How to advertise via email

How to advertise via email

Email marketing is a great way to communicate your products and services to your customers and drive traffic to your website. The secret to great email marketing lies in the quality of the information you send to your customers. Email marketing is also one of the most affordable ways to grow and expand your business.

But, not only is this a great way to communicate special offers and new products, it’s also a proven medium that can help you retain customers and not lose them to your competitors.

Here are the steps you need to follow to set up a strong email marketing campaign.

Step 1: Identify your customers’ needs

Any great email marketing campaign starts with a solid understanding of your target market. You need to know who you are speaking to, so that you can shape your marketing material according to what your existing and potential customers want and need.

So, before you start writing your emails, answer the following questions related to your prime prospect:

• How old is my client?
• Where does he live and work?
• What language does he or she speak?
• What are some of his major problems in relation to the services and products I offer?
• How can my products solve these problems?
• How long will it take for my prime prospect to reap the rewards of the products and services that I offer?
• Can my prime prospect afford the products and services that my company offers?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll have a better understanding of who you need to target with your email marketing campaign.

Step 2: Collect your prime prospects email addresses the right way

Before you can send an email to a client, they need to give you permission to contact them. It’s always a good idea to start collecting these “permissions” from your existing customers first. Allow them the option to opt-in to your e-letters. Your clients must verify that you are allowed to send them emails.

Reassure all your customers that you protect their personal contact details. Tell them that you won’t sell or share these important details with other companies and stick to this promise. Let customers know exactly what you’re going to send them, so that they’re not surprised when they receive promotions, sales copy and product related information.

You can also start collecting email addresses off well-managed social media campaigns targeting your market and asking them if they’d like to keep in contact with you.

Step 3: Draft exceptional email marketing copy

There are certain elements of a marketing email that can make or break the success of your campaign. So, when writing you emails, you need to make sure that you focus on these elements:

• Subject line: This is the first thing people see when you email arrives in their inbox. So you need to make sure that it is compelling enough for them to open your actual email.
• Headline: Once your customer opens the email, they must see an equally compelling headline that will tell them exactly what they’re about to read.
• Email body: The body of your email needs to speak directly to the customer’s needs and wants. Highlight the problems they are facing and show how your products and services can solve these problems. Focus on the benefits and features of your solution to paint a clear picture and create a need for your products and services in the clients mind.
• Call to action: Once you’ve convinced your customer to buy your products, sign up to your newsletter or even to attend your event, tell them exactly what to do next. This call to action must be unambiguous and clear. The reader must know what you want them to do to get their hands on your products and services.

Step 4: Find the best email marketing platform for your company’s needs

When starting your email marketing campaign, you can use standard email platforms like Outlook or even Gmail. However these platforms don’t give you the statistics you need to gauge the success of your email marketing campaigns.

Shop around for the best email marketing platforms out there. A quick online search will reveal some excellent options. You can usually test these platforms free for a certain amount of time. But before you sign up, make sure that it offers the following statistical reports.

What your email marketing platform should do for you

• Report on open rates: This statistic will tell you how well your campaign is doing. It will show the number of people that opened your email based on the subject line you wrote.
• Click through rates: Your email should have links to your website, sales pages and even sign up pages. A good email marketing platform will show you how many people clicked on your links and the location of the links in your email that generated the most clicks
• Unsubscribe rates: Every email you send must offer readers the option to unsubscribe. You want to minimise this from happening. That’s why you need to pay close attention to the number of people unsubscribing from your emails. Emails with high unsubscribe rates should be scrutinised to see what people did not like it.

Now that you know what goes into email marketing. Take action. Put the information above into practice. Test many different campaigns to see what works and what doesn’t.

Remember, your emails must add value to your target audience, so don’t pepper them with marketing every day of the week. Use this platform as a way to establish trust, build your following and create a list of people that you can sell your products and services to.