Getting Creative With Your Email Campaign

Mass emails are very effective for getting the word out about your business, its services or products, and for garnering a broader, more loyal customer base. The problem with email campaigns is that they are often really, terribly boring; the content commonly sloppy, the aesthetic composition unappealing, and the exact purpose of the email not clear at all. These follies can ruin what would otherwise be a great medium for spreading awareness about your business and attracting customers, and any person undertaking an email marketing strategy is highly recommended to acquaint themself with the best forms for streamlining their campaign and making it more creative. Of course, there are standard rules that cannot be tampered with, but outside this realm of inviolable rules there is wiggle room enough for you to carve out your very own style as an email marketer. And, as always in business, standing out from the crowd is good for business.

Emailing 101 establishes for any new email marketer the rules of the game: keep your lists permission-based; do not sell or share contacts' info without explicit permission; keep the content relevant and well-written; and do your best not to exacerbate your recipients patience with too many emails. Those ideas basically sum up the foundations of a good campaign, with maintaining a strong code of conduct as the cornerstone of it all. Remember never to transgress lest you not care about your marketing strategy at all.

Moving beyond these core concepts, there are methods to keep your campaign fresh and creative. Take, for example, the idea of using email feedback: you can use your recipients as sounding boards for ideas you are thinking of incorporating into your emails. A question or two at the end of the email, or a link to leave feedback at your site, can be safe but sure ways to forecast the reaction to new marketing techniques. Just think, it's better to avoid a possible catastrophy by hearing that it would not be well-received beforehand, than suffering the opt-out rates that its implementation would almost surely imply.

Or consider the use of visual and audio elements. Though flashy colors and banners are commonplace in emails already, it is always pleasant to see original designs that still deliver a strong message. Audio can help to enhance your emails' allure, but make sure that you keep it relatively simple, as the time required to load large audio clips cuts back on their effect.

Just generally including new elements to your emails will keep your readers interested; after all, maintaing exactly the same format in all your emails for a very long time raises the risk of your business being perceived as not innovative and creative. Keep new offers flowing, keep creating newer bonuses, and experiment with phrases and images. With your email marketing software, you will be able to correlate the effectiveness of certain formulas with higher volumes of purchases (especially those done online). As usual, it's a balancing act, and if you respect the core ideas that help guarantee your marketing success, then you can allow yourself to adapt to your market and learn from your experience.

Consider iContact for your email marketing campaigns. It's a powerful platform that generates sophisticated results with the simplicity of a point-and-click interface. iContact is your best choice for email marketing software.