Email Campaigns

Email newsletters are one of the most effective and cost efficient ways to stay top-of-mind with your past clients and prospects.

There are however some dos and don'ts when it comes to this type of marketing.

Starting with the dos:

1. Use an email service to deliver and track your messages. The service I use is iContact. Constant Contact is another service that provides template formats and back-end tracking to help you keep track of who's reading and who wants to opt-out.

2. Spend time thinking about your subject line. This short 3-5 word line is probably the most important piece of your entire message.

3. Keep it short. Busy people get lots of email every day. Say what you need to say and then be on your way.

4. Pay attention to when you're sending your email. Friday afternoon in the summer isn't the best time to catch a business person's attention. Mentally, they are already at the lake.


Don'ts

1. Don't send mass emails from your own account. Sending to more than 50 contacts at a given time may cause your ISP to peg you as a spammer. It's difficult to get off that kind of black list.

2. Don't copy word-for-word an article you've recently read in a trade magazine. You must credit sources in email newsletters just like you would credit someone if you were writing for a newspaper.

3. Don't forget to let your subscriber list know they can opt-out at any time.

4. Don't forget to watch your opt-out rate. If people are leaving in droves, you are either emailing too often or your content is not relevant to them.

For assistance in setting up an email newsletter, visit www.thatsmyideamarketing.com