Monday, February 09, 2009

Typical Mistakes of the Average Email Marketer

Today, businesses with email campaigns are a dime dozen, and rightly so, as foresaking this powerful medium would be like refusing to have an online presence itself. If you want to succeed in the market, you need to take full advantage of all the marketing options available to you, and these days email marketing figures chief among them. Many email campaigns are mundane affairs that only achieve a degree of success for the business based on the validity and attractiveness of whatever is being offered, not the form in which it is being offered. Yet not all businesses have the advantage of providing absolutely necessary and fundamental products and services, and therefore need to enhance the attractiveness of their offers by implementing certain techniques to draw in customers. Especially for those operating in the luxury services or products field, there is no room to rest on one's laurels and let good business opportunities pass you by.

With this basic idea that what counts is not only what is being provided, but furthermore the way in which it is being presented and provided, here goes a list of typical mistakes which anyone running an email campaign ought to avoid.

? Imposing yourself on your recipients. A billboard can't waltz into someone's living room, so your emails shouldn't be able to waltz into unsuspecting email inboxes. You need to be running a legitimate operation (not only to stay out of legal problems, but also to stay on your ISP's good side), which means that your mailing list is entirely opt-in-double opt-in is better. You don't want to go making enemies on the internet, now.

? Writing like a grade-schooler. Unless you want your readers to think that they're receiving a joke from a kid with too much time on his hands, then create gramatically excellent content. If your copy is sloppy, your sales will fail. If you're not comfortable with writing enough original content with impeccable syntax to fill each edition, then hire a proofreader or writer. It's worth the invesment.

? Forgetting to deliver. This is marketing after all, and you need to be putting your product or service front and center. Remember that the composition of the email is very important in this respect: the subject line and the opening sentence are the gold mines of any successful email campaign, as they are what will catch the reader's eye, though also make sure you end on a strong note for those that read all the way through your email. Keep links for those wanting to realize a purchase clearly visible and make sure they take the person directly to the payment page. There should never be detours for a person willing to buy in the moment, as that desire is usually more fleeting than you'd like to know.

? Not staying on top of requests. If one of your contacts asks you for information or requests something of you, don't miss out on the opportunity to prove your attentiveness and develop faith in your reputation and competence. If you say requests will be answered within 24 hours, then you had better make sure you can make good on your word.

These are some of the most common mistakes to be committed in the field, and it's important for your business that you know how to avoid them. Experiment with new ideas, and keep these lessons in mind at all times!

Consider iContact for your email marketing campaigns. Its 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.