Email Marketing Resolutions
5 resolutions for a great new year of email marketing
The arrival of a new year can help motivate us to make decisions that prompt great results. While losing weight, eating healthy, and getting more exercise are all great New Year's resolutions, I'm thinking about something a little different-making the most of your email marketing efforts. Why not set a goal to reach your personal best as an email marketer in 2007?
This month I'm highlighting some email marketing best practices-a.k.a. resolutions-to help you get started. You might be implementing some, but not all of them. I encourage you to pick at least one that you aren't doing and hold steadfastly to it this year. By doing so, you will find that email marketing can make even more of a positive impact on your business or organization than it has so far.
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I'm going to grow my list at every turn-Everyday there are opportunities to add someone to your email list. Train yourself and those who work with you to take advantage of every opportunity to grow your list. If you haven't added a sign-up box to your website, now is the time! If you have a store front, make sure to keep your email book out on the counter and ask every customer to sign it. How about setting a goal to grow your list by a certain percentage this year? If you put your mind to it, I bet you can do it.
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I'm going to spend a little more time on my emails-If you want your emails to be valued by those on your list, you have to put some of your valuable time into them. Are you giving yourself enough time to think about what you are trying to accomplish? Are you giving your best effort to creating content that is interesting and useful to your list members? Do you have some great ideas for email promotions that you haven't put to work yet? Let this year be the year. The little bit of extra time and energy you spend on creating your emails can get a big return!
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I'm going to keep a clean list-Doesn't it feel great to sleep in clean sheets, eat in a clean kitchen, or put on a clean shirt? We love when things are clean, but it takes some work to get them that way. It's the same with your email list. It might take a little bit of work to get rid of old emails and hunt down the issues of those being blocked, but it's worth it. And once you've spent the time to do a deep cleaning, the upkeep is easy. Make it your goal to give a little bit of time to list cleaning each month so you can get that good feeling that comes from having a sparkling list made up of people who want to hear from you.
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I'm going to test, test, test-If you read Hints & Tips, you know that we are big fans of testing. It is the best way to determine what you can do to get optimal results from your audience. By testing, you can learn what day and time-of-day to send, what subject lines get the most opens, and what topics, promotions, offers, and calls-to-action get the best responses. Your open and click-through rates will give you the answers. By testing and using your findings you'll be better equipped to create highly-effective emails. Make sure to take good notes!
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I'm going to segment my list (or further segment it)-Dividing your list into categories based on interests, shopping habits, geographical locations, or any other criteria you choose is an excellent goal for this year. Targeted marketing can make a huge difference in the responses you get from your emails. If you can communicate with your contacts about something that you know is of interest to them, you have a much better chance of getting them to open the email, read it, and, best of all, act on it. I can't write it enough-the more targeted the message, the better the response.
I hope that one (or all, if you are ambitious) of these resolutions works for you. If not, you can make up your own. What's something you want to do better? Tap into the potential of email marketing-let this be the year that you take it to the next level and reap the best results ever. Happy New Year and happy email marketing!
