There is an element of controversy surrounding the means by which companies market themselves via email. Many people argue that the mass sending of emails is no more than unsolicited junk mail and that in the current age of social media sites such as Facebook there are far more effective means of promotion available. Whilst there is an element of truth to these dissenting voices there is no need to write off email marketing completely as when used properly it can be a highly profitable means of promoting your business. Provided you follow a few simple basic practices there is no reason why your email campaign shouldn\’t deliver a return.

In order to prevent people deleting your email straight away it will help if you have a well written subject line. Try to avoid using language which may considered too \’salesy\’ such as \’guaranteed\’ or \’free\’ as this is likely to raise a red flag with anyone reading it. Try to spend time thinking of a subject line which will both grab the attention of the reader and entice them to find out more by clicking on your email. If you are using email marketing software which enables you to include the customer\’s name then try and do that as personalisation could make a big difference. Making the recipient feel less like a number on a spreadsheet could make the difference between making a sale or not.

If you are going to have a chance of making any money off the back of your campaign then you will need to make sure that your email contains links to your website. When doing this it may be tempting to include as many links as possible, however this is likely to compromise the integrity of your email and simply make it look cluttered and poorly thought out. The less links you, the more likely you are to achieve click-throughs to your site. Try to avoid the temptation of including an animated banner in your email as this is a sure fire way of putting people off.

Do bear in mind that due to the increase in spam emails over the past 10 years legislation has been introduced to combat this nuisance. Make sure that you adhere to your country\’s legislation in order to prevent your emails being sent to recipients who have not requested them. Even if customers have signed up to your emailing list you are now required to include an \’opt out\’ link at the bottom of your email so that people can unsubscribe easily. You should handle any unsubscribe requests as promptly and courteously as possible.

If you end up sending out unsolicited emails then it is almost a certainty that this will result in complaints being sent to your internet service provider. It doesn\’t matter how sure you are that you have complied with all relevant regulations, your customers may not agree.

Once you are up to speed with these basic principles of email marketing then you will be ready to help boost your sales!

Author Bio: Trevor Richards writes on behalf of Extravision (www.extravision.com), a UK Email marketing company.

Category: Marketing
Keywords: email marketing, email campaign, ecommerce, internet marketing, e-commerce, sales, business