Email marketing is only effective when people can see and read your message. Ending up in the spam folder can be a dangerous fate if your company uses email marketing as a primary marketing tool. It can mean reaching fewer potential customers, lost sales and a decline in revenue. With such high stakes, you can't afford to make any serious missteps on an email marketing campaign.
Going from the spam folder to the inbox does not require some cunning strategy or magic formula. It simply requires a dose of smart marketing. You can reach out and engage your target audience by using a few common sense guidelines when designing your latest email marketing campaign.
1. Keep your message focused on client needs
Effective marketing starts and ends with understanding what a client wants and what they need. Your job is to find the demographic who will be most receptive to your product or service. Does it cater to stay-at-home parents and their children? Does it appeal to college students? Will retirees use your product the most? Defining who your target audience is will help focus the message on them. If they feel like an email addresses their needs and answers their questions, they are going to be much more receptive to following up on it.
2. Engage your audience and encourage feedback
Spam emails are filled with loaded words and language meant to manipulate readers into taking action. Your email marketing should work to engage the audience through offering informative content. Think of the email as the beginning of a conversation. Share information that will trigger interest in your product or service. Offer avenues where they can ask questions and make comments to actual people in your company by including links to your website, blog and social media pages. Including your audience in the conversation can help you see what works and what does not work so you can refine your message.
3. Personalize email content to your target audience
One obvious sign of a spam email is the automated nature of the message. There is no personal touch to indicate a real person wrote it. Your target audience will be more receptive to an email if it feels like it is written to them personally. One suggestion is to include a client's name in the email subject line and put your own personalized signature in the body of each email. Website Magazine recently reported that marketing emails including a personalized signature increased their open rate by 500 percent! That is a success rate too good to ignore.
4. Avoid using trigger words and phrases
Even the highest quality marketing emails can end up being mistaken for spam if the wrong phrases and words are used in the subject line or body of the email. Avoid using so-called trigger words that catch the attention of spam filters. These filters will flag your email as spam once trigger words and phrases are detected in the subject line. Examples of these words include discount, hurry, bonus, free, affordable and congratulations. Be careful of how you also format the sentence included in your subject line. Avoid using all upper case letters or excessive punctuation.
5. Avoid including false or misleading information
Bait and switch tactics will not convince your target audience to purchasing your product or service. It is more likely to anger them and persuade them to block your emails. Recognize their intelligence and be honest in your marketing message. Making exaggerated claims about what your product or services can do for them is misleading and will result in fewer customers and fewer sales. Your top priority should be focused on persuading customers to see your brand as one they can trust. Building a relationship of trust begins with speaking their language and offering realistic examples of how your product or service will improve their lives.
Follow these five tips and results of your email marketing campaigns should improve dramatically over time.
