Phil Lauterjung

Survey after survey confirms that email marketing is the most used internet marketing tool.  This is despite the hoopla and hype surrounding other social networking avenues like Facebook and Twitter.  The main reason for the high use of email marketing is that it works – the conversion rates can be very good if the content is excellent and there is an effective call-to-action.  That will provide the desired lead generation that in turn leads (pun intended) to more sales.  And isn’t that what you really want?  I thought so.

So here are some tips for designing and launching effective email marketing campaigns.

• Define Your Goals. Will you be sending to existing customers with the intent of acquiring more business from them?  Or, will you be contacting prospects from an opt-in mail list you’ve built?  Your message needs to be specific to your audience.  And your call-to-action needs to be consistent with that message.
• Relevant Content. Consider your message and the possibility of using a theme.  We recently celebrated the 4th of July, that might have been a good theme to build your content around.  Or perhaps summer vacation might be a theme right now.  But, be careful that the theme doesn’t overshadow your basic message.
• Carefully Plan the Use of Images. Graphics and images can play a big part enhancing the look of your emails.  But, be aware that many people view them with images disabled.  Make sure that you have compelling content ‘above the fold’ and make sure that large logos and/or images don’t take up that space.  Consider also using <alt> tags for your images.  These allow you to put text in the place where the image would be if they have the disabled function on.  Do use images, but make sure your content is front-and-center to get their attention before they hit the delete key.
• Clickable Links. These are very important because this is where you hopefully entice them to click and get to a suitable landing page on your web site and you can gather some information about them.  Which is the reason you sent them an email – right?  Consider short ‘teaser’ articles with a link to more of the article on your web site.  Also, make your links very obvious that it is something to click.  Make it a button with text that says something like ‘Read More’ or ‘Free Info’ or something like that.  Make sure that your email provider puts in the right code to make your links trackable for your analytics.
• Landing Pages. Please don’t use your email links to send them to your home page on you web site.  You should have landing pages with information that is relevant to the topic they just clicked on in your email.  If they have to work too hard to find the relevant information they will leave your site.  Landing pages should have a clear call-to-action and should not have a lot of extraneous information.  And, if you really want to increase your conversion rates – test, test, test.  Test different email formats and messages, and test different landing pages.  It sounds like a lot of work, but it will pay off with more sales.

What have your experiences been with email marketing?  Share your experiences – successes or frustrations – in the comments below and let’s learn from each other.

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