However, some email campaigns never hit their email marketing goals because their emails are poor – they lack the essential features that their prospects actually want to see as soon as the emails get in their inbox. Remember that your prospects are all jaded and fed up with spam-like emails everyday. They do not want any more of it. So, here is how you can create the best email marketing campaign that will not make the recipients hit the delete button:
PLANNING
Planning out to Create an Effective Email Marketing Campaign is rather a difficult task, but once achieved will definitely make your marketing goals successful. Knowing what to send, when to send it and what the goals of each email service are can be a good place to start with the campaign. Using a good Email Marketing system like VMA-Emailer will ensure that the job is done effectively and you have the tools to monitor the success of your campaign with the statistical information that this system provides.
Email marketing is a cycle. Thus, the master plan or the scheme must cover the end-to-end procedure and the actions to take when failure happens.
TARGET AUDIENCE
One of the reasons why email recipients automatically delete email campaigns is that the emails are not powerful enough to engage them into the business. Effective email marketing needs to reach a target audience of a specific size and location (e.g. email marketing in Australia). Include in the planning whom your campaign is geared to. If you are marketing a luxurious car to clients with low income, then it is never going to sell no matter how practical the car is. Spending money for the wrong audience or prospects is like tossing your money down the drain. It will not work.
SUBJECT LINE
Email marketing that do not take effect either have a very familiar subject line or excessively vague. Also, if the subject line contains too many exclamation points and is written in all-caps, then, your email may be fated to stay in the trash bin forever. A creative and attractive subject line is the first thing that email recipients notice. Subject lines need to be simple, personal, engaging, clear, and specific. You can start by using the pronouns “you” and “we” or including your recipients’ names in the email so that they will feel a stronger relationship.
INFORMATIVE CONTENT AND EYE-CATCHING GRAPHICS
Informative content must have something to say. The content of your email – the message, therefore – serves as the driving force that will compel your audience to communicate with you. Not knowing what you are trying to negotiate makes your email campaign null. A meaningless content makes an audience feel tricked, somehow.
A good email marketing campaign utilises eye-catching graphics and related pictures. Apart from email marketing software and newsletter software, the message of your email is also better conveyed through visualisations and illustrations. Graphics give your audience a mental picture of what you are selling. Without these, your email may be less valuable.
SPAM-FREE (NO HARD SELL)
The tendency of your email being deleted, ignored, and blocked is high if your email is not spam-free. It is difficult to arrange an email campaign that people will certainly read. However, it is harder to regain your target audience once you lose them.
Some federal laws like the AUSTRALIAN SPAM Act of 2003 pose policies and requirements for every online email marketing which your business must abide by to avoid becoming a spammer. The bottom line is that your campaign must be solicited, worthwhile, and suitable for your prospects. Never overload their mailboxes with pointless emails. Give them the option to opt out of your campaign, if necessary. Include in your planning the content of your emails and how often you should send them.
TIMING
Timing is among the other essential factors of effective email marketing. On the contrary, this is a part that still needs progress. Once you have determined your target audience, its size, location, and the content of your email, the next thing you have to consider is when to send it. Try to sort out your recipients, study their email usage, their location, and then, respond to this accordingly. Some marketers exclude Monday in their schedule. Theoretically, this is a bad time for recipients to entertain anything else aside from work-related emails. Since Monday is the busiest day, they choose Thursday.
A study conducted last year shows that emails sent between early morning and early evening obtained the highest open rates.
GOOD CALL-TO-ACTIONS
Not just email marketing in Australia, but as well as in e-commerce sites, good call-to-actions are part of the strategy. Keep your call-to-actions simple and persuasive but make sure that it will stand out. Personalise and tailor it so you can capture the interest of your recipients. Do not just rely on graphics or icons that you think will represent your call-to-actions. Provide a link that will redirect them to where real business takes place. Call-to-Actions provide emphasis to your website and a benchmark to measure its success. Here is a short roster of ideas on how you can come up with a good call-to-action:
- Position the Call-to-Action text/buttons correctly.
- Use contrasting colours.
- Enlarge it.
- Put the Call-to-Action on each webpage.
- Use active words (e.g. Subscribe, Call, Register, FREE Download or Sign Up, etc.).
Investing in the knowledge on How to Create an Effective Email Marketing Campaign is a demanding task. It requires time, a little money, effort, patience, and a dash of trial-and-error method. At the end of the day, it will not matter how many times your email has been junked. Focus on your open and click rates, instead, and start from here. Email campaign is a cycle. Missing one part of it may cause your campaign to fail. Keep testing until you find out which area needs fine-tuning.
