Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing

In one of our previous posts, we showed you what email marketing is and why you should consider using it as part of your digital marketing strategy. Now, considering that, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can get a return of up to $42, it’s easy to see why you would want to.

But does that mean you should just go out and start sending emails to your customers? Certainly not. When developing an effective email marketing strategy, there are some best practices you should adhere to.

What’s that in mind, let’s look at some do’s and don’ts of email marketing.

DO Set Goals

One of the most important things you should do when developing any email marketing campaign is to set goals. In other words, you should decide what you want to achieve with the campaign, whether it’s attracting new customers, providing value to existing customers, or increasing engagement. This is simply because your goals will ultimately impact the strategy you use and your content.

DON’T Be Inconsistent

The idea behind email marketing is that, by sending emails to your customers, you keep your business on their minds while generating awareness about your brand or products.

As a result, it’s crucial that you’re consistent with your email schedule and that you don’t make your customers wait to hear from you after they signed up to your mailing list. So, how often should you email your customers? Ultimately, it depends on your specific requirements and what your customers expect.

DO Email the Right People

For email marketing to be most effective, you have to email the right people. Typically, these people are those that are interested in your business or products and want to hear from you. People who are not interested in your brand, will not open your emails, which means marketing dollars disappearing down the drain.

For this reason, the best way to ensure that you only email these people is to build a mailing list by asking customers to subscribe to your mailing list and, in some cases, giving them some sort of incentive to do so.

DON’T Buy Email Lists

However tempting it might be, you should never buy email lists. Remember, we mentioned earlier that you should only mail those people interested in hearing from your brand. When you buy a mailing list, it’s likely that most people on the list won’t necessarily be interested in your brand. This means that you’ll waste money on sending emails to these people, and you would’ve wasted money in buying the email list in the first place.

DO Focus on Your Subject Line

Your subject line is the first thing people will see when they get an email from you and, as such, has a significant impact on how successful your email marketing campaigns are. As such, you should craft subject lines that capture your readers’ interest and will result in them opening the email.

DON’T Forget a Call to Action

Remember, the ultimate goal of your emails should be to get your customers to do something. Because of this, you should always remember to include a call of action at the end of your email, otherwise your efforts won’t amount to much. Also, when you include a call of action, ensure that they are clear, as too many or confusing calls to action can lead to a poor user experience for your customers.

DO Use Technology to Your Advantage

To improve your chances of success with email marketing, you should use technology to your advantage. This means you should use email automation platforms that help you send the right emails to the other people at the right time.

These tools also help you to create customer journeys that nurture the relationships between you and your customers, while providing relevant and valuable content along the way.

DON’T Spam

Earlier, we mentioned that you should be consistent when implementing an email marketing strategy. However, you should take care not to send too many emails. This will only lead to your customers not opening your emails and learning what you could offer them. In some cases, it could even damage your reputation.

DO Use a Professional

Now that we’ve looked at some do’s and don’ts, we’ve come to one of the most important do’s. That is, you should use a professional digital and email marketing agency. And that’s where MACLYN comes in. As an advertising agency, we specialize in all things digital marketing, including email marketing and developing effective email campaigns.

We can help determine how to make the best use of your resources, target your audience, and analyze results. MACLYN has been working with organizations in the Des Moines, Naperville, and Chicago area for many years. We know email marketing is alive and well, and we can help you get the most out of your campaigns.