How To Create An Email Marketing Campaign That Works

Written by Andrew Rondeau in Internet Marketing Advice | 14 Awesome Comments - Add Yours?

You’ve built your website / blog – great!

You’ve added a ‘free marketing signup’ giveaway product to your site…in return for the visitors email address.

You are keen to build a large email marketing list.

So you’re ready to implement your email marketing campaign…you can’t wait to sell, sell, sell.

You can’t wait to get started…but you should just hold on a few minutes…

… you should take time to analyze what factors make a quality email marketing campaign.

In reality:

Fact number one.

A high percentage of your email list will not buy from you. Period. They just want free goodies. That’s not a problem.

Fact number two.

Another high percentage of your email list will not buy from you until they get to know you and your reputation.

Fact number three.

That leaves a small percentage…that may buy from you straight away…if they like what you are selling.

No research but gut feel:

Fact one covers 60% of your list.

Fact two covers 35% of your list.

Fact three covers 5% of your list.

You email campaign is aimed at the complete email list but you are mainly trying to sell to the customers who fall into the fact two and three categories.

So what is the overall email marketing campaign strategy?

At a high level:

After your visitor signs-up to your email marketing opt in, you want to send your email list some extra free products, information and advice, interspersed with the odd email to try and sell them something…spread over several weeks.

I would recommend 6 emails a fortnight, one of which is recommending a product or something to buy (make sure you have actually used and benefitted what you are trying to sell).

What if you have several different types of sign-ups?

For instance, one for self-development and one for Camera advice.

You need to target your emails to the right recipients…

Many email marketing campaigns fail because the sender treats every email recipient the same. The person who signed-up for the self-development list also receives the email with the recommendation to buy the latest Nikon camera!

While the people who like self-development were happy, the rest of the email recipients were not happy and many unsubscribe or even hit that ‘SPAM’ button.

Don’t make the same mistake.

If you are using an autoresponder facility make sure you have different autoresponders for different sign-up lists.

Ensure Your Emails Are Personalized

When your visitors sign-up, you will ask for their name (and if you don’t I recommend you change it so you do). Nine times out of ten the visitor will put in their correct name rather than a made up name. Use this name in the subject line of the email and to actually start the email.

For instance:

Subject: Name, here’s your complimentary report on public speaking

Hi Name,

Welcome…..

You can also use their name, one or two (no more) times throughout the email.

I do have to share this little story with you…

Someone signed up to my email list and when they signed up they added their name as ‘karen’.

So all my emails, started with the subject: karen,….

…and started with:

Hi karen,

The name is taken from how they signed up. She signed up with ‘karen’ (i.e. the k was not a capital letter).

A few weeks later, Karen wrote to me and asked me to stop sending her emails addressed to ‘karen’ and ‘as I was someone in business, I should know names always start with a capital letter’.

The cheek!

I thought it was funny.

So, ensure you do personalize the emails you send out. The more personal you can get, the easier it is to build trust. You’ll also have a better chance of your emails being opened and read. And even better…the more chance your customers will buy from you.

Keep your emails simple

I do send HTML type emails but not because I add banners, flashy graphics, huge fonts, colors…I don’t.

I use them so I can add links to certain articles or other information.

I also make each line of text up to a maximum of 50 characters. That way there is no formatting problems when received by the receiver.

So, keep your emails clean and simple, otherwise your emails will go straight into the email waste bin.

Don’t make your emails too long

Is this a personal preference?

I hate long emails…paragraph after paragraph after paragraph.

We are all busy people and we all get hundreds of email every single day. The last thing I want is an email that just goes on for ever and I believe my email list customers are the same.

Use a few small paragraphs and if you have something you want to expand upon, link (using HTML type emails) to the rest of the story via a landing page on your site.

What Is The Point Of The Email?

The purpose of you sending an email is to build rapport, to share something you think your customers would like, to sell something. For every email you send out there must be a purpose.

If you are building rapport, you may ask them a question or two about themselves.

If you are sharing some extra advice, you may like to get their views on the subject.

If you are trying to sell them something, you want them to link to the sales page and buy!

