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Email marketing is a great way to communicate with existing and prospective customers alike, providing a fast, efficient opportunity to drive leads and build connections. A favored method for nearly 90% of marketers, email marketing can give you a leg up on your other digital methods, seeing click-through rates six times higher than social media.
The idea of effectively using email marketing is great in theory. But actually implementing best practices is something else entirely. To take the right approach in creating and using email lists, here's what you need to succeed.
Creating Email Lists
An email list is exactly what it sounds like: a list of contacts to whom you can distribute rich, high-quality content. However, acquiring one isn't as straightforward as it sounds.
While an email list contains names and contact information; a valuable and true list represents customers who are authentic and interested. You need to work to acquire customers that will benefit from the information or offers you have to provide.
Overall, your email list needs to encapsulate three distinct areas: quality, relevance and size. All contacts should be high quality, meaning that they are real humans who check their email regularly. They must also have interests relevant to your business. Purchased email lists often fail this test; the individuals available often have no connection to your company or industry. And, lastly, you need a large number of email recipients. If you don't have enough people to warrant the effort, your email newsletters will take time out of your schedule without significantly impacting your business.
Collecting Customer Emails
So, you need a strong collection of customer and prospect email addresses. But how do you get them?
A website sign-up is among the best possible ways to collect contact information. In general, this opportunity only appeals to invested individuals, ensuring quality, relevant consumers. Be sure to include a call to action that clearly explains how enrollees will benefit.
Giveaways and promotions can also be a good way to attract attention. By giving those who sign up the chance at a reward, like an exclusive prize, or access to a promotion, like a discount code, you can solicit contact details easily from those who care about your operations.
In-person solicitations can be effective as well. Urge employees to ask customers if they want to receive emails and promotional material and keep an information sheet on hand to solicit names, phone numbers and email addresses.
Organizing Customer Contacts
Having lists isn't enough, you need to know how to use them. While some promotions will be appropriate for everyone on your list, other messages will function best when shared with specific subsets of your market. For example, an individual customer likely won't want your promo rates for business insurance. But they may respond to a newsletter on how to make the most of a homeowners' policy.
By organizing your list into sub-categories, you can ensure all of your emails will go to those most likely to act on the information provided. In general, targeted emails, or those aimed at specific interests and curated data, are the most successful, boasting a 10% increase in response or action.
If you have purchase history or biographical details from customers, an optimized profile can help you best understand consumer needs. If you don't have these details, it's important to implement a solution to capture them. This can be a survey that comes after an initial subscription or a customer profile for online checkout.
In order to best target customers, organize your lists by topical data, including:
Winning at Email Marketing
If you want to win at email marketing, you need great email lists. By collecting and organizing contact information from as many relevant, quality individuals as possible, you can expand your reach and broaden your customer base. With the power of email, it's possible to move your brand forward, building connections and deepening relationships with those who matter most.
The idea of effectively using email marketing is great in theory. But actually implementing best practices is something else entirely. To take the right approach in creating and using email lists, here's what you need to succeed.
Creating Email Lists
An email list is exactly what it sounds like: a list of contacts to whom you can distribute rich, high-quality content. However, acquiring one isn't as straightforward as it sounds.
While an email list contains names and contact information; a valuable and true list represents customers who are authentic and interested. You need to work to acquire customers that will benefit from the information or offers you have to provide.
Overall, your email list needs to encapsulate three distinct areas: quality, relevance and size. All contacts should be high quality, meaning that they are real humans who check their email regularly. They must also have interests relevant to your business. Purchased email lists often fail this test; the individuals available often have no connection to your company or industry. And, lastly, you need a large number of email recipients. If you don't have enough people to warrant the effort, your email newsletters will take time out of your schedule without significantly impacting your business.
Collecting Customer Emails
So, you need a strong collection of customer and prospect email addresses. But how do you get them?
A website sign-up is among the best possible ways to collect contact information. In general, this opportunity only appeals to invested individuals, ensuring quality, relevant consumers. Be sure to include a call to action that clearly explains how enrollees will benefit.
Giveaways and promotions can also be a good way to attract attention. By giving those who sign up the chance at a reward, like an exclusive prize, or access to a promotion, like a discount code, you can solicit contact details easily from those who care about your operations.
In-person solicitations can be effective as well. Urge employees to ask customers if they want to receive emails and promotional material and keep an information sheet on hand to solicit names, phone numbers and email addresses.
Organizing Customer Contacts
Having lists isn't enough, you need to know how to use them. While some promotions will be appropriate for everyone on your list, other messages will function best when shared with specific subsets of your market. For example, an individual customer likely won't want your promo rates for business insurance. But they may respond to a newsletter on how to make the most of a homeowners' policy.
By organizing your list into sub-categories, you can ensure all of your emails will go to those most likely to act on the information provided. In general, targeted emails, or those aimed at specific interests and curated data, are the most successful, boasting a 10% increase in response or action.
If you have purchase history or biographical details from customers, an optimized profile can help you best understand consumer needs. If you don't have these details, it's important to implement a solution to capture them. This can be a survey that comes after an initial subscription or a customer profile for online checkout.
In order to best target customers, organize your lists by topical data, including:
- Purchase habits
- Purchase frequency
- Birthday and demographic details
- New customers
Winning at Email Marketing
If you want to win at email marketing, you need great email lists. By collecting and organizing contact information from as many relevant, quality individuals as possible, you can expand your reach and broaden your customer base. With the power of email, it's possible to move your brand forward, building connections and deepening relationships with those who matter most.
