Email marketing is one of the best ways to break fears and build trust with potential customers and existing ones alike. Successful email campaigns can increase traffic to your website, build rapport within your database, and ultimately make decisions on whether to purchase or not easier for the recipient. One of the best ways to engage straight away with your email recipient is to have an enticing, engaging subject line which won’t just get deleted or chucked in the spam folder!

Making sure your email marketing gets opened is a necessity for businesses, however the key aspect to consider is to tell people what’s inside of the email not sell what’s inside; this can be deemed as off putting and be reminiscent of sales jargon. The average businessman will receive around 100 emails daily, with 90% deleted before even being viewed. To avoid your email being one of the majority, make sure you adhere to these 5 tips which will enable your mail to be viewed and not end up in the virtual trash can. 

5 tips to make sure your email marketing gets opened!

1. First consideration of any subject line in an email marketing campaign should be to make it RELEVANT; Create a catchy, meaningful tag line which will be appealing to customers. Whilst doing this, be useful and offer value to the customer by being ultra-specific about what lies within the email.
2. The second recommendation is to be PERSONAL in your subject lines; this can be done by addressing the customer with a question, inviting them in with a call to action. The personal aspect will come when you’re being consistent with your recipients. This will allow them to recognise your emails instantaneously whilst remaining professional and informative.
3. Another key point which you shouldn’t include in your subject lines is SPAM WORDS and phrases which could prove to be a major hindrance to your campaign. Don’t use terms such as ‘FREE’, ‘50% off’, or currency symbols as this will be seen again as sales jargon which the majority will delete without opening the email.
4. GRAB THE ATTENTION of your customers! Not by putting all your text in capital letters, or persistent usage of exclamation marks, but the occasional use which will attract customers into opening the email. The subject line should be like the title of a book, which is a short summary offering enough information, but with the addition of a little mystery that leads them into opening up the message. The LENGTH of your subject is also of importance; make sure it’s succinct and around 50 words! – This seems to be the most appropriate length.
5. Have a sense of URGENCY within your subject that makes the customer think they might miss out unless they open up the email. The key aspect is to not disappoint the customer if they do open though; to do this, be informative and specific! If the service or deal is ‘today only!’ make sure you tell them, and if the service or deal starts today…guess what, tell the customer as they will react accordingly.

In conclusion, be truthful in your subject line and be as natural as possible. This is found to most appealing to the end receivers, however be sure to be visually different and stand out from other competitors or potential rivals in your industry. In most circumstances quality comes through, so if your email content matches the subject, you will have engagement and potential sales.

If you would like more information on email marketing services and campaigns feel free to call the HodgesNet team on 01793 608777.

Recent email autoresponder client testimonial

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We all get so many email newsletters these days that we tend to delete many of them unread – which is a shame, because we’re probably missing out on a lot of useful information. But time is money, and if you want people to open and read your email newsletter you need to write it in such a way that it immediately grabs their attention and engages them instantly. You’ve probably got less than a second to make that first impression before they press the delete key! Here are some tips for creating engaging email newsletters that will give yours a better chance of being read.

Firstly you need to establish your newsletter and build up a bit of a reputation. Think carefully about the content of every email newsletter you send – how likely would you be to open it? We all get newsletters that are not relevant or constantly trying to sell to us – if you get a reputation for being too salesy then you stand a chance of alienating potential customers early on.

When creating engaging email newsletters try to include lots of variety. Yes, it’s okay to sell now and then, but go for a balance of useful content, user interactivity, promotional stuff and entertainment – either within each individual newsletter or over a period of time. If you’re struggling for things to write, think about industry or company news, announcements of forthcoming events (workshops, product launches, sales), special offers or other websites, blogs, podcasts or videos that you’ve found useful or entertaining.

You can also use your email newsletter to get feedback from your customers. Sites like SurveyMonkey let you create surveys for free, so why not create a short questionnaire and offer a discount or a chance of a prize for everyone  who completes it. Most people love surveys – so long as they aren’t too long – as they like to give their opinion, and it can be useful to get feedback on products you’re considering developing, or the general mood of your customers about certain subjects. You could even run a poll every month on a topical issue and publish the results in the next month’s newsletter!

How about setting up a newsletter simply to get testimonials? You could create an autoresponder that goes to every new client on completion of a project, thanking them for their business and requesting a testimonial for you to use on your website. Most people will be only too happy to help.

