Why force consumers to drag their heels down to the mailbox only to find irrelevant coupons and numerous advertisements? This waste of paper ends up residing as a constant coaster on the coffee table or as build-up in the trash. The days of traditional paper mail marketing are slowly fading away and making room for targeted and meaningful email marketing. Email marketing is a great way to get your products, deals, and company at the tip of consumers’ fingertips. Although this type of marketing makes for an easy “in” with many clients, there are a couple of tips to remember in order to fully enjoy all of the many benefits.

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE?

First of all let’s get one thing straight, the customer wears the pants in this relationship. They are the entity dictating your email marketing messages. Just because you really want to send a message to every contact in your mailing list, does not necessarily mean that they want to hear from you. Take advice from the great Rolling Stones and my mother, “you can’t always get what you want”. It has to be what the customer wants. And at the end of the day, the customers are the ones who will either grant you more access to themselves and their business, or completely shut you out. By handing over that control, you are on the right path to boosting your open/click rates and increasing conversations around your product/service. 

KNOW YOUR CLIENT:

In any business, you should know your customers and do your research. This aspect of email marketing is what I like to call “dating”. It is in this time period that it’s your job to find out who your clients really are. Don’t be afraid to ask them what kind of emails they would like to receive and at what frequency. This will help you get a feel for what they need/want from you, and gives you the groundwork to start to develop a plan for your email marketing campaign.

As far as research goes, monitor closely click rates and views. See who is looking at what, and what campaigns work the best for which group of clients. Also, don’t be afraid to look at what doesn’t work. Why did a client unsubscribe or send you straight to SPAM? Negative reactions are just as helpful during research as positive reactions. Use this information, create lists of clients based on interests and requested frequency, and hopefully with a bit of tinkering you can achieve your maximum email marketing potential.

FREQUENCY:

Remember, an email inbox is not like a jar of chocolate chip cookies, as in more is not always better. There is a very delicate balance between way too many emails and not enough. You want your client to know that you are thinking of them and want their business, without the overwhelming feeling that you are occupying their inbox. Look at the research you have gathered and analyze which campaigns work, and what frequency works. Whether it is twice a month or twice a week is really up to your clients. Keep your ears to the ground and really feel out how your emails are being received in order to establish a successful email frequency.

 LIVE IN RELEVANCE:

Lastly, which should come naturally if you followed the aforementioned advice, only send targeted and relevant emails. As a young female, should I really be getting emails about men’s hair-loss supplements? No, because quite frankly, it isn’t relevant to me… at all. Your clients feel the same way. They want to get email marketing messages that look like you hand-selected the email campaign just for them. For example, let’s say a young couple was looking to move into a bigger house. And, because I’ve done my research and because I’m keeping their best interest in mind, I send them a listing about a new house in their area. Don’t you think this shows that I know my client and their needs? Sending relevant emails proves to the customer that you care and you are not abusing their inbox.

BOTTOM LINE:

This entire long list of what to do really comes down to the one basic principal of marketing, know your client. My apologies for sounding like a broken record, but it is true. If you do your research, listen to your clients, use targeted/relevant email marketing and with the correct frequency, there is no way your email marketing campaigns will not be successful.