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5 Tips for Organizing Your Email Campaigns

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Email service is arguably the most popular facilities that arose from internet technology seeing that it is widely used for personal communication and commercial purposes. Its commercial use covers PR, advertising, selling, sales promotion and delivery of assorted information about company and product. It is generally free. Smart online marketers know the power of email marketing. Perhaps, there is no better way to build a responsive audience of clients and customers than email. And, it remains to be the most direct and cost-effective marketing tool across all marketing channels.
As is the case with all activities, you would have to do some advance thinking if you would get the most from it. This advanced thinking is organizing and it does not have to be elaborate. It is enough if it guides you step-by-step as you organize out your email campaign.

Here is a five-part process for organizing your email campaign

1. Determine Target Audience:
Is it your own in-house list? A specific subset of that list? A partner’s or affiliate’s list, or maybe one you’ve purchased? This lays the foundation for knowing the answers to the next questions, all of which are crucial to the success of your campaign this is the group of people who will receive your emails.

Call it a list if you will. If you have been in business, you are most likely to have had a list. Otherwise, you would have to build one. You can do this in one of two ways. One, you buy leads to whom you invite to subscribe to your list to receive your newsletter or offers. Two, you generate your own leads through advertisement with an incentive for readers to submit their information on a leads capture form. Experts recommend that the leads must be opting twice (double opting) as a safeguard against any possible charge of spamming. You determine your target audience by deciding which type of list you want and those to whom you expose your advertisement.

2. Clarify Your Objective:
Why do you want to send emails? The answer may seem obvious. To sell. But there are other reasons for sending out emails than immediate sales. Projecting yourself as an expert in some niche is a legitimate purpose. Even altruism, just giving out useful information, could be your aim. All’s fair.

3. Develop Your Message:
Irrespective of the type of marketing model you are involved with, you must develop a series of messages that you send out to your list with a view to convincing them to take your desired action. You should also make up your mind on how often you will mail your list. Some marketers do not seem to have a series. They just send even unrelated offers to their list. Why am I saying this? Because I receive a lot of such emails. The email should have an attention-grabbing headline and a body that pulls readers through to the end.

4. Manage your expectations:
Industry averages for “successful” campaigns can range from a .03% response rate (for a huge-yet-generic list) to well over 50% (for a highly-niched list with a highly-relevant offer). Look at the performance of previous emails the target audience has received. Be realistic about where you fall in that range. Email campaigns are truly designed to be tested, tweaked, and retested over and over again, so don’t expect to hit the ball out of the park with your first big “Send.”

5. Choose an Auto responder:
It would be confusing if you tried to run an email campaign with your usual email service. Auto responders are more efficient. This software allows you to schedule your messages ahead of their delivery to all recipients or a section thereof. There are paid services as there are free ones. And because there is really nothing like a free lunch you get to give something in return for the free service by allowing adverts in your messages. This can be untidy and unprofessional.

In addition

Your email campaign plan should take good shape when you have given thoughts to the headings mentioned above. And most importantly, make sure your campaign fits into your overall marketing strategy. Done right, this email campaign will be integrated with other marketing channels. (News releases, articles, and blogging are our faves.)And hopefully, it’ll be part of a regular Content Plan that lets your audience know you don’t just want them for their money.

Ideally, your email campaign will keep your audience engaged with you – regardless of whether they’re ready to buy at the moment you email dings into their inboxes. Because as we’ve been told time and again, people don’t buy when you’re ready to sell. People buy when they’re ready to buy.