Another idea for creating engaging email newsletters is to start a question and answer section and invite people to send in their questions. Every month you could select a question and give the answer in your newsletter. The person who asked the question in the first place will be thrilled to get the attention, and you can be sure they won’t be the only one interested in the answer either!

If you have a blog (and if you haven’t why haven’t you?!) then use your blog content in your newsletter, and vice versa. Put a short extract of your latest blog post in your newsletter, along with a link to read the whole article; if it’s interesting people will click through to read the rest. You can also reuse newsletter articles on your blog, as they will be seen by different audiences. Don’t forget video blogs either – while it’s not easy to email a video, you can upload one to a site like YouTube or Vimeo and link to it in your newsletter.

Finally, make sure your email newsletter is engaging by bringing your personality into it. Write like you’re talking to a friend – don’t be afraid to be yourself. It doesn’t have to be serious or formal; in fact, a newsletter that takes a more personal or irreverent approach is far more likely to be read than a more corporate one.

If you would like help with creating engaging email newsletters give us a call on 01793 608777. Alternatively, have a look at our email marketing services, as we can help you with everything from writing your content to finding people for your list.

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One of the best ways to promote your business online is by promoting yourself as an expert in your field. Your knowledge and skills, combined with your unique background and personality, makes you an expert like no other. You just need to know how to leverage your expert status to benefit your business, because once people get to know you and trust you, the loyalty they feel for you as a person (or personality) is easily transferred to your business, and sales will follow.

There are various ways you can begin to establish yourself as an expert, starting with your website. Brochure sites are great for showing off your product, but consider adding plenty of content on your specialist topic, perhaps through a blog area. Give away information and advice for free to demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about. This way people will feel valued and will return again and again, building up a relationship with you with the result that they will come to you when they are ready to pay for your service. Make it easy for people to keep up to date with your blog by giving them subscription options such as RSS readers and emails. Also make it easy to share your content on social media sites – if you’re that good your visitors won’t want to keep you to themselves!

Article marketing has long been another way for business owners to establish themselves as experts. However, the many changes that Google has made to its search algorithm now means that article sites no longer hold the SEO power they once had, and actually having duplicate copy can be damaging. Instead, join forces with other businesses that complement your own and offer to write a guest post for their blog. They benefit from your expertise, as do their readers, and you will get valuable exposure to a new audience.

Have a look round for relevant forums – either general business ones such as 4Networking or the UK Business Forums, or more specific ones tailored to your industry. Posting on there – especially in response to people’s requests for advice – is another great way to demonstrate your knowledge and begin building relationships with potential customers. You will also quickly start to build your contact list and forums are a great source of help and support for the areas in which you are not so strong.

Finally, email newsletters are another great way to build your reputation as an expert – so long as you use them properly and are not seen to be spamming people. You can reuse blog posts and articles in your newsletter, but try giving it a different spin or sending unique content that only your mailing list receive. Experiment a bit and see what gets the best response in terms of email opens, clicks through and replies – and then do more of the same.

If you would like to find out more about how you can use your website, blog or email marketing to help establish yourself as an expert in your field, give the team at HodgesNet a call today on 01793 608777.

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If you’re like most small business owners, you probably tend to throw yourself into marketing as and when you have the time. When there are so many tasks pressing for your attentions it can be difficult to do much more than be responsive in your marketing – for example, sending out the odd email newsletter when you get five minutes spare. However, that is not the most effective way to work; a much better approach is to spend time developing an email marketing strategy to ensure you send the right information to the right people at the right time.

Perhaps the most useful feature of your email marketing list is the ability to segment it. Rather than just uploading your contacts and sending everyone the same email, add extra information so you can target contacts more closely. For example, by segmenting your list into clients and suppliers you can send offers to those people who have already bought from you, or let suppliers know your requirements. Sending the same emails to both groups would not make sense as half the recipients would find one of no interest at all!

When you properly set up your email list you can personalize your emails much better, too. Most people just add a name and the email address – which is fine in itself, but if you also include, for example, their company name or the market they are in, you can use that information within your emails to make it seem like you are contacting them personally, rather than as part of a mass mail out. Again, this needs time spent considering the most useful information to add.

The best email marketing strategy kicks in from the moment someone signs up to your mailing list. Don’t just let them see the standard confirmation message – follow up immediately with a welcome email, and consider giving them access to previous newsletters or sending them an exclusive gift or offer. By engaging with new subscribers, you make them feel valued and they are more likely to respond well to future mailings. Don’t forget about your older subscribers either – reward them for their loyalty by sending them exciting deals or content, or perhaps asking them for their opinions on new products and services. Again, this is where segmentation is vital.

