My Site is Up; Now What? Part Three: Email Marketing

As you may have noticed, I am a big fan of/believer in social media marketing. But I do think that email is still a really powerful tool for businesses. I follow my favorite companies on Facebook, but I don’t check Facebook every day. I do, however, check my email every day. I receive emails from my favorite restaurants and stores, and I even open them sometimes! I don’t think that email marketing is going to double your sales or change your life, but I think that when it’s done right, email marketing can be a good way for you to maintain relationships and keep your company on customers’ radar.

I like to keep this blog pretty positive, but when it comes to email marketing, there are a lot of no-nos. So bear with me and don’t beat yourself up if you’re guilty of one or all of these email marketing don’ts:

DON’T:

• Don’t send people email without their permission. It’s not a good way to start a relationship. Have an email sign-up box on your website, or let customers who purchase from your online store know that they’ll be receiving emails from you. If you are a UniformMarket client, we do this for you. When customers check out, their email addresses are added to a subscriber list in the UniformMarket Post Office.
• Don’t buy lists of email addresses. The people on the list did not give you permission to email them.
• Don’t send an email every day or even every week unless you have a really good reason. But you don’t want to send too few emails either, because you’ll fall off your customers’ radar. Twice a month is appropriate for our clients.
• Don’t write bad subject lines. Write subject lines that are straightforward and not too salesy. What is your email about? Let your customers know in a few clear, concise words.
• Don’t spend a ton of money on email marketing. If you’re a UniformMarket client, don’t spend any money on email marketing! The UniformMarket Post Office is available for you to use. The UniformMarket Post Office contains a space for you to create and preview email newsletters, and it also provides information about email newsletter performance, including delivery rate, open rate, and clicks.
• Don’t ignore the numbers. Take a look at how your emails are doing. Which subject lines are resulting in greater open rates? Which emails are causing people to unsubscribe? The UniformMarket Post Office allows you to compare your email newsletters side-by-side so that you can make improvements and adjustments accordingly.
• Don’t send ugly emails. You don’t need to be a graphic artist to send nice emails, but if you’re not skilled in design, just keep it clean and simple. Don’t go crazy with fonts or colors. For inspiration, look at the emails you get from big companies. They usually don’t contain Comic Sans or neon colors.
• Don’t forget why you’re emailing your customers. How do you want your customers to respond to your email? Do you want them to buy the featured products? Do you want them to click on the link to your blog? Do you want them to like you on Facebook? If you don’t know what you want them to do, they won’t know what to do. You have to tell them. This is called a call to action. It should be front and center.