According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 65% ​​of all adults check their email every day. With statistics like that, it should come as no surprise that email marketing is a highly effective way to increase sales for businesses of all sizes and types. However, there are many entrepreneurs who are not taking advantage of this powerful marketing tool, and even less who know how to use it properly. To create a successful email marketing campaign that increases sales, there are a number of important strategies to consider.

Why use email marketing?

There are many reasons why email marketing is more effective than traditional forms of marketing. First of all, it is very profitable. Production, labor, and material expenses for an email marketing campaign are extremely low. Plus, email marketing is quick and easy to set up. All you need is a good template, interesting and useful content, and internet access to get your email marketing campaign off the ground. This is a great way to keep in touch with your current customers, attract new customers to your business or website, and encourage people to buy your products and services. Also, you can easily measure the results of your email marketing campaign. With simple tracking software or the help of an internet marketing company, you can see how many emails were opened or deleted, which links people clicked on, and which of those links converted to sales.

Tips for a Killer Email Marketing Campaign

• Make it easy for people to subscribe to your list. If you have a website or blog, place a subscription box in a place where your visitors can’t miss it. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, post a check-in list by the register or in some obvious place. All you need is a simple form with a place for a name and email address.

• Make sure your subscribers want to receive your emails. When people subscribe to your email list, send them a confirmation email and ask them to confirm their subscription. The last thing you want is for people to mark your emails as spam, as this could negatively affect your search engine rankings or even get you banned from your email provider service.

• Whatever you do, don’t spam. It may seem like a good idea to email as many people as possible to reach a larger audience, but this can seriously hurt your business. Nobody likes receiving unsolicited emails and as mentioned above, this can cause serious problems for your online campaign. More importantly, spam is illegal and can incur heavy fines.

• Identify your target market and match your content and design accordingly. Look at the customers you already have and the ones you want to attract, and think about what information would be useful and valuable to them. Keep your design simple and clean, and use colors, fonts, and language that are easy on the eye and appealing to your customers.

• Use your business email only to send newsletters and updates. If your recipients know exactly who the emails are coming from, they’ll be less likely to trash them or mark them as spam. Also, your customers will have more trust and respect for a newsletter or update if it comes from a company email instead of a Hotmail or Gmail account.

• Create a compelling subject line that is relevant to the information in your email. The trick to keeping customers happy is to provide interesting content that is valuable to them in some way. If your subject line draws them in, they are more likely to open the email. Once they enter, your content should pique their interest in order to motivate them to buy something from you.

• Don’t send complicated Flash attachments, videos, or components in your emails. People tend to avoid opening emails with attachments as they are wary of viruses. Also, attachments, videos, and Flash can take a long time to load, so you may lose your readers’ interest.

• Be consistent with your emails. Resist the urge to email too often. There’s nothing worse than opening your inbox and seeing a glut of unopened business email. On the other hand, if you send erratic and infrequent updates, your readers may forget you exist. Set a consistent and reasonable schedule for sending your updates and stick to it. This way, your subscribers know what to expect.

• Use a call to action in your newsletter or update. There’s no point in emailing customers if you don’t give them the means to find what you’re offering. Include direct links to your website, a map and directions to your store, or at the very least a phone number they can call for more information. Also, be sure to use active language to gently encourage your customers to use your products or services.

• Encourage your readers to share your content. You can do this by including social media links in the email where readers can share your information on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, or Pinterest. This is an effective and easy way to spread your message without spending a penny on advertising.

• Include an opt-out button or a link where recipients can unsubscribe. People feel more confident reading newsletters and updates if they know they are not locked in for life. Also, people may just leave or prefer not to receive email updates. Please be respectful and considerate of those who opt out, and be sure to remove them from your list in a timely and efficient manner.

• Monitoring and analysis of your data. The key to building the success of your email marketing campaign is learning what works and what doesn’t. This way, you can modify your game plan accordingly. Use tracking software to find out information like the percentage of emails that were opened, how many were dismissed without being opened, what content was shared, which links people clicked on, and which clicks turned into sales. You can do this on your own or hire an internet marketing company to do the data analysis for you.

A good email marketing campaign can propel your business to the top of the pack and keep you there. An email campaign not only saves you time and money on marketing, but it can also drive traffic to your website or business and dramatically increase your sales. As long as you follow the tips above for your email marketing campaign, you should see your profits skyrocket in no time. If you don’t know how to get started yet, a reputable internet marketing company can help you create and implement a great email marketing plan that will help you jumpstart your business.