What is Email Marketing?
We all know what email is? So in simple explanation email marketing is the use of email for promoting or marketing your business. Yes email marketing is the good option of communication with your customers, it not only help to get in touch with customers but also help to promote your business in many ways. I have explained below.
You may have heard about newsletter, or have visited many website where you have seen written ‘subscribe to our newsletter’. So what this newsletter is? This is the other form of common email where you put all the updates and latest part of your business and mail it to your subscriber. The subscribers when read your newsletter not only get interested in your business but also discover the latest going in our business. You can easily earn creditably of your visitors which is very essential for any online business. Email marketing is commonly done in name of newsletter; the newsletter is beautifully design and gives a professional look with the help of html codes. It is like your mini website in the inbox or your readers.
Remember the question remain to whom you can send business mail or newsletter? You can’t simply send your newsletter to any one you find in your contact list or from other source, please never do this, by doing this you will be level as spammers on internet and your business will lose creditability and so returning visitors. You should send business email to only those who ask for it, for e.g. asking for more information, have chosen ‘contact us’ or gave you feedback. In these cases you can write them welcome or greeting message with all sorts of your business details and how you can serve him/her. Secondly you can send your newsletter to those who willingly subscribe your newsletter from your site. In that case you can send email (newsletter) to them once in week with all updates, information and new features of your business. This will keep all your site visitors and potential customers close to you.
Advantages of Email Marketing.
Hope, from above you have got clear idea on what email marketing is now let see the real advantage of email marketing on your business.
• Foremost email marketing does not cost you anything comparing to other kinds of communication with visitors or customers. It also helps to promote your business along with communication.
• It helps to keep all your potential customers and visitors close to your business and helps to get repeated visitors.
• It helps you to keep your customers updated with all features in your business, products and offers and wins the creditability of visitors.
• You can easily track your business status by how well your email subscriber returns back to your site.
• You can easily customize the newsletter layout according to your business types, when visitors open your mail it will seem like they are viewing mini size of your website.
• Your email subscriber, if wish, can easily forward your newsletter to their friends or relative which can really help your business to flourish.
• You can choose to show ads and images to your email readers easily which can give professional touch to your business.
• You can send important links according to interested areas of your subscriber with your email which can help your visitors to visit that site within a click.
Among the above mentioned advantage of email marketing there are many more which you can learn gradually when you start email marketing with your site. But remember there are also some risks which can sink your good reputed business if you do not care to take email marketing importance.
Some risks which you should not overlook in case of Email Marketing were:
• Level as spammer: Sending unnecessary email with too many links or without consent of the visitors can put your mail in spam instead of inbox. Many people fear to open spam message because of fear of tracking software or gaining control on their computer. Thus instead of reading your mail they will block your address. Especially this happen more with Gmail users.
• Not giving option to unsubscribe: If you send your subscriber weekly newsletters then do not forget to mention a link at the end through which your subscriber can easily unsubscribe if they wish too. If they do not find that link then they will definitely mark your address as spam to avoid getting your mail in their inbox.
• Do not break the law: There are strict laws around the world for spammers, do not collect email addresses without owner’s consent, if in case you collect then give them your privacy policy to read how you handle their email id and privacy. With every newsletter or business mails mention your business or official address and if possible also mention your contact number.
Remember if your newsletter got lots of information to share then definitely your reader will forward it to his/her friend and indirectly you will gain traffic to your site.
Important tips: Before sending your first business email to your subscriber check it by sending it to your own email id and look where it has been placed, in inbox or in junk folder or is marked as spam. Make this testing with Gmail, Yahoo mail, hotmail and etc. If in most cases if you are marked as spam then make altercation on your newsletter. For e.g. if you have used JavaScript then delete it and try again by sending it to yourself and check.
Some common issues which can mark your newsletter as spam especially in Gmail were like using java script, using http:// in the source of images or in link (e.g. http:// www. Yoursite.com instead uses www. Yoursite.com directly without http either in source of images or in link.) And try to use embedded style sheet instead of putting style sheet src tag.
For better performance in email marketing, use reliable email provider. For small business you can also use Microsoft outlook express or thunderbird from Mozilla, from here you can easily customize your newsletter’s layout and create own newsletter templates with html codes.
Well, this is all I can share with you on email marketing; you can gain more knowledge on it from various sources. I will keep updating my post with more and more information for you so keep following me especially on twitter. Wish you great success in your business.
