Email marketing strategies

Have you ever heard of email marketing campaign without strategizing? This is a quite difficult process of developing the exact steps on how you are going to reach your planned goals. The success of your email marketing campaign mainly depends on the quality of exact strategy and how it will be applied in reality. The feedback is difficult to calculate, but still is possible. Here are some of strategies that have already proved their viability and shown high results.

“Friend-to-friend” strategy

Referrals are one of the best sources of spreading the good information about you. Word-of-mouth practice can be considered as a pay-free advertising and promoting of your products or whatever you are advertising. Such advertising became even more valuable if the “talker” could be trusted and everybody knows that person won’t say something with the purpose of just to say. The idea of “viral marketing” appears to be impossible to manage, but still it can be expressed due to electronic medium as well. Here are some tips on how to urge your subscribers to share the information with their friends:

• The messages you send to your subscribers should always contain the links on send-to-friend page or a forward button. Such link or button should be noticeable and should express a clear direction, such as “Share this information with a friend who is in search of a good deal”.
• Always consider the information you get from your subscriber about his/her referral an only use information. State this rule in your privacy policy so that you always know what to du with such data. The safest way is to deny reusing this information unless the referral would like to opt-in.
• Most recipients are mot likely to sign up on their own for your email newsletter or to get more information. That is why you message should enclose labeled button or link to your subscription page.

NB: Never wait too long to send forwards. This process should be automationed.

Right frequency strategy

The main rule about this strategy an email marketer should learn is that he/she is not the one who controls the frequency of email sending. The frequent contact with subscribers may cause completely opposite result and instead if sales growth you may “benefit” from enlarged cases of unsubscribing. Right frequency is not an option of how often you want to send messages to your subscribers, but how often they want to hear from you. Thus the best way to find it out is to ask them about it while subscribing or try to run a special survey for this purpose.

Enlarge email program strategies

Expanding you email program doesn’t automatically mean increasing the frequency of your emailing. Trying to get as much as possible of your subscriber database can make him/her irritated about your email messages. Try to use these rules while considering email program expend:

• Never send people the information they didn’t opt-in to. The possibility they may become interested in such information isn’t enough to break the permission.
• Never send email messages of low value. The content of the message should inform your subscribers of something important.
• Never impose your will on subscribers. You may develop an attractive message with valuable information, but you cannot send it without special permission firs.

For example, a proper time to introduce something new to your customers is the holiday time.

Survey participation strategy

It often happens you need to initiate an online survey between your subscribers whether to get their opinions on new product or improve your mailing. The main question every email marketer is worried about is whether he/she gets needed for research feedback. The experience shows that to increase the number of response email marketer can use email reminder. The strategy is as following: you send your survey, then you wait for responses and in a week or so you mail those subscribers who didn’t open your email or didn’t follow the link. Such simple actions can considerably increase the number of survey participants.

Unsubscribe strategy

Your subscriber may want to unsubscribe because of different causes. Maybe the main reason for undertaking this action is the increased frequency of your mailing or just change in preferences. Design you u subscribe page considering these hints:

• Place the statement that recognizes user’s wish to leave, but also offer them other options, such as less mailings or another contain of the message.
• Consider an address-update form, so that subscriber could change an old email address to a new one.
• Offer some other email programs (if you have any).
• Place links to other resources the visitor may find useful.
• Always ask the reason of leaving, so that you could prevent other users from unsubscribing.
• Place directions on how to stop the unsubscribe option if the user clicked it by mistake.

Thursday, September 9th, 2010 : Email Marketing : No Comments