Summary: Emails have given businesses the ability to market their products and services in a cost-effective and efficient manner. It is a marketing channel that is direct, personal, interactive, and can be executed without any special skill requirements.

Emails have given businesses the ability to market their products and services in a cost-effective and efficient manner. It is a marketing channel that is direct, personal, interactive, and can be executed without any special skill requirements.

Although, managing an email marketing campaign is a fairly easy process, you do need to have a strategy in place so that you can get maximum benefits for your time and effort. You can acquire and retain customers by means of a well-planned email marketing campaign.

Given below are 10 points that you need to consider when embarking on an email marketing campaign:

1. What are your objectives? – Know your aims, what is that you expect from an email marketing campaign? New customers and updating existing customers are the primary objectives for most. Consider factors such as your qualitative and quantitative goals, your target audience, type of content, frequency and other such points.
2. Ensure that you don’t get deleted – This is easier said than done. In these days of phishing attacks and incessant spam, people find it best to block messages that they feel are irrelevant. Take steps to ensure that your communication does not end up in the spam folder. Get visitors to your site to join your newsletter, send emails with well-thought subject lines, and importantly address your customer by name as spammers usually don’t do that; they do not have the resources to implement database marketing techniques.
3. Things you can do – You can sell your products; deliver qualified leads to your customers; inform about events; offer product updates; earn revenue through ads; offer domain-specific content to enhance your reputation as an expert and occupy the customer’s mind space.
4. Make them look forward to it – Keep your content relevant; customize it to the extent possible. Use email marketing as a part of your broader CRM strategy. Emails are a part of your multi-channel strategy.  It is another means of reaching out to your customers. Use it in conjunction with other offline and online communication channels. Pick and choose customers that you wish to involve with your campaigns.  Do not blitz every customer with news that is not relevant to him.
5. What does your customer prefer? – Know your customer preferences in terms of how they prefer to be contacted. If emails are fine with them and they have opted-in for emails, ensure that they have the freedom of choice to set their preferences regarding frequency and type of communication. Use your emails as a means to gather customer information. You can even make your newsletters interactive.
6. Use the right product – There are many email marketing softwares available but not all of them have it in them to enable you to conduct a sustained email campaign. The most attractive feature with such products is their price which appears unbeatable. However, such low-end products do not even offer basic features such as opt-out facilities, frequency control, delivery rates, etc.
7. Audience segmentation – In order to get maximum benefits from your email marketing campaign, direct your emails to those who can offer you the kind of response you desire. This calls for audience segmentation not very different from what is done in other direct marketing initiatives. Consider past campaign results, demographic data, and purchase patterns of potential target audiences.
8. Analyze regularly – Analyze your email marketing campaigns. Be informed about the cost of acquiring new email addresses; the rate at which you are growing, means of adding to your database in a cost-effective manner; the nature of your mail content; the budget for email marketing; campaign performance metrics such as emails opened, responses, clicks; and other such factors.
9. Conduct the campaign responsibly – Use this opportunity of communication with your clients. Reach out to them and offer them information on issues relevant to them. These could include information on email privacy, online security, and your efforts to ensure that your customers are not spammed. You can also offer freebies such as downloadable e-books and whitepapers on subjects related to your business.
10. Let your customer’s experience start from here – Your emails are a great opportunity for you to strike the right chords with your existing and prospective customers from the very beginning. Research shows that consumers develop lasting impressions from their initial interactions with a company; this is the reason why direct communication avenues such as call centers, door-to-door sales, and emails are such powerful impression builders.

Conclusion

Executed correctly, an email marketing campaign is a great way to get noticed if you are a startup and an inexpensive means to reach out even if you already have a presence in your domain.