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What is your main objective? Do you want to attract new customers? Build on your relationships with existing clients? Or get useful feedback that will help you to strengthen your brand? Knowing what your targets are will help you with planning your email strategy – when and how often you will email the customers, what the content of the email will be, and which calls to action you’ll include in the body of the message. Smart-targeting your campaigns to your visitors’ demographics is also very effective; organise your subscribers into subsets and write tailored emails for each category by looking at their age, gender, background, purchase history etc.

 

 

Permission is an important part of email campaigns – with so many people worried about spam, it is vital that you get people’s permission before you start sending them messages. This can be done simply with an ‘opt-in’ choice, and if you really want to gain the trust of your subscriber, go for a ‘double opt-in’ option. This involves sending the subscriber a confirmation email with a link that they then have to click on to verify their wish to be included in the mailing list. Just as important is including an ‘opt-out’ link at the bottom of every email you send, and make it obvious; people want to know that they can unsubscribe at any time.

 

 

If you want to add something extra to your emails, alluding to topical news items in your messages will help to grab people’s attention. If you target the types of popular culture references to your audience, they’ll be more likely to read the entire email and remember your brand in the future. Plan ahead for upcoming events, and use social media such as the trending topics on Twitter to see what people are talking about at the moment.

 

 

An important point to consider is the rise of smartphones and tablets. Mobile devices are getting more and more popular and you need to ensure that your emails will be readable on a small screen. This means avoiding bombarding people with huge blocks of text, and remember that the first line of an email is especially important as it is often displayed as the preview on smartphones, so make sure it’s engaging and informative.

 

 

Lastly, test each email before you send it – make sure it’s readable, that the links work, and that the logos and other images are placed properly. Keeping track of open rates, click rates, and sales will help you to improve your campaign in the future, so make sure you make use of reporting tools with regards to your emails.