E-mail marketing is a terrific way to engage with, as well as build familiarity and trust with your audience. E-mail marketing is not for the lazy, however, or the untrained. This form of online marketing must be treated delicately and with some semblance of planning if you hope to be successful. That’s not to say that e-mail marketing has to be a bunch of boring work. This form of marketing can be exciting and fun, for you and your prospects, customers and readers.
First, let’s talk about e-mail marketing, what it is and what you hope to get out of it.
E-mail Marketing Basics
If you want to be successful at e-mail marketing, you need to build a highly-targeted subscriber list. Your subscribers should be interested
in your subject matter to the point that they subscribe because they want to learn more. Once you have subscribers, you will then send out periodic ‘autoresponder’ e-mail messages. As a business owner and e-mail marketer, you hope that your subscribers will read your e-mails and click-through when you include links in those e-mails.
If done properly, e-mail marketing can help you position yourself as an authority over your subscribers and you’ll quickly become the go-to person in your field. This is when you can begin to ‘recommend’ certain products and services. Through your own product and service sales and/or affiliate sales, e-mail marketing can be a great way to expand your business exponentially.
For e-mail marketing to actually work, you need targeted subscribers. This cannot be stressed enough.
The Importance Of Targeted Subscribers
I could send you e-mails all day long about ‘Horseradish Dressing Recipes’ and I bet you won’t open them. The reason is because you’re probably not interested. Now, if I sent the above e-mail to a thousand people, maybe one or two would open the e-mail and click on my link, probably because they’re bored out of their minds and they just want something to do.
The point is, you need subscribers that have a deep interest in your subject matter. If you are dealing with weight loss, your audience will be overweight and struggling with it. If you’re dealing with acne cures, your audience will be pimple-faced and dreading social situations because of it.
Do you notice a common theme? Not only are the people interested in the subject matter, they’re also facing a deep-seated problem. They may want their ex back, to cure their halitosis or maybe they want to increase their vertical jump. Whatever subject matter you’re focusing on, you need subscribers that will respond to that subject matter.
Entice Subscribers
The best way to gain targeted subscribers is to create a squeeze page with an opt-in box that offers a free e-report of some type. For example, if you are in the weight loss niche, you might have a squeeze page offering a free e-report titled ‘Drop 30 Pounds In 30 Days, Guaranteed!’ All visitors to the page need to do is opt-in.
If you can effectively drive targeted traffic to that squeeze page, you’ll soon gather a healthy sized list of people who desperately want to lose weight. Your e-mail messages will then help them further with their goals. If you can provide your readers with useful content, you’ll form a bond with your reader and they’ll be more likely to become long-time customers.
Make Your E-mails Stand Out
It’s a safe bet that your subscribers are bombarded with e-mails from other marketers on a regular basis. This means you are going to have to vie for your reader’s attention with each e-mail you send out for effective e-mail marketing. This can be done with your subject line.
Treat your subject line like you would an article or webinar title. It should stand out, it should grab the reader’s attention and it should entice the click. The more engaging your subject lines, the higher your open rates will be.
Speak Directly To Your Reader
When writing autoresponder e-mail messages to your subscribers, don’t think of it as writing to the whole group. Instead, imagine that you’re writing the message to one single person on your subscriber list. Picture that person sitting across the table from you. How would you describe the tips you’re about to offer, or the hints and tricks? How would you convey the most recent news in your industry?
You might do so with simple language, with a little humor mixed in and you’ll generally have a friendly and bonding tone. Treat your autoresponders like a one-sided conversation and you’ll have much better success. Your subscribers will soon feel as though they’re getting messages from a friend, or at least from a familiar source, and that can go a long way towards building that trust-factor.
Treat Your Readers With Respect
Early on, let your subscribers know that you’ll never spam them or abuse their contact information in any way. This will also build more trust.
Always Leave Your Readers Wanting More
When you are ending your e-mails, it is acceptable to include links, but do so sparingly. Don’t be pushy. Again, treat your readers with respect. You will also want them to start looking forward to your e-mails.
When you send out tips, tricks, news, answers to frequently asked questions or anything else your audience finds informative and useful, always end it with a note saying that you’ll be back with even more tips, tricks, news and updates. Leave your audience expecting your messages and the high-quality each message brings and you’ll soon see why so many marketers choose e-mail marketing to take their businesses to the next level.
