getting-started2In my last post, I started talking about how you can begin using email to market your business. I discussed the benefits of email marketing, how you can decide on the goal of your campaign, and how you can get started building your mailing list. Now, you’re probably eager to get your first email campaign off the ground. Here are some more tips to help you get started with email marketing:

What Do You Want To Send?

Marketing emails generally fall into a few different categories. The type of emails that you send with depend on your goal. Here are a few of the types of emails you can use in your marketing strategy, so you can see which will help you best achieve your goal:

Offers

Marketing emails containing offers are some of the most commonly sent messages, and some of the most successful. They are particularly effective at driving sales because they usually demand a direct response from the customer.

This email from Blue Nile showcases a 25% off offer:

In this email, details are kept to a minimum; the focus is completely on the offer. It also has a strong, clear call to action. The customer knows exactly where to click to redeem the offer.

Newsletters

Email newsletters are less about selling to your customers and more about keeping them informed. Newsletters can be about just one major topic, or you can use them to tell your customers about everything going on at your business.

This newsletter, from Audio Lounge, has just one topic: they letting people know about their new newsletter, and asking people if they want to stay subscribed:

This newsletter, from Argus, covers a variety of topics. However, they have just included links to the full articles in the email. This helps stop the email from looking cluttered and overwhelming, and enables the subscriber to pick and choose what they want to read:

Marketing emails can also be used for a variety of other reasons, such as product launches, event invitations and announcements. Just make sure the emails you send work to help you achieve your goal.

Creating Your Campaign

Now, you can actually start to put your first campaign together. The design and content you use should relate to the goal that you first decided upon. However, there are a few simple rules that can help guide you.

Most people spend only a few seconds deciding whether or not they are going to read an email. Therefore, you need to grab your customers quickly. Most companies do this with their subject line. A good subject line should entice the customer, letting them know what’s inside the email, without giving everything away.

The subject line, from Graze, works well at encouraging their subscribers to open their email:

Once the reader opens the email, they will see that they only have one week left to redeem Graze’s 2016 offers:

Once your customer has opened the email, you still have to work to grab their attention. Nowadays, emails are, generally, not too ‘wordy’. They should have a clear headline and a strong call to action. Customers can then click through the email if they want more information. You can also say a lot with pictures.

This email, from Ugg, follows that template. Although there is a small amount of description in it, the email mostly relies on visuals. They have also included a hashtag (#myCLASSICstyle) so their message can be spread across social media:

Now that you’ve created your first email campaign, you can look forward to achieving excellent email marketing success for years to come.