all except for the title and dimensions of the painting. This client has by far the best open and click-through rates of any of our clients. They have never failed to sell at least one painting per e-mail blast. This puts their return on investment per e-mail over 1,000 percent.
4 – Keep Your Contact List Manicured Constantly collect e-mail addresses. Growing your e-mail list is one of the best things you can do for your marketing efforts. Target people who have purchased in the past because they are more likely to do so in the future. Do not be afraid to trim your list. It does not pay to send e-mails to an unreceptive individual, so get them off your list.
5 – Offer Incentives to Increase Click-Through’s Offering special discounts or incentives to your e-mail subscribers will keep goodwill high and increase the chances that users will click through to your website and/or eventually make a purchase. It is also the best way to make sure your e-mails are of value to your contacts.
