It’s Time To Take Your Email Marketing To The Next Level

Social media and email marketing are the top two forms of internet marketing businesses do today. That’s more than SEO, PPC, display and anything else and the reason is because it’s cost-effective and produces immediate results. It’s also very easy to do whether you are managing your company Facebook page or hiring a company to hit 20,000 people in your area with an email about a sale you have coming up. There is no television channel, newspaper or website that can guarantee that 20,000 people in your area, based on several selects will absolutely see your content. Even if they do not open the message, they still see your name and offer.

How can you beat that? While this presents a great opportunity to get fast and affordable traffic, you also do not want to take it for granted. Remember, the average person now receives anywhere from 10-80 emails a day, so you have to find a way to stand out and be noticed. Here are some things we’ve noticed that produce better results:

• Give it time: Next week is the 4^th of July so you should probably send out a campaign when? On the 3^rd, on the 4^th itself, on the 1^st? You shouldn’t wait until the last minute, especially when it comes to selecting your list and building your creative.
• Don’t be one and done: Using the same example of the 4^th of July, make sure that you are sending out multiple campaigns. Send your first message out a few weeks ahead of the sale. Maybe do a friendly newsletter about your business and inform them that you will be having a sale with big deals to follow. This helps to build familiarity with the recipient and you will see an increase in opens and clicks with each campaign.
• Improve your content: What are people receiving when they get your message? Are they being bombarded with bright colors and flashy images? The best responses come from content that is simple, to the point, has a good call to action and the information is easy to follow.
• Improve your targeting: Who is getting the content? This is a big mistake made by small business owners. They do not have a good idea of who their audience is. For example, if you sell high-end baby clothes then you may think that women between the ages of 20-35 are your primary customers, and they might be. However, the audience most likely to buy those products are women between the ages of 45-65. Why? Because grandmothers are more likely to buy more expensive clothing for their grandchildren. Understanding stuff like this is key to making sure your content is being seen by the right audience.
• Keep track of your efforts: You made ten sales yesterday but where did they come from? Did they come from social media, Google, Amazon, email marketing or somewhere else? You need to know how you are getting traffic and especially how you are generating sales so that you can put more budget behind those efforts. Tracking is key for small business owners in order to know where to put your marketing budget.

Utilizing these tips will help you to improve your email marketing efforts and see an increase in opens, clicks and hopefully even conversions.