Email Marketing Tips

Growing your list is only the beginning of building your online business; you need people who will continue to eagerly open your emails, are ready for your next tip or story, and are interested in your offers. These are a few email marketing tips that will change your business drastically.

Here’s what it means to…

1.      Focus on your subscriber.

Before writing a word, ask yourself:  “What would brighten her day?  Inspire her today?  Help her out?  Entertain her? Amuse her?”

Pick one of these options and it’s as simple as that.

2.     Use Irresistible Subject Lines

Two components, and two components only, will make your subscriber decide to open your email – even if they are the sort of person that “doesn’t have time” to read.

• Number One:  Being able to see clearly who the email is from – and having a mental picture of how you “fit in”.

Putting your full name in the “From” designation is good, but if they’ve signed up in a fever to get some freebie they need (i.e. your freebie), they may not actually remember your name.  So make sure you give them another great big clue.

Seeing a “From” Line that reads “Ann Maddox” might or might not bring up a mental picture of who you are and what you do:  Seeing a “From” line that reads “Ann Maddox, the Free Template Lady” will certainly jog their memory.

• Number Two:  Your Subject Lines

Number One is easy enough to set up; and once you’ve done so, you don’t need to do this again. It consists of not only making sure your name displays in the “From” field, but also a clue about what you do (or your business name, if that’s descriptive.)  Example:  “Joe Smith, Finance Tips for Seniors”.

Number Two, creating irresistible Subject Lines, is a little more work.  However, the good part is that you don’t have to create the wittiest or cleverest Subject Lines on the planet: Nor do you have to win a Pulitzer Prize for writing.

Your Subject Lines just have to inspire the reader to open them.

And here’s a secret that everyone should know but too many people ignore:  Every email after your first couple you send will be opened based not just on the actual promise in the Subject Line – but on whether or not you kept that promise.

In other words, if your first “Quote of the Day” was pedestrian, your subscriber is less likely to open the next one.

If “News you can’t live without!” turned out to be not that spectacular and something your subscriber has already heard from five previous correspondents, your subscriber is most likely to skip the next email.

And if your first free Template turned out to be dependent on purchasing a Toolkit, it’s virtually guaranteed your next Freebie offer won’t be opened.

Here are a few tips to make sure your Subject Lines do the trick:

• Be clear in what the email is about (for example, “Here’s a review template for you” is much clearer than “Wanna freebie?”)
• Make your Subject Line sound conversational rather than like a book chapter Title.  “What God told me about honesty today” is more likely to intrigue than: “God and You – What Honesty is Really All About!”
• Learn about Spam filters – and the words in your Subject lines that trigger them.

Words sure to bounce your emails straight to your intended recipient’s spam filter limbo are:

• Free
• Sale
• Work at Home
• Make Money
• Click install
• Income
• Profit

And there are many more – but these will give you the drift:  Anything that even vaguely hints at sales or sex may be tossed into spam limbo – no matter how pure your intentions

• Finally, be careful with punctuation.  Avoid exclamation marks and dollar signs like the plague.
• Don’t use initial caps:  Write your subject line the way you would if you were sending a message to your sister or best friend.

3. Use a Conversational Tone

Not just in your Subject Lines, but in your emails, too.  Write as if you’re speaking only to the subscriber who is reading it.

4.  Make your Emails Shareable

Not just information – but your information in particular.

And if you want your reader to share your  email – tell them – and give them a link to send people to, so they can sign up for your list voluntarily.

5.     Track Your Emails

Your email campaigns will never achieve wild success until you use the tools your Autoresponder should provide to track the following data:

• Click-through rates
• Unsubscribe rates
• Delivery rates
• Opens
• Sales

Use this data to help you refine and hone each new email you write.  For example, your Delivery Rate should provide valuable clues as to which Subject Lines are not getting through Spam filters.

Make a note of possible trigger words in the Subject Lines of emails that weren’t delivered and either avoid using them; or use them in a split-test group, to confirm whether or not that certain word is the problem.

These are the keys to a successful email marketing campaign. I recommend Aweber as an email and autoresponder service if you are just getting started. Get started for only one dollar.