Email Marketing Tips and Tricks

by Chris Jackson

The Internet can be a great marketing tool enabling you to reach thousands of potential customers instantly and helping you hit your target market. Many online services allow you to advertise to their subscribers with what is called permissive marketing. With this type of marketing you can send an HTML page to a targeted audience via email.

As with any advertising it is essential that you start at the beginning. Ask yourself: Who is my target audience? What is my objective? How will I measure success? Put yourself in the mind of your consumers and imagine why they would want to buy your product over someone else's. What makes you better than the rest? This is your unique selling proposition or USP.

When building your ad, use what's called the AIDA strategy:

Attention: The first part of your write-up grabs the readers' attention.
Information: The second part gives them information.
Desire: The third part makes them desire your product.
Action: The fourth part spurs them to action making them buy your product.

Make your offers count. Your audience should be able to see what's in it for them immediately. $10.00 Off! 10 Free Trades! 9 Cents a Minute! FREE UPS Shipping for First Order! Remember that the purpose of the offer is to make your audience take action. Create a sense of urgency. Act Now! Limited Time Offer!

Make it easy. Give your audience multiple ways to click on your ad to take advantage of your offer. Tell them to click here. Give them a button to click on. Point to your logo and let them click on it. Give them a minimum of four ways to accept your offer. You only have one chance to compel them to act, so make it count.

Keep it clean and simple. Don't present your customers with too much info or multiple offers. Your audience will scan your ad briefly, but almost no one will read it entirely. Minimize clutter and text-heavy copy. Make your offer stand out and don't make your customers scroll down the page for more info. Remember that less is more.

Chris Jackson - Communication Specialist