Do's and Don'ts of Email Marketing

Just a few years back, marketing executives were ready to give up on the notion of email marketing. With the progress of technology and social media, strategists had devised new marketing techniques which employed the effective use of social networking. The target market was being captured via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and email marketing seemed like something from the distant past. However, all that changed drastically. Email lists began to rise in importance, particularly since the last two years, and have now become the focal point of digital marketing strategies.

While social media platforms are viable as effective and engaging marketing outlets, they are not the same as email marketing. These mailing lists are one of the best ways to cater to a niche market as the client can personally interact with their customers and even ensure their long lasting loyalty.

Now, it may seem easy, but devising a successful email marketing campaign can be quite challenging. If you are in this field or have friends working in marketing, then you may already be familiar with the kind of attention to detail that is required. A successful marketing campaign takes a lot of effort, hard work and days of blood and sweat. When you are putting together an email marketing strategy, you have to be very careful with everything. This can create difficulties and leave a number of people wondering what to do.

Well, there is no need to worry about it anymore. In order to make this simple for everyone, we have come up with a list of dos and don'ts of email marketing that are going to help people avoid general mistakes. First, let's begin with the Dos:

- Purge your list.
Remove all the contacts that are not responsive or might have been changed.

- Create an opt-in email list.
This basically ensures that the recipients actually receive and respond to your email. There are a number of service providers which have spam and filtering measures, and sometimes your email could fall in either of these categories. Hence, an opt-in will help you avoid this situation.

- Monitor and track
There are many analytics and tools which will allow you to keep a track of bounce rates, subscriptions and click through rates. If you start to register a fall in any, you can test out different strategies and come up with a positive solution.

- Categorize your list.
Segment the list according to demographics, preferences and dislikes of customers. This way you will avoid sending out general emails and be relevant as well.

- Add in an opt-out option.
This will keep your customers happy and help maintain a good brand image as well.

Here are a few don'ts:

- Send out emails without testing.
If your links are not working or the design doesn't appear that well on screen, all your efforts will be futile.

- Go against spam laws.
Misleading and falsifying information is going to lead to trouble.

- Neglect the mobile audience.
Your design should responsive and adaptable with anything.

- Rent or buy an email list.
This will not be of any good use and you could end up compromising on quality customer interaction and relevancy.

- Forget to pay attention to the content.
You need to realize that the content is as important as design or layout. If what you say doesn't connect with the public, then no matter how appealing the email looks, it will fail to have that desired effect.