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How to Create Email Marketing Campaigns that Generate Huge Results

Email Marketing

How to Create Email Marketing Campaigns that Generate Huge Results

Written by Kristin Marquet for Gaebler Ventures

Email marketing is effective. In fact, many businesses prefer to run email marketing campaigns over direct mail campaigns because it is more cost effective.

Email marketing has not become obsolete. However, many business owners are still not aware of how to design a campaign that generates any profits, let alone huge profits.

Over the last year, I have worked on a variety of campaigns for small, medium and large sized business, identified what elements work and what elements do not, and have developed a list of what makes email marketing both profitable and worth your time.

The money is in the list. Selecting the right email list is essential to the success of your email marketing campaign. Find customers who purchased items similar to your products/services and ask the list owner if you can rent or purchase it. Putting together a random list of names is an ineffective way to market and expect results.

When you send out an email campaign, the main point is to spark interest in the names on that list and get them to ask for more information on what you are selling. Trying to sell to prospects from the first contact is difficult and often results in a failed email campaign.

Wordy and long emails are often unread and deleted. Keep it short and simple. The copy should tell whom you are, what you selling, the benefits of your product/service, and have a strong call to action.

Offer something free. It should have a high-perceived value. For instance, offering a free trial, free subscription, free e-book, or some other product dramatically increases sale conversions.

Give discount and limited time offers. Note: both of those offers generally have higher response rates when used in sales letters.

Call to action is one of the most important components of an email marketing campaign. You need to tell the reader what to do next. Tell them to "Call now for your free trial" or "Sign up at www.yourdomain.com to receive a free trial."

Tracking responses is the only way to measure the success of your email marketing campaign. Your email may generate strong results in one market and less in another market. Using a special code for each campaign is the best strategy.

If you want to see results, follow up. Why would you spend all this time and effort designing an email marketing campaign and not bother to follow up? Again, it is very difficult to sell someone from one advertisement. Keep your prospect informed of what you are selling. If you do not, you are letting a large portion of your sales slide.

Testing headlines, images, graphics, fonts, copy, etc is another way to increase conversions. Testing each component of the process separately is the way to see which components work together. Check out www.google.com/optimizer and www.fivesecondtest.com for more information.

Ask for customer feedback. No matter how well your ads and sales letter are written, it can still convert at a higher rate. Use tools like www.surverymonkey.com to determine the best ways to improve your copy.

Kristin Marquet will be receiving her MBA from Harvard University in Fall of 2010. She has worked in the marketing and public relations field for over 10 years.