There are many forms of illegitimate marketing that irritate Internet users. One of the most annoying and frustrating forms of marketing is the spam email. Email marketers who do not want to send spam messages to their customers will need to follow a specific series of steps to send email messages that targeted customers actually want.
Email marketing has the potential to bring in a higher return on investment than many other marketing strategies. The cost of sending an email can be very cheap. Email marketing can also have a high response rate, since the message recipients will already be interested. Many will be current customers or will have signed up for the mail list to receive promotions.
For email marketing to not qualify as spam and for it to have a maximum response rate, the email marketer must get permission from the recipient. There are many ways to do this.
One is to offer customers a free gift in exchange for providing an email address. For example, the email marketer could offer a free PDF download if the user provides an email. Websites that ask for users to create an account with them could ask their visitors if they would like to receive promotions by email. Another method is to offer the visitors a free newsletter and ask them to sign up for a promotional mailing list when they sign up for the newsletter.
Businesses that have access to an email address should not abuse the privilege. Most people will not want to receive dozens of emails a day and will be more likely to unsubscribe or put those emails in their spam folder.
Speaking of unsubscribing, another important rule to follow when sending solicited marketing messages is to always give users an option to unsubscribe. Ideally, this should be a simple link that the user can click on to immediately unsubscribe. The process of unsubscribing should not require more than two clicks.
One very successful recent email marketing campaign was Kodak’s i4000 Scanner Series. This campaign had a 3.7 percent click-through rate. The email subject line was “Discover game-changing innovation and register to win.” The goal of the email was to generate excitement and awareness about the new product and to increase response by providing a powerful offer. Part of what made the campaign successful was that it sought to integrate email marketing with several other channels. For example, the link for the “register now” button took users to a content-rich website that encouraged users to share the content through Twitter and Facebook.
Another example of a subject line that was successful included the ATP World Tour’s “Welcome! Your Tennis Tickets Are Ready.” This subject line had a 27.7% clickthrough rate. The goal of the email was to provide users with something of immediate value for signing up with the email service.
The key factor in achieving a high click-through rate is to understand the target audience and what motivates them, just like in other forms of marketing. However, in the email medium, the most successful emails are also the least salesy. Simple and straightforward messages that immediately provide value to the customer can compel them to click.
Article contributed by Charles P.