eMail Marketing Best Practices:
Everyone is looking for email marketing best practices. This article answers a lot of question about what you should send, how you should send it and how often.
What Should I Send to My Mailing List?
This is where the majority of people fall down. They get stuck on what to send out to their mailing list. It’s not really that complicated. There are five basic categories of emails you should be sending out to your list.
1. News
The purpose of news is to give your mailing list some knowledge. Knowledge is valuable. You are giving it away for free, therefore you are adding value. The other purpose of news is demonstrating to your customers that you are a subject matter expert. News is also very easy to collect from the internet and you can simply forward out a link to someone else’s news story. This is an email marketing best practices.
2. Guides and Instructional Information
The purpose of guides and instructional information is to give your mailing list some free knowledge. Again, knowledge is valuable and you are adding value by giving it to them. Like with news, it demonstrates your expertise as a subject matter expert. Some people worry about giving information away for free. However, when you think about it, information is not you. People will appreciate the knowledge you’ve shared, but they won’t have your years of experience and know how. They don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle. I believe that sharing the expertise and information you have just makes people realize how much they need you. So give it a try and provide value to your mailing list.
3. New Product Offers
If you have a new product. Tell your mailing list! People who took the time to sign up for your mailing list want to know about new products and services that you offer. Again, they’ve done business with you before and if you have something new to offer, they want to know about it.
4. Special Offers
Special offers are a big reason why people join mailing lists. They are hoping you will offer them a deal for being a loyal customer. Most businesses offer discount offers and coupons all the time. Why not construct a special deal for your mailing list. Everyone hates those “for new customers only” promotions. Email marketing best practices are to put some thought into an offer for your current customers and people on your mailing list.
5. Contests
Contests are a great email marketing best practices. They are a fun way to keep your mailing list engaged. Some ideas are starting a sporting pool, a monthly draw, or a creative contest where the person actually has to submit something to win. For example, if you sell baby products, you could host a “best baby picture” contest. Post them on your website and choose a winner. You’ll engage your mailing list and get web traffic at the same time.
Who,what,where, when and how
You should send a mix of all of the different types of mailings. The vast majority should not be selling. However, you do need to sell, that is the goal. You should probably follow the 80/20 rule and have 80% of your emails be informational and 20% be selling. The danger of selling too much, unless your offers are super incredible, is people get tired of that really fast an may unsubscribe. However if you have a good mix of value and great offers, people will stay on your mailing list and you’ll get to their in box. So email marketing best practices are that the strategy is to send regular emails; weekly isn’t too often with a mix of good value and offers.
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