How Do You Get The Email Opened?

One of the biggest problems email marketers have:

“How do I get more people to open my email?”

Your subject line.

Your subject line will make or break whether customers open your email or delete it.

You need to come up with a compelling, curious subject line that grabs the attention of your customers. Avoid rubbish like “make lots of money!” and “earn cash NOW!”.

Use subject lines that the receiver finds curious, but tells the truth at the same time.

instantsubjectlines2 cover4

Instant Subject Lines that your list must open and read...

If you do find it hard to come up with compelling subject lines then I can recommend a resource. You may have heard of Dan Lok – Dan Lok is a well-known Internet Marketer. I have several of Dans’ products and he has just released his latest entitled…”Instant Subject Lines”.

It’s basically a database of compelling subject lines…you fill in the blanks and out pops a compelling subject line. It can save you a lot of time…there are literally hundreds to choose from. You can check out all the details here:

”Instant Subject Lines”

In Summary…

I cannot say you will have a successful email marketing campaign but by using the above tactics, they will dramatically improve your chances of success and generate more sales.

_______________________________________________________________________________________




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14 Responses to How To Create An Email Marketing Campaign That Works
  1. Jeff Paul Internet Marketing

    I enjoyed your post! I’ve been looking around for such material as I’m new in internet marketing. I’m basically a web designer and now I want to try something new.

    Reply
  2. BuildYourBlog
    Twitter:

    Jeff Paul,

    Glad you enjoyed the post and great to hear you are expanding into new ventures!

    Andrew

    Reply
  3. Marianne

    I love the break down of the “LIST”. So many marketers just assume if they join your list they will buy, so many get disheartened. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  4. ThatsBlog.com

    Thanks for your submission to the Forty Second edition of the Blog Carnival: Blogging. Your post has been accepted and its live: http://thatsblog.com/blog-carnival-blogging/blog-carnival-blogging-forty-second-edition

    -ThatsBlog.com

    Reply
  5. Harry

    Hi Andrew,

    I think you have an amazingly appealing blog.

    It’s a joy to navigate and read.

    I think you really do know what you are doing and look forward to reading your Blueprint and then recommending it to my “list” ..

    I know they will get a lot out of it as I am sure I will too!

    Thanks again.

    Harry
    .-= Harry ´s last blog ..Your “Alert” 4 Friday Dec. 11, 2009 =-.

    Reply
  6. Koby

    Really great and valuable information. If you follow these email marketing campaign strategies and really care about the people on your list, you can build a really successful business.
    .-= Koby@email marketing programs´s last blog ..ToolTips =-.

    Reply
  7. Bob

    Great List, on your blog, its layed out nice.
    The skill lies in your ability to get your message over to your market in a way that makes them sit up and take notice.

    There is a plethora of excellent marketing methods with which to do this but get it wrong and your customer will remember you for life…….for all the wrong reasons!

    Reply
  8. Ryan

    Thanks for the tips! I am in the process of creating a new set of drip campaigns for my email marketing. I’ll be sure to put this to good use!
    Ryan recently posted..Roofing Professionals in IndianapolisMy Profile

    Reply
  9. Joe

    I’d like to add an additional tip to this great list. If a subscriber chooses to opt out of your list offer them other options before cutting the cord. Perhaps you were emailing them too much and they only want an email once per week or month.

    Create a separate mailing list for different intervals. Also include an opportunity for comments so they can tell you why they are opting out.

    Thanks!
    Joe
    –
    University of San Francisco Online
    Email Marketing Training

    Reply
  10. Liam Gallagher

    Great post Andrew,

    I’ve been working heavily in email marketing myself for the past 6 months and recently wrote a post on what I’ve come to know, as a form of direct mail I have to say, if done correctly the ROI is far greater than other methods I’ve previously used!

    Hope you’re well,
    Liam

    Reply
  11. Tom from Casas en Venta en Miami

    Hi Andrew,

    What about if you are offering a service (real estate, painter, etc.) How would you do it? I am working now on setting up an email campaign for a local business but I am struggling with what my mindset should be when writing the copy.

    Reply
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