You’ve probably heard of email marketing, but you may not be doing it the right way. Even if you’re not using email marketing to promote a product or service, you’re probably still affected by its popularity. People are getting so used to communicating through emails that when they do want to talk to someone face-to-face, they think email is too formal.
Here’s where you’re probably thinking that email marketing is a form of spam and that you should be doing everything you can to stay away from it. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Email marketing can be a powerful tool for business—if you do it right. So let’s take a look at some tips to help you avoid wasting your time and emailing potential customers with no plan to follow up.
1. Avoid Unsubscribed List Building
The first and most important step to effective email marketing is to make sure you have a proper email list. This means you’ve gathered all the email addresses of people who want to hear from you, and you haven’t pitched them with spam or created an endless list of spammy, irrelevant content. As a business owner or marketer, you’ll be responsible for collecting email addresses and nurturing them into a healthy subscriber base. You can’t expect to get very far with email marketing if you don’t already have a substantial number of subscribers.
To avoid unsubscribed list building and to gain the trust of your audience, ensure you provide value. Offering valuable information or content in your emails will make your subscribers more likely to stay engaged and help you gain their trust. The more you provide them with value, the less likely they are to unsubscribe. When done right, email marketing can be a very effective strategy for gaining trust and building a relationship with your audience. If you want to learn more, check out this Marketing Guide that teaches you the ins and outs of email marketing.
2. Measure The Results Of Your Email Marketing Efforts
One of the key benefits of having a proper email list is that you can measure the results of your email marketing efforts. You can see the value in having a clear metric for your email marketing success. The following are some examples of metrics you can use to measure the success of your email marketing campaigns:
- Unsubscribe rates: How many people are unsubscribing from your list?
- Engagement rates: How engaged are your subscribers with your content?
- Conversions: How many people are showing interest in your offer (either through clicks or purchases)?
- Metrics regarding email list growth: Are you growing your email list or is it staying the same?
You can use these metrics to determine the success of your email marketing campaigns and to identify areas for improvement. For example, if you notice that a large number of your subscribers are unsubscribing but are still receiving your emails, you may want to reevaluate the content you’re sending to ensure that it provides value and doesn’t appear to be spam. Or, if you’re getting a lot of ‘no-clicks’ (people who clicked on your link but didn’t make a purchase), you may want to decrease the frequency of your emails until you see increases in conversions.
Some businesses believe that unsubscribed lists are a necessary evil and use them for their own marketing purposes. But that’s not a good practice. Having an unsubscribed list means you still have ‘open’ email addresses that can be used for future marketing campaigns. This is in contrast to a ‘subscribed’ list, where you can only send content to people who actually wanted to hear from you. Additionally, having an unsubscribed list allows you to measure the success of your emails by using the metrics listed above.
If you decide that email marketing isn’t right for your business, you can stop collecting email addresses and deleting those you’ve acquired through unethical means. You don’t want to build a relationship with someone who doesn’t want to be contacted.
3. Don’t Get Discouraged By The Hype
Email marketing is a versatile tool and can be used to reach all sorts of people. This is one of its greatest benefits. Not everyone needs or wants to hear from you, or your product, but many do. So, if you’re looking for a way to connect with your audience, consider sending out emails. Just keep in mind that not everyone will like or benefit from what you have to say. This is especially true if you’re selling a service rather than a product. Trying to sell a product with no plan for promotion can lead you to spam filters and a sharp decline in list growth. Just remember—email is a versatile tool and there are many ways you can use it to reach your audience.