Use this guide to create a successful email marketing campaign!
1- Determine Your Goals
The first step to any successful campaign is planning and the first step in planning is defining your goals. There are many effective uses for email marketing from agent or office branding to offering a new service or even advertising a listing. Each of these uses typically will have a different style and components.
Effective email campaigns can increase traffic on your website and ultimately increase your sales.
A long term, carefully planned email marketing campaign will naturally help improve your brand awareness. Your readers will naturally remember your name and the services that you offer as they gain more exposure from your emails. Having relevant and useful information will also help you keep your subscribers for the long run.
2- Subscribe Now
In order to build your email campaign list you must provide an opt in email or have subscribe now buttons posted on your website, blogs, and other e-mails. This will help you grow your list and remember to always have an unsubscribe option as well in order to meet anti-spam guidelines.
3 -Tracking Techniques
Tracking the performance of any advertising campaign should be foremost in your mind. This is the only true method of determining its worth and is the only way you can optimize your advertising to generate the best possible results.
Tracking code can also be placed into an HTML email. You need to operate a degree of caution when implementing code into HTML emails, because it could lead to your email being blocked by over zealous spam filters. So choose wisely and sparingly.
4 - Prepare Your Website
Directing visitors to your website is only a piece of the puzzle. Once a reader clicks through the links in your email, you then need to be confident that your web pages are optimized to complete the sale. So choose the appropriate pages to direct them to.
Introducing a new product or a new concept will usually take more information than you can provide in a single marketing email. If necessary, add a page or multiple complementary pages, to your website. Direct readers to these pages so that you can combine the use of your email marketing and your optimized and informative content to really persuade them to act.
5 -Subject Line
The subject line of your email is the first thing your readers will read, and you need to ensure that it won't be the last. You should certainly avoid the use of spammy subject lines and opt for a more effective approach.
A newsworthy subject line will often grab the attention but only works effectively in limited cases. Intrigue and appeal work very well. An intriguing headline will draw your readers into the main body of the content and the subject line will have then done its job effectively. Never be misleading in the subject of your email as this will usually result in them opting out after opening it.
6 - Email Body
Finally we reach the main body content of the email.
Research shows that the more personalized the message, the more likely it will be to succeed. Start with a personalized greeting and use a friendly tone, throughout the message. Inform readers of what they need to know but do so informally and in as friendly a manner as is possible by email.
Make sure it is grammatically correct. Check it more than once and also check the links in the email as well to ensure they are directing the reader to the correct pages.
Include a Call To Action, or ask visitors to perform a desired action. This could be to click a link, make a purchase, or even forward the email to friends. This way you will get action out of the email which is exactly what you hope for.
7-Link To Your Web Site
The entire point (although probably not your ultimate goal) of your email is to get readers to click on links and visit your website. Include two or three links in the body of your email and make sure they are relevant without being too obvious. Lead readers to click the links rather than directly point it out and find something more effective than "click here" to use as your anchor text.
Two to three links is the ideal number. Too few links and your email won't prove effective at driving traffic, while too many links will detract from the actual content of the email. If your email is very short then offer two links, or offer three links within longer messages. Contextual links (that is, those that appear within the body of the email rather than at the end) are usually significantly more effective.
8 - Testing, Testing
Initially, send a test email to yourself, friends, family, or colleagues. This is more to determine that it arrives looking as expected. Then you can make any needed adjustments before sending it our to your mailing list.
10 - Follow Up
Being careful not to send emails too frequently, you should send regular communication to your list. Monitor results, check bounce rates, and look for ways that your campaign could be improved.
Once you've found the best ways to improve a campaign make the improvements and then start again. Use these clear and effective steps to ensure you get results from your next email marketing campaign.
About the author: Megan Faust is the owner and founder of VIRTU-ASSIST, a real estate support firm offering "Real Solutions for Realtors." She is an Internet Marketing Specialist and a Real Estate Virtual Assistant. For more information on how VIRTU-ASSIST can help take your business to the next level contact us today!
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