Five top tips for successful email marketing campaigns

Over the years, I've gained a lot of experience in perfecting ways to find, nurture and retain clients and contacts.

During that time, I've built up a whole collection of hints and tips that can help make email marketing campaigns more successful. Here are five you may find useful...

Be consistent

Make sure your messages:

• are regular

• have a strong and recognisable look

• contain content that's appropriate to your business and of interest to customers

Regular communication with recognisable and compelling fonts, colours and images will reinforce your brand message and identity. This will build brand recognition, trust and loyalty among your readers.

Write it once and use it many times

Business owners are notoriously short of time, which is why consistency (or at least regularity) can be a challenge. Don't make things difficult for yourself. One piece of writing can serve many purposes.

For example:

• write a short, weekly blog

• once a month send out an email to your customers

• that email will have four articles – the four blogs you've written that month

• that email and those blogs can, together and separately, form a large part of your social media output

Three little words

The three little words to consider are Now, Later and Never. These come into mind as soon we receive an email. You want yours to land in the Now box!

Think of this when sending emails out:

• Who: Make sure it's clear the email is from you. Use the name your customers know you by (this may be your own name or the company name).

• Subject: Make it compelling, maybe include a call to action: 'We Need to Talk'. With a subject line like 'February Newsletter' your email is likely to end up in the Later or Never category.

• Timing: This is a testing and measuring exercise and it may take a little while to get it right. Send emails out at different times on different days of the week and use the analytics in the email marketing system you use to gauge what time and which day gives you the highest open rate. From then on, you can (consistently) send out your emails on that day and at that time.

Call to action

Keeping people informed and up-to-date is a good thing. Demonstrating your expertise through what you write in your emails is even better. But what makes a newsletter an engagement tool? A call to action.

Yes, you're building your brand and keeping your customers informed, but you're also running a business. Customers who engage with a business are more likely to become returning customers.

The action you want the reader to take doesn't have to be 'Buy Now'; it can be 'Download' or 'Complete This Survey' or even 'Fill in the Blank'. The aim is to get your readers to react with an action.

Build your list – everywhere!

It's all a matter of mathematics. The more people you engage with, the more customers you're likely to create.

You can include the opportunity to sign up for your emails in so many places, including the following:

• Your website: There should be a sign-up box on every page.

• Your email signature: Pop a sign-up option into the signature on your general, daily emails.

• At events or networking: Always follow up with people you meet and ask if it's OK for you to add them to your mailing list.

• Social media: Post your email newsletters out in social media. Add a 'Join My Mailing List' button in the email so people can sign up that way.

• Phone: If you have a call answering or call waiting system, why not include a message telling people how they can sign up.

• Articles: Mention that you have an opportunity to sign up in any articles you write.

Relevant resources

• 10 tips for effective email marketing

• Lunch and Learn: Email marketing for beginners

• How to use email marketing to grow your business [WEBINAR]