Why is permission based email marketing so effective?
In terms of return on investment email marketing out performs any other form of direct marketing. But why is email marketing (done right) so effective?
– It’s cost effective – pennies not pounds per person you communicate with
– Targeted and data driven – you can be very specific, filter and easily personalise your communications
– And ultimately it’s completely measurable – track all actions from your campaign through to your website – who opened, what they clicked on and get a real understanding of the return on your investment
You can use email marketing to drive direct sales, build customer loyalty, trust and credibility, and make customers aware of other products and services you offer.
Five ways to improve the effectiveness of email marketing
1. Get permission – The only people succeeding with non-permission based email marketing are living alone in dark rooms hoping the authorities don’t find them. Getting the initial permission to add someone to your email list is just the start. How do we get this? Well… They should have opted in from your website; or completed an offline form and indicated that they wanted to be emailed; or given you their business card; or they have purchased from you in the last two years.
Good relationships are based on mutual respect, and permission is about respecting the time and privacy of the recipient.
2. Make it relevant – The idea of respect leads us to relevancy. Ensuring that we send relevant information says that we don’t want to waste your time with stuff you don’t want or need.
3. Offer Value – Provide information, articles or ideas that are useful and timely. You are trying to build loyalty and credibility with your customers so every article should be worth reading.
4. Get the basics right – For example the subject line is probably the single most important in-email element that drives open rates. Bad subject lines, poor open rates. Good subject lines, good open rates. When you’re exploring the potential of subject lines, don’t forget the other elements that appear in the headers of an email and get displayed in a reader’s inbox. The “from” line in particular needs your attention, as people are most likely to open email from senders they recognise.
– Include call to actions in every email – driving people to your site, getting customers to download discount vouchers, or complete an online survey or agree to attend an event for example.
– Clear links to your site – so that the recipient can find out more about the offer, service or event that you’re promoting. It is often better to do the selling on the website rather than in the email. There you will have more room to detail features and benefits.
5. Measurement – Make sure you track your results as this will be the key to future success. By finding out about delivery rates, open rates and click through rates you can look to refine and improve future campaigns.
Oh!… There is one more way to improve the effectiveness of your email marketing… That would be to choose Feelingpeaky – to help you plan out your email marketing campaigns, engage with your customers and drive repeat business.
Find out more about permission email marketing »
How to get started with Permission email marketing
Many people are new to email marketing and Feelingpeaky can provide support all the way through the process:
– Email marketing strategy
– Email design, development and testing
– Subscriber list building and cleaning
– Campaign management and reporting in real time the results
– Or train you to use and manage the email marketing software yourself
Feelingpeaky have a permission based email marketing service called
Engaging Mailing.
This exciting new service is a beautifully simple, yet extremely powerful, ‘pay as you go’ email marketing system, backed up by the Feelingpeaky design studio.
Find out more about permission email marketing »