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Email marketing is one of the most widespread modes of internet marketing. Researchers estimate that in the Australia alone, firms spent about AU$200 million on email marketing in 2006. To give your sales and revenue a boost, this may be just what your business needs.
While email marketing is not as simple as you may think, it can be highly effective once you get the hang of it. Here are a few do’s and don’ts for an email marketing campaign that should help you avoid falling into the common traps.

Email Marketing

• Try to greet the email recipients by their name, and avoid a mere generic greeting. This automatically makes the email feel much less remote and impersonal – the recipient is more likely to look carefully at your offer and perhaps follow it up.
• Make sure that the subject of the email message is catchy enough to make them want to open it up.
• Ensure that the HTML part of your email corresponds correctly with its plain text counterpart – spam filters check this in particular so make sure your email does not end up in spam.
• Use a good email marketing application (such as aweber.com). These applications help you setup your auto-responder emails in a sequence. So all you have to do is select which list you want the emails to go to and schedule their publish dates. The software automatically sends them to the recipients at the scheduled times.
• Make sure that the emails are written in a conversation tone. A friendly and candid language works best for emails.
• Effective email campaigns are designed so that there is a call to action in the end. Whether you want the readers to visit your site, subscribe to your blog, download your product, or participate in a contest; make sure you entice them to do that at the end of the emails.

Email Marketing Don’ts:

• Avoid multiple dollar signs and exclamation marks, and also excessive capitalization in your email offers. With the profusion of advertising on the internet, most users are thoroughly tired of exclamatory offers full of $$$ signs and will delete the email as soon as they spot it. Spam filters often automatically trash such emails. Keep the tone calm and polite throughout to avoid irritating the recipient.
• Do not send emails during the holiday season, because people often don’t check their email during holidays. Marketing in the holidays can therefore be ineffective and a waste of resources.
• Try to keep your email marketing opt-in, not opt-out. Opt in basically means that the user has knowingly given you his or her email address. Opt-in emails are an effective mode of email marketing because you automatically filter out uninterested recipients.

Email marketing is an extremely powerful tool, but only if done following the right guidelines. It can give your sales a significant boost. It’s also a great idea to keep in touch with your existing customers and clients by updating them on latest offerings.