Bear in mind that something that works today might not work in a few months’ time. Keep an eye on the statistics for your mailing list, especially the number of people opening your emails or clicking through. If the numbers drop, try something different – that could mean a new layout, different colours, more or less personalisation, quirkier subject lines, special offers, sending on different days and at different times and so on.

If you have an email marketing strategy in place and you monitor your metrics and regularly tweak your mailouts, you will start to see a positive response and sales will follow.

If you would like to chat about your own email marketing strategy call the team at HodgesNet today on 01793 608777, or find out more about our email marketing and autoresponders packages click here. They cost from just £20 a month and include segmentation, live statistics and much more.

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Most businesses that use email marketing tend to build their  list by adding new contacts, either through having a sign up form on their website or by manually adding people they meet. You can build a list pretty quickly using these methods, but you will also find you lose people quickly too. In fact, it’s thought that most businesses lose around 50% of their email subscribers every year – which means you have to work even harder to maintain the size of your list. You might also find that people become less responsive to your emails, and sales or enquiries start to drop. In this article we’ll look at “list churn” – people leaving your list – and “list fatigue” – people becoming inactive – and find some ways to keep your list working effectively.

Every email marketing list suffers list churn, and in a lot of cases it’s not actually because of anything you’ve done. While a small number of your list members unsubscribe of their own accord, around a third of your “lost” subscribers leave your list because their email address bounces – perhaps because they change their ISP or email provider or they entered their address incorrectly. Churn also happens because people report you for spam – even if they signed up and you’re sending genuine emails. If you know you’re not spamming people don’t worry too much about this – even the biggest brands get regular spam complaints. However, do be very careful when you manually add people that they really want to hear from you, and make it easy for people to unsubscribe in every email you send, and that should help reduce spam reports.

List fatigue is where people on your list seem to go into “hibernation”. You’ll often find there are people who used to open your emails and click through to your website who now delete your emails unread. It could be that they no longer enjoy the content, or you have sent out some irrelevant information or offers that don’t interest them, or perhaps they feel you email them too often. For some reason though they haven’t unsubscribed from the list – which could be good news, because it might mean they are still interested in you/your products/your services. On the other hand it could be that they’ve marked your email as spam and it goes straight to their bulk mail/spam folder, or that they want to unsubscribe but the link you provide doesn’t work.

If you’re clever you can “rescue” some of these “sleeping subscribers” by sending them something a bit different. Most email marketing services let you segment your list so you should be able to separate the inactive subscribers and send them a special email, perhaps a really enticing offer, a new style of newsletter or something that will benefit them at no cost, like a free trial membership or an interactive web tool. You know these people were interested in you at one stage, so it’s worth trying to bring them back on board. However, don’t forget that you still need to keep adding new subscribers, otherwise your list will dwindle away.

For more help with email marketing or to sign up to our email marketing service, which includes a free branded template, free live statistics, free training and email segmentation, give us a call today on 01793 608777.

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Email marketing can be a really effective way of keeping in touch with your customers and increasing sales – but it’s not necessarily the best tool for every business to use. While the concept of email marketing is easy to understand, working out whether it’s right for your business – and how best to use it – can be tricky.

There are many factors you need to consider when deciding if email marketing is right for your business. Firstly, who are your target customers? Do they use the internet? Can you get your sales message across clearly in an email – or are there other more effective ways? And is there any way your message could be interpreted as spam?

While most people use the internet regularly to research and buy products and services, there are still groups of people who are reluctant to embrace the digital age. If your product targets people who are less likely to be online then email marketing isn’t likely to be very successful. Also there are some services that people prefer to find locally rather than online, so if you’re a local tradesman, for example, email marketing is not likely to be effective unless you have a very local mailing list or only use it to communicate with existing customers. That’s not to say that it won’t be useful – but make sure you monitor the results of any email marketing campaign to see if it’s working, or if your time could be better spent on other things.

Think carefully about your products – while some things can be easily explained via emails, other products and services need a different approach. It could be that you need to think outside the box when you create your emails – consider adding links to videos or offering people free fabric samples, for example. The last thing you want to do is confuse your potential customers. If you aren’t able to clearly demonstrate the benefits in an email, you might be better off using other marketing techniques.

