Email Marketing
-Coady Cline | 7/26/11
Email Marketing can be tricky & is often abused, but follow these ideas and strategies and email marketing can be effective, gain brand recognition, grab new clients and create good return on your investment.
A lot of people have shied away from email marketing since the boom of Social media. I understand Facebook & Twitter are free but ask yourself this question: “What do I check first, when you log onto your computer?” Answer is usually 9 out of 10 is “Email” I definitely check my email more than my Facebook I also have multiple email accounts synced with my droid. My Facebook notifications are no longer pushed to my droid due to all the spam, status updates, friend request, pokes the list goes on, but email still there!
Here’s a little info graphic on “Frequency of Clicks” with various online marketing formats.
Finding the Right Email Marketing Provider:
Do your research before you start dumping your money into any email marketing provider.
Check and see what they offer first, do they have pre-made templates if you aren’t tech savvy. Do they charge per email sent, per subscriber or both? You will need to know how many e-mail addresses are in your address book; it could save you tons of coin. What other services do they offer, do they offer free sign-up forms for your website or social media sites. How do they track your “Click-through-rates?”
How often do you send an Email?
Email Marketing unfortunately is not a straight science it’s trial and error that never ends. You have to play around with it and see what works for you. Most email marketing providers offer “Click through” trackers where you can see real-time Who, What, Where, When. When someone clicked on a link, time they opened the email and who opened the link. You can also see an Unsubscribe list (people who removed themselves) which you can see why in the “Content Section” of this post. This information is important but useless if not tracked and taken advantage of.
I personally try not to send an email more the once a month, you don’t want it to become spam. On the other hand you can build lists of certain people that might want to stay updated weekly or bi-weekly depending on what you’re sending in your email.
What do I put in the Email?
That’s all up to you, what are you trying to achieve? I usually send a “blast” every time I get a “New listing” or maybe “just sold”. I ALWAYS include Links to my blog, Facebook, Twitter, Contact info etc.
Keep the email content simple! Too many photos, videos, or just too much anything and you can easily find yourself in the spam folder. Get your point across but make the content interesting don’t just send out Sales or promotions, send out email that get people to interact back. Just ask yourself this question: “Would I read this”.
What do you write for a Subject Line?
Short and Sweet!
Take a second and look at your SPAM folder. What words do you see a consistency of? Words like “Free”, “New”, “$$$” DON’T USE THOSE!
Some Rules!
Make sure you are not “Harvesting” (collecting Emails from websites, social media sites, etc. Make sure all your e-mail addresses are “Opt-ins” (The Subscriber, actually SUBSCRIBED to your email list).
Make sure your include your Full Contact information. Name | Business Name| Full Address| Website etc.
For more on FCC’s guidelines I’ve included their link:
FCC’s Rules on Email & Texting: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/spam-unwanted-text-messages-and-email
Some good e-mail marketing providers:
ConstantContact | iContact | streamsend | MailChimp (I use these guys)
Thank you and any question feel free to reach out to me!
-Coady
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COADY CLINE
774.535.7560
Re/Max Signature Properties
28 South Bolton St.
Marlborough, MA 01752
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