Tue, Aug 26th 2014 10:10 am

 

There are several reasons that email marketing was one the highlight of many marketing plans, for small and large companies alike. Many of these reasons still hold true:

 

This is probably the main selling point of email marketing for most small businesses. It's very inexpensive to build a mailing list and send an email; the greatest costs associated are generally the time spent crafting your message, and the subscription system you choose to send and manage your emails through.

 

Using a bulk email service makes tracking the success of your email campaign a breeze.The built-in reporting tools allow you to see various metrics such as delivery rate, open rate, and the number of unique clicks your message recieved. If your email service doesn't provide these types of reports, it's time to find a new one.

 

When not abused, regular emails have the ability to improve brand loyalty and help keep your brand top of mind. However, for this to happen, your emails must be providing relevant and valuable content to your customers. Your subscribers' inbox is not the place for you to push for the hard sell - it will almost always do more harm than good.

 

If your subscription list is opt-in (and is should be), the people who have signed up are saying that they want to hear from you - just not too often. Unfortunately, the only way to determine a good schedule for your audience is through trial and error (that's what those metrics are for!) or allowing subscribers to set their own email frequency options.

 

Once you're using a professional email service like our Fission Blast, there are a few things you can do to enhance the number of opens and clicks your email generates.

 

This may be the trickiest part, because it's what determines if your email even gets opened. Avoid using terms that are likely to get you blacklisted whenever possible. Also keep in mind that using the same headline for multiple emails will reduce the number of opens each subsequent message receives.

 

It's no secret that people tend to prefer images over big chunks of text, but be sure to provide text descriptions for those that do not, or you could risk your message being lost on them.

 

Your entire message doesn't necessarily need to be in the email, especially when you have the opportunity to drive traffic to your website. Again, be sure to provide content that is of value to your customers, and avoid the hard sell. Including subtle links to your social media pages gives your subscribers the option to consume more of your content through their preferred channels.

 

Not everyone can view, or chooses to view, images in their email. If you do not provide a text version of your email, your message will be obsolete to these customers.

Switch up your send times

Many different times have been dubbed "the best time to send email," so it's possible that you may find greater success sending your messages at a different time than someone else. Think of it this way, if you send an email at 7pm on a Sunday, you're competing for a much larger share of voice than you would be on a weekday morning. Try to measure what works for your brand's audience.

 

There's still value to be gained from a customers who unsubscribe. While the unsubscribe process should be simple, be sure to ask why they're choosing to opt-out. This feedback will help you to refine your message frequency and content and improve your email marketing efforts.

 

 

As mentioned above, 360 PSG offers our own email service called Fission Blast. Fission Blast helps you to keep customers in the loop by allowing you to send mass emails to an unlimited list of subscribers. Plans vary by the number of emails you plan on sending each month, not by the number of subscribers. If you're interested in learning more about Fission Blast, please contact an Account Manager today at 716.829.7373 or visiting us online at 360psg.com.