Email has been a great marketing strategy since the mid-90s, and mass emailing has made it even easier and more important in 2013. Whether you’re a startup that just setting up an email strategy or an older firm in need of an overhaul, you can benefit from this step-by-step guide on setting up a successful marketing strategy.
1. Decide what you need email to do – Are you a pure marketing firm that need to climb to the top of Google’s results quickly? Are you a small hardware store that just needs to get the word out and show up in local searches? Doing a quick check on your priorities will help you determine how to start your email campaign.
2. Hire a team – If you’re a marketing firm, you’ll need plenty of marketers who do nothing but email. If you’re a smaller brick-and-mortar outlet, I still recommend hiring someone to manage your unlimited email marketing software. Whether you go further and develop digital marketing content is up to you, but email is vital to the success of a small business and needs a lot of attention.
3. Consider content – Content is a great way to send interesting and useful information to your customers without relying on spammy sales pitches. Articles, graphics, and videos all make great email marketing content.
4. Find good software and test your strategy – Email marketing to unlimited subscribers isn’t just about sending blanket emails to your entire mailing list. Good software will allow you to break that list into smaller segments and tailor emails to those groups. You can then test how different email types work with these groups to find the best strategies.
5. Don’t go overboard – Some creative content is always welcome, but emails that rely on wacky fonts or too many images often land in the spam folder. Keep your emails clean and simple to deliver the best message to your customers.