Email Marketing Best Practices

Email Marketing Best Practices

Email marketing is the practice of sending emails to customers and prospects to promote a product or service, special offer, an upcoming event, or an ebook. In short, email marketing involves getting relevant, informative information in front of your target audience in a timely manner.

Businesses use email marketing to update their target audiences on company news and keep them engaged between purchases. There are many benefits of email marketing. It provides a cost-effective way to reach an already engaged audience, deliver targeted messages, and drive sales and revenue.

Follow these email marketing best practices to achieve great, long-term results.

Be Transparent With Your Data Collection

Many black hat marketers collect data on their target audiences from different channels without obtaining their consent. This is both illegal and unethical. If you go down that road, not only will your target audience mark your mails as spam and send them to their trash cans without even opening them. Ending up on an email server’s blacklist is a death sentence for any would be email marketer, your emails become exponentially likely to end up in spam folders which will severely damage your ability to have a successful campaign.

A penalty for violation of privacy would mean a damaging loss of face. Send emails to only those individuals who have given permission to receive marketing emails from you.

Make it Easy to Unsubscribe

Many individuals who sign up for your email lists may want to opt-out after some

time. Make the process of unsubscribing to your email lists as simple as possible. Add an easily noticeable unsubscribe button or link to your email template. Sometimes people aren’t looking to completely unsubscribe, but decrease the number of emails they receive from you. In this case, it’s a best practice to allow recipients to choose what information they want to receive from you.

Respect Your Subscribers’ Privacy

When a prospect or a customer agrees to receive emails from you, they trust you with their personal info. Do not breach their trust by sharing their info with third parties. In this same vein, organically building your list so that it comprises people who want to be receiving information from you will benefit both parties in the long run.

Segment Your Email Lists

Segment your subscribers into appropriate groups based on location, age, interests, or other criteria relevant to your business and target audience. If you do not segment your subscribers, you may end up sending irrelevant emails to them and your campaign’s success rate may be negatively impacted

Optimize Your Emails for Mobile

More than 80% of emails are opened and read on mobile devices. If your emails aren’t optimized for mobile, many of your subscribers might not open them, and you might miss out on big opportunities.

Here are some ways to create more mobile friendly emails.

  • Make sure your subject lines do not contain more than 25-30 characters
  • Use optimized pre-header texts
  • Keep it short and sweet. Say more with fewer words
  • Make sure your CTA buttons are easily noticeable
  • Images and other media should fit into the viewer’s screen. Prevent grainy, blurry or pixelated images

If you pay attention when opening an email on desktop, you’ll likely notice that most of them actually look like they were originally formatted for a mobile device. This isn’t done accidentally and showcases the importance of a mobile-friendly email format.

WSI Smart Marketing offers top notch email marketing services near you, Santa Rosa. We help businesses build and maintain customer loyalty while generating additional leads and sales. To learn more, call (707) 843-3714.

Why Hiring A Social Media Agency is Valuable for Your Business

Should you in-house your social media management or outsource this task to the experts?

This is easily one of the most common questions business owners ask themselves when it comes to marketing their brand. In today’s business landscape, having a social media presence can make or break your business’ growth and longevity.

A great website and digital marketing strategy will help you generate consistent sources of lead generation you want when growing your business. However, consumer preference has shifted in favor of companies that have a culture and purpose beyond selling their products. Social media is the best way to show that to your target audience.

Unless you have a dedicated employee with the necessary expertise, in-housing your social media can quickly lead to stress, frustration, and lackluster results. This is especially true if the employee doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on the role on top of their primary job function.

There are numerous benefits to partnering with a social media agency in Northern California for your social media management, including saving on training time and crafting an intelligent, strategic social media campaign.

Here are four reasons why hiring a social media agency can bring real value to your business.

Increase Brand Value

With professional creative talent and fresh perspective, your partner agency will be able to create compelling, engaging content for your brand that clearly captures the essence of how your business should be perceived. They will determine how to best leverage your brand assets, products, office culture, and more.

In return, your customers will be more likely to engage with your business because they are able to better connect to your brand and its values.

Consistency is Key

One of the most effective methods for growing a strong social media presence is consistent activity. As a business owner, it can be hard to carve out extra time to create, post, and engage regularly. The deliverables that a social media agency will provide include publishing posts regularly with the appropriate branding and verbiage, engaging with other similar companies, and answering any queries.

Optimization

Ask any social media expert and they will tell you there is not a true one size fits all solution. Each brand’s strategy will have different goals and themes based on the brand’s values, offerings, and culture.

Social media experts use data and testing to optimize the campaign strategy to your brand’s needs by reporting your results monthly and taking the time to communicate any necessary updates that may require your input.

Looking Outside of the Box

Social media trends and best practices are changing all the time, which can require a lot of effort to keep up with. Your social media coordinator is responsible staying on top of their research on trends and best practices for social media success.

They are also experts at implementing creative designs that look great, show off your brand elements, and are optimized for accessibility.

If you are looking to partner with a social media agency in Northern California, WSI can help. Our team of experts has the know-how and experience to help you craft a winning social media strategy. Contact our team today to discuss your needs at (707) 843-3714.