Before you can share your expertise through an online marketing campaign, you have to secure a wide network of high-quality contacts. There is no real value behind a large email list of uninterested readers. The big question is always - how do you build such lists?
Most professionals these days get their information on-the-run through their Blackberries, iPhones or laptops while commuting to client meetings, the office and corporate events. Massive amounts of emails filter through their inboxes daily and the uninteresting ones are automatically deleted. Catchy headlines and interesting topics are always good, but the real focus should be creating a list of readers that are interested in your company or cause and not just the information you are distributing.
Use the following tips to secure a quality email list of interested readers:
Get in Front
Make sure it is easy for your audience to join your email list. For example, include a link in your email signature or post a “Sign up for our newsletter” link on your company’s homepage or Facebook fan page. This way it is optional and always visible.
Don’t Overdo It
Your emails shouldn’t be viewed as spam; therefore, try not to bombard your audience with emails for eternity. You should first ask their permission to join the email list and then give them the option to opt out and don’t overdo it by sending too many emails.
Promote Your Emails
Use social media networks and your corporate blog to promote your emails. If people don’t know it’s available, then how are readers going to become interested? Get your employees involved and offer them an incentive to recruit quality readers as well, online and offline.
Acknowledge New Subscribers
When a new reader joins your email list send them a welcome email or offer them a coupon or special deal for signing up. This will encourage more readers to join who want to use your services.
Offer Multiple Sign Ups
If you are an expert in your field than offer a “tip of the week” email as well as a newsletter or blog. Having different sign ups could interest a wide variety of people that are eager to read your emails; therefore, expanding your network of readers.
A high-quality email list is crucial when trying to maintain existing relationships and build new ones. Finding active subscribers is more effective than distributing information to a wide network of uninterested readers. Use the tips above to optimize your email list and build trust with your audience.
Optimizing Email Marketing
Once you have built your email list, your objective should be to secure the success of your email marketing campaign. Careful planning and execution of strategies will lead to conversions if proper metrics are put into place. Using the marketing analytics, you will be able to evaluate the behavior profiles of your contacts.
In other words, if you want results, you have to strategically place metrics behind interactive messaging in order to produce data. Some companies use banner ads, images, conversion forms and links to interact with customers. As visitors interact with your email message by clicking on the advertisements, analytical data is produced, which can later be leveraged to optimize your subsequent email marketing campaigns.
Take the analytics report that is generated and evaluate the more dominant purchasing trends. With this information you can personalize messages to cater to different behavior profiles and customize your next offer to meet their needs. By leveraging your email and web analytics data you can optimize your email marketing campaign and improve conversion rates.
Contact our team if you have any questions regarding the variety of email marketing platforms that exist and their integration with content management and customer relationship management platforms.