Most business owners who are new to the world of email marketing are not familiar with the appropriate etiquette they should use. Keeping your emails professional keeps your customers looking forward to your marketing newsletters. Continue reading this article for great marketing tips on email etiquette.
Always seek permission before sending marketing emails to potential customers. Sending unsolicited emails will quickly have you labeled a spammer. Getting permission to send your messages doesn’t have to be hard; offer something valuable to your customers in exchange for the ability to email them, such as a discount, coupon, or other sign-up incentive.
Ask your customers for feedback on your emails. Since your customers are the most important part of your campaign, it is important to know if they are pleased with the emails they receive from you. You could ask them to fill out a short survey with a few questions on what they like and what they dislike.
Always perform an email list validation before adding someone to your email list. If you don’t have permission, be prepared to not only receive spam complaints but also to lose customers.
Try following up an email to your customers with a notice that tells them not to procrastinate. Insert a suggestion that tells them to purchase now onto the reply. The ending could tell them not to miss this incredible opportunity by waiting. Instead, they should act now to reap the full benefits.
You usually don’t want to send emails around major holidays. Many people don’t access their emails on those days, and you risk them being overlooked among the others that arrived during that same time. There are always exceptions, though! Some examples of this are occasion-specific campaigns such as Black Friday specials.
Develop content that is interesting and informative to your customer base. The message should be engaging, and not filled with dry, boring content. The recipients are more likely to read it all the way through if it is not too long. As they see that your content is relevant, your reputation will grow.
Make sure you have a person’s full permission before adding them to your mailing list. If a customer feels that your email is unsolicited, there is a greater chance that your customer will delete or unsubscribe. If a lot of complaints are sent to your email provider, you could get in trouble for violating spam policies.
Keep all of your branding in your email consistent with your business. Don’t make your email appear as though it belongs to another business. Try to stick with your usual colors, voice, and fonts so that the readers can recognize that the email is from you and so they will read it.
Let customers know what to expect from the get-go. When a new subscriber opts in, send an immediate confirmation email that details what the customer can expect to receive from you and how often you will send emails. Filling customers in upfront can prevent future opt-outs and complaints and keep subscribers active.
Spam
Even though it should be obvious, it is important enough to state over and over: Never send unsolicited emails. You should have explicit permission from everyone you send marketing emails to. This is about more than trying not to upset them; a recipient who considers your email spam can cause trouble for you with your service provider.
To get the most of your email marketing, invest in a program that personalizes your emails with every customer’s given name instead of a generic greeting. Ensuring that every email starts with the recipient’s name is key to encouraging your customers to see your newsletters as valuable information and not just more sales spam.
Only send email to customers after they have agreed to receive your mailings. Most clients will simply look at them as spam and delete them right away. Sending emails to people who have not given you permission to do so may also violate the policies of your ISP.
Do what you can to make your email go into your customers’ inboxes. You must work to get your email to pass ISPs and not get tagged as spam messages. If they get tagged as spam messages, your recipient may never see them. Check with customers to see if they are getting your emails, or if they’re no longer interested.
Avoid using the character string “$$$” in your marketing messages. Many spam messages use this character string either in the subject line or body of their emails. If you use it, people and email servers may treat your emails as if they were spam, too. Your emails may end up ignored or even blocked.
When utilizing e-mail marketing, make sure that you never spam your customer’s inbox. One of the quickest ways to lose the trust of your customer is to send spam to his or her email address. To make sure your marketing practices fall within mandated regulations, thoroughly read the CAN-SPAM act.
Take precautions to avoid having your emailed flagged as spam by major internet service providers. Many ISPs have strict security measures in place to detect spam before it is delivered to a client. These spam filters determine if an email is spam by relying on specific criteria. If an email displays too many of these indications, it is deemed to be spam and automatically deleted. These criteria include the use of words such as “discount”, “save,” and “free” in both the subject line and content of an email. Although it may seem difficult to eliminate these words, there are creative ways to capture the attention of your customers and make them aware of your promotions through email without setting off any spam filter alarms. It’s better to have an email reach your customers without these words than to risk having it not reach your customers at all.
This article has shown you that it is necessary to have the right etiquette when it comes to email marketing. Your clients will quickly unsubscribe from your mailing lists if you do not treat them with the respect they deserve. Apply this article’s advice to please your customers and avoid annoying them.