BEST PRACTICES: EMAIL MARKETING

This is one in a series of posts on best practices in all aspects of building and maintaining a strong online presence. See also: Content Marketing; Social Media Marketing; SEO (Coming Soon.... Web Design.)

Email marketing waned in popularity as social media use grew, but email has some distinct advantages: more people use it; an email is far more likely to be seen than a social media post; and there’s a higher tolerance among email users for marketing: “With email, you can ‘train’ your customers to expect offers while simultaneously teaching them about your value, day in and day out. This means they begin to not only expect offers from you, but to desire them (at least some of them). And because of the ability to make effectively unlimited contacts, you are infinitely more likely to catch them at time when they’re ready to buy (which is one of the most important rules of sales).”

We’d advise you not to read “unlimited contacts” to mean relentless messaging. Reputable email marketing tools, like MailChimp and Constant Contact, have strict policies against spamming and will notice if larger numbers of your subscribers are opting out. Common sense and a few relatively easy-to-follow best practices will go far.

What should you put in your emails? Engaging content, of course.