Email has resulted in a revolution in marketing-an explosion in messaging.
For some it is a god-send, a technology and a method that allows people to sell products and services quickly and effectively.
For others, it's a doomsday machine, a spam filled mailbox filled with angry mail from people who will never again be customers.
Website Conversion Expert Dan Lok says you have to learn several
special techniques before you can truly leverage and make maximum use
email -- the Internet's wonderchild.
Here are some of the Dan's most important keys to successful email marketing campaigns:
1. Get Permission. Use web page sign up forms or post card return
cards, but get permission in a valid way. Create and offer incentives
for people to sign up online to receive value-added information.
2. Target carefully and make it relevant. Send only relevant email to
opt-in subscribers. Develop and give people what they wanted and what
you promised. Don't send email that is outside the scope of what was
promised to people who opted in. Target and segment your subscriber
base and tailor your messages to specific demographic characteristics.
3. Your Subject Line is Critical. Don't make it look or sound like
spam. The purpose of the subject line is NOT to sell, but just to get
people to open the email, that's it! Be careful of the words you
select. Check your email against a spam checker to see that it doesn't
contain words that will automatically result in deletion.
4. Use your personality. Talk in the first person. Develop your persona
as a friend or as an expert. Define your persona based on your
customers' needs and desires and based on professional behaviors.
5. Don't sell. Advise, advise, advise. Offer value-added problem
solving information, advice, tools and help. Use email to get people to
use your email as a reason to call you or visit your web site. Offer
people more of what they like to build and your personal relationship
and their satisfaction and your personal connection with your customer.
6. Create a single, clear and benefit laden call for action. Focus on
getting people to take one action. Don't offer more than one action.
Identify the action clearly and persuasively and track the results. Get
them to click and go to a relevant landing page to net them to take
further action.
7. Create a life-cycle campaign. Design a program that results in you
sending out four to six messages over a six to eight week period. These
recurring campaigns can be created in advance and operated in a totally
automated fashion.
8. Use triggered email. Design and set up automated email campaigns so
that when clients order product or sign up for items or request
information online, that a suite of email messages are then sent to
them periodically automatically.
9. Use email to get them to Click! Keep the email short - no more than
3 or 4 pages. Relate first paragraph to subject line. Drive people to a
web page and then close the sale, don't try to close the sale with an
email. Don't mention price or cost in email. The purpose of the email
is to PRE-SELL, not to sell. Again, it's to get them CLICK, then go to
your web page. Then you can do the selling there.
10. Comply with CAN-SPAM Act requirements. Send from a valid address.
Respect all remove requests promptly. Never send a second email to
someone who has requested removal.
