Email Marketing Best Practices – Make a Good First Impression

A first impression can make or break your email marketing newsletters potential for building and maintaining your business. So, the time you take to plan and execute your email marketing best practices is essential to success.

The first step for your email marketing newsletter campaign should be to choose web-based email marketing software from a company that helps you manage not only your newsletter creation but provides subscription sign-up forms, user personalization and preferences, surveys, and tracking reports.

Email Sign-up Forms

Essentially, the web based email sign-up form may be the best method for gathering email contacts for your email marketing newsletters. However, just having a form on your website may not be enough. Many potential subscribers may shy away from signing up if they think they are going to be inundated with unsolicited emails. To avoid this misconception provide written assurance that their personal information won’t be shared with other entities. Or, if you are going to share it with partner or other trusted companies, state it clearly and include the exceptions.

Consider choosing an email marketing company that offers web-based permission email marketing solutions for new subscribers. These include a confirmation email that requires subscribers click an included link to verify their intention to join your email marketing newsletter.

And last but not least, let your subscribers know what your delivery schedule is. Most businesses that use email marketing solutions for their online promotions find that customers don’t want to receive an email marketing newsletter from any one company more than once a week – and most prefer bi-weekly.

Show Them!

Add a link or links to your archived newsletters. Visitors to your website will be more inclined to subscribe when they have an idea of the content you send out! So when you are choosing an email marketing company, make sure that your newsletters will be archived with all your content – to include images. Some email marketing companies charge extra for archiving images.

Give Your Subscribers a Choice

Most people like to have a say in how they receive their information and what kind of content they prefer. And with the growing popularity of the smart phones that let users view their email on those tiny little screens, it is best to let your subscribers chose between receiving your email marketing newsletter in either plain text or html.

To make sure your subscribers are receiving the type of offers and information that they are most likely to read and respond to, offer an occasional survey. Include no more than 10 questions and preferably less with an option for them to add their own comments. And make sure that you follow up with respondents that have valid complaints or concerns – this will go a long way to increasing their trust in your business.

Tracking Your Progress

Reviewing your tracking reports for open and click-through rates is a good idea. But it’s kind of like weighing yourself everyday while on a diet. You aren’t going to see immediate results and it may discourage progress in the meantime. It takes time to build an email marketing campaign. Just remember to be consistent with your delivery schedule, follow up with user feedback and keep your word. Email marketing best practices are built over time and with a commitment to excellence.