Email marketing can be an inexpensive way to reach customers, direct them to your website and let them know of your latest news and offers, so it’s no wonder it’s becoming increasingly popular with many businesses. Below are some typical do’s and don’ts you should follow with all of your campaigns:
Do’s
- Clear call to action – Decide early on what you would like your readers to do i.e. call you to arrange a meeting, visit your website or another link. Provide a clear call to action throughout the email. If you have a lot of text in your email, consider adding one at the top, bottom and middle of the email so they don’t have to scroll to find out what you would like them to do.
- Keep a good balance – Make sure your email is balanced with images and text. Too much text makes it seem daunting to readers, whereas too many images can make the layout seem unbalanced and can make your message harder to read. Find the happy middle ground!
- Keep to the point – What is the main message you want to get across? Try not to stray from the real reason you are emailing them, emails that go off topic may make your readers lose interest.
Don’ts
- Spam – We all get it and we all hate it. Whether its an email from a company you have never heard from, or you have heard from them but they are emailing you every day, its annoying. So don’t do it – consider what you would find frustrating if you were receiving your emails to make sure you don’t irritate your potential customers.
- WRITE IN CAPITALS – No matter how important your message is, capitals is often misread as shouting. A lot of people do not like them, and large areas of text can become difficult to read in capitals. Instead use bold or format the text in another colour if you want it to stand out more.
- Ignore un-subscriptions – There’s nothing more frustrating when you ask to unsubscribe to a mailing list and they keep sending you emails. Its more likely to aggravate them and in turn lose their custom completely. Just because they no longer want your emails doesn’t necessarily mean they no longer want to deal with you, but that may be the case if you ignore their requests!
So, next time you are writing a new email campaign, keep these do’s and don’ts in mind. If you need any help, or you have some extra rules to add to this just let me know!
Happy emailing!
Jenni