God knows how many e-mails a person receives every day. Many e-mails either go directly to the jump-mail box or get deleted without even being opened. Only a few of them are read by recipients. Is e-mail still an effective marketing tool?
Tiffany Black at Inc.com offers several suggestions to help companies improve the effectiveness of e-mail marketing:
· Keep it short and simple. Few people have time to read long e-mails. Then, why shall we spend much time in writing long e-mails? I also believe visual aids and hyperlinks to the company’s webpage are critical. If readers are interested, they can read more with a click.
· Send the right messages to the right recipients. Why will a person open an e-mail that means “nothing” to him/her?
· Create value. For example, offering e-mail exclusive discounts and sending out a series of e-mails --- after reading the first one, people might want to open a follow-up second, third, or forth e-mail.
· Allow users several ways to opt-out.
· Don’t waste money on purchasing or renting e-mail list. Remember, not everyone in the list wants to receive e-mail promotions.
· Manage e-mail list with a reliable e-mail management system, which provides decision makers important information, such as who opened the e-mail, who forwarded the e-mail, who clicked on which hyperlink, who marked it as a spam, and so forth.
· Understand competitors by signing up to their e-mail newsletter.
· Provide sufficient information that catches readers’ attention, yet, invite them to read more with a click.
· Test, test, and test again. An effective e-mail promotion only works on a specific group of customers. It all depends on the nature of a business and who the target recipients are.
Sending e-mail promotion could be as easy as a figure click. However, if nobody reads the e-mail, it becomes pointless. No company wants to spend time and money on anything meaningless. In what way do you think Tiffany’s tactics helpful?
References:
Inc.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok05272010
Picture was downloaded from: http://blaster.capris.com/
Tiffany Black at Inc.com offers several suggestions to help companies improve the effectiveness of e-mail marketing:
· Keep it short and simple. Few people have time to read long e-mails. Then, why shall we spend much time in writing long e-mails? I also believe visual aids and hyperlinks to the company’s webpage are critical. If readers are interested, they can read more with a click.
· Send the right messages to the right recipients. Why will a person open an e-mail that means “nothing” to him/her?
· Create value. For example, offering e-mail exclusive discounts and sending out a series of e-mails --- after reading the first one, people might want to open a follow-up second, third, or forth e-mail.
· Allow users several ways to opt-out.
· Don’t waste money on purchasing or renting e-mail list. Remember, not everyone in the list wants to receive e-mail promotions.
· Manage e-mail list with a reliable e-mail management system, which provides decision makers important information, such as who opened the e-mail, who forwarded the e-mail, who clicked on which hyperlink, who marked it as a spam, and so forth.
· Understand competitors by signing up to their e-mail newsletter.
· Provide sufficient information that catches readers’ attention, yet, invite them to read more with a click.
· Test, test, and test again. An effective e-mail promotion only works on a specific group of customers. It all depends on the nature of a business and who the target recipients are.
Sending e-mail promotion could be as easy as a figure click. However, if nobody reads the e-mail, it becomes pointless. No company wants to spend time and money on anything meaningless. In what way do you think Tiffany’s tactics helpful?
References:
Inc.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok05272010
Picture was downloaded from: http://blaster.capris.com/
A relevant discussion at Inc.com:
ReplyDeleteStop E-mail Marketing from Resembling Spam
http://technology.inc.com/internet/articles/200806/e-mail.html?partner=newsletter_Technology