The Basics Of Email Marketing

By Alex Fischer

Sending a piece of print direct mail to customers can cost as much as a dollar per piece, and the response is typically less than 1%. Email campaigns, by contrast, cost as little as a few pennies each and have an average response rate of 10% and higher. There’s no better choice in marketing for the small business owner, no matter what the size of your company.

With direct email you can extend your reach quickly and easily and build relationships with your customer base. It encourages a dialogue with your audience and it increases traffic—and return traffic—to your site. With the following basic tips in hand, you’ll be well on your way to improving sales and customer loyalty through your email campaign.

HTML emails typically receive much higher response rates than plain text. They grab the reader’s eyes and generally look more professional. The downside is that they also take much more time and energy to produce and not all of your customers will have email programs that allow them to view HTML messages. Sending text email is a safer bet, but not nearly as impressive-looking. Not as many people will be compelled to read it, and you’re likely to have a lower response rate.

If you have the time and resources, consider giving your customers the choice of receiving either HTML or text messages. By asking customers what kind of email they prefer to receive, you not only give customers the confidence that you care about their preferences but also increase the chances of that the message will be read.

Many email readers can't display text other than the standard ASCII characters. To avoid having text email readers receiving a string of illegible code, type your email in a plain text editor, not in a word processor.

Helpful Tip: For text versions of email messages, put a hard return after 68 characters to protect against distorted text or too much white space in messages.

Regardless of whether you opt for text or HTML, let the words and/or graphics do the talking. Don’t attempt to convey urgency or emphasis with excess capital letters, asterisks, and exclamation points. By essentially shouting in your email (“***SAVE 60% ON EVERYTHING!!!!***”), you risk not only getting trapped by spam filters, but you also risk losing the respect of your customers. Use these tactics sparingly—if at all.

Email response rates are directly tied to the level of personalization conveyed. When a customer opens a message to find a personal salutation (“Dear Melinda”), they’ll be more likely to respond favorably. The more you know about your customers, the more you can make the message apply to their interests.

Contact your customers at least once a month—and no more than four times a month.

There’s a fine line between maintaining your visibility by repeatedly putting yourself in front of potential customers and overwhelming them with too many messages. Email too infrequently and they’ll forget about you. Email too often and they’ll unsubscribe—or report you as a spammer. Although the ideal number of emails depends largely on your particular business, promotions, and products, a good rule to follow is to contact your customers at least once a month—and no more than four times a month.

You must offer customers the option to unsubscribe in every email or newsletter.

As you know, to operate within the bounds of spam legislation, you should only send email to customers who have given you permission to do so. Once they have shown interest in receiving messages from you, you must offer customers the option to unsubscribe in every email or newsletter. Remember to keep your opt-out process simple. If a customer gets the runaround trying to get off your list, you’ll lose the opportunity to ever get them back.

You may be a small business, but that doesn’t mean customers don’t hold you to the same high standards as the big companies they see ads from every day. Don’t risk losing your audience’s respect: Proofread for punctuation, spelling, and proper grammar. Also make sure that all of your links work before you even think about hitting that send button.

According to DoubleClick, over 78% of online shoppers have made purchases because of a marketing email.

According to DoubleClick, over 78% of online shoppers have made purchases because of a marketing email. Although much of what you hear in the news these days is the negative outcry over inboxes overflowing with unwanted email, the truth is that people are receptive to promotion messages. Your customers will respond and your sales will improve, based on the few fundamentals of customer email contact.