Email Marketing for Beginners – 8 Quick Tips on Starting Email Marketing Campaign

These 8 quick tips on how to start Email Marketing campaign are for those who make first steps in email marketing business. Simple, short, easy-to-follow. I compiled most important tips and aspects for beginners here. So please enjoy! 1. Size. How many emails will you send? What is the optimal number? To answer these questions, consider how many people you can effectively handle when people start responding to your email offer. Average response rates on targeted direct email generally tend to fall between 5 and 15%. 2. Brokers. If you don't have your own opt-in list, make sure that you are renting an email list. You should never, ever buy a list of names and addresses. One sure-fire way to know if a "broker" is unethical is if they offer to sell you names or email addresses. A good broker is concerned about sending only quality emails that customers will be interested in receiving (opt-in is the key term). 3. Creative Brief. Targeting HTML customers with interactive and graphic-oriented e-mails will get you 2-3 times the response rate as text e-mails. However, only 35% of all email is set to receive in this format. This is where renting a list from a qualified broker can help with developing your brief and your content. 4. The Subject Line. This is one of the most important parts of each and every email marketing campaign. Many people delete messages without opening them. Thanks to spam, there is often too much e-mail and your potential readers have too little time. That means your email piece has to have a subject line that makes people want to read more. I've found that people want "me-mail", not mere e-mail. Use a bulk email program that easily allows you to personalize: insert your prospect's name in the subject line and body text. 5. HTML or text. When developing your opt-in list, ask your customer base whether they prefer to receive your missives in HTML or plain text, and develop a newsletter format for each type of client. Create a text-only version for clients that may prefer text, and for people whose e-mail systems do not accept HTML. 6. Length. The more frequent the newsletter, the shorter it should be. Keep dailies to a page or less and weeklies to five pages or less. Biweeklies and monthlies can be longer — but only if you're interesting. If you're going to have a long newsletter, consider a table of contents at the top. Tell your readers what is in the newsletter, so that they can scroll down to the section they choose. 7. Issue Number. Add an issue number to your e-newsletters. This will help your clients find and request pertinent information. It is also a good reference tool for your company. 8. Personality. Where appropriate, make your newsletter's tone personal or casual. Whenever possible, get rid of offensive corporate-speak, and use a casual approach. Be professional, but first and foremost, be a human being with personality and style and your subscribers will love you.