Finally there are some products that are just not worth trying to sell via email campaigns because unfortunately the spammers got there first. For example, if you run a food supplement company and include weight loss pills among your products, you’re going to find it difficult to include them in any email campaign. The spammers have sent out so many emails about diet pills that related terms are on email blacklists and are unlikely to get through the spam filter. Even if they do, most people are used to seeing messages about diet pills and expect them to be spam, so delete them unread! If you feel emails about your products, however genuine they are, could be considered spam you’ll need to think carefully about how you orchestrate an email marketing campaign – or even if it’s worth doing.

However, even if you are doubtful about whether email marketing will work for your business, it’s worth giving it a try. A system like the one we use for our Email Marketing Packages lets you monitor emails and see who opens them and what they do next. You could find that with a bit of ingenuity you can get emails working for the most unlikely businesses.

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Autoresponders are one of the most effective marketing tools available to business owners, but they’re also one of the least understood and least used. The beauty of autoresponders is you can create an entire marketing campaign that runs itself, with no added input from you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In this article we’ll look at what they are, how they work and how to use autoresponders to increase your sales.

An autoresponder is basically a series of emails that are sent out automatically, at times you specify. Often autoresponders “kick in” when someone fills in a form on your website to get more information, perhaps a report or ebook, or access to watch a video. Once they give you their email address they are automatically added to the autoresponder programme. They’ll receive an email almost instantly that gives them the information they requested, and you can then send them more information every few days or weeks.

While you might think your products and services are irresistible, not all buyers are impulse buyers – in fact, research that shows that less than 15% of your web visitors will buy on impulse. People don’t buy immediately because they want time to consider their purchase, or to research their options, or because they’re not convinced about the benefits straight away. If you offer your visitors a free report or newsletter and they sign up for it, you know they’re interested, and you have the chance to keep in contact with them so they don’t forget you or your products. You can also help them with the research process by sending more information, for example reviews and testimonials, or letting them know about sales or special offers that might persuade them to buy. And because autoresponder messages are sent automatically, the system will work whatever time of day your visitors are browsing the website.

Another way to use autoresponders is to distribute courses. For example, if you sell SEO services you could invite people to sign up for a free six week course in DIY SEO. Once you’ve set up the series of emails they’ll be sent out automatically and provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge. And while some people may well go away and use the information to DIY their SEO, others will realise you’re the expert and give the job to you – especially if you make them an enticing offer in one of the emails!

You can also use autoresponders to keep in touch with clients. Once someone buys from you, you can create an autoresponder that sends out a purchase confirmation, receipt, thank you note, despatch note and follow up emails with special deals to encourage them to buy again.

Quite simply, using autoresponders helps you run your business more easily because you can keep in contact with your leads and customers without having to be in front of the computer. If you’d like to try out using autoresponders yourself, have a look at our Email and Autoresponder Service, which starts at just £20 a month, or give us a call on 01793 608777.

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Most email newsletter services have what’s known as “teaser” text. This is either the first line of your actual email, or a special section where you can include text that is seen alongside your email address and the subject line. Many people forget to use this teaser text, or even worse, leave it as the default text – usually something like “This text is a short teaser of your email’s content” – which looks unprofessional and won’t encourage people to open your emails! When people receive dozens and sometimes hundreds of emails every day you need to do everything you can to encourage them to open and read your newsletter, so make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to spice up the teaser text and grab attention.

I’ve seen some email newsletters that use the teaser text to invite me to join their mailing list. This is a waste of time – when you think about it the vast majority of people receiving the email are already on the list! While it’s always worth mentioning that people can join somewhere in your email – because people do sometimes share newsletters they particularly enjoy, and their friends might like to join too – it’s pointless using the teaser text for this purpose. It also means every email will look the same, if you put the same invitation in every time! Another wasteful use of the teaser text is to put an image in there. Most email services strip out images as a virus protection measure and make you download them separately. If the only bit of the email your readers can see in the preview pane is a message saying “click here to view this email with images” they’re unlikely to bother reading on.

Instead consider using the teaser text for something that will generate interest in your email – excitement or intrigue, even – so people can’t resist opening up and reading. If you’re running a special offer or competition you could outline the details here – for example, “10% off our widgets this week only” or “Win a fab prize in our free competition” or “Discount voucher if you open this email”. If your email includes interesting information, drop some intriguing hints in the teaser text: “Find out why 85% of businesses should be doing XYZ” would certainly encourage me to read on! If you use autoresponder emails during your sales process, for example to confirm subscriptions or transactions, make the teaser text relevant to the email: “Thanks for subscribing to our newsletter” or “Here’s your receipt for ABC product” and so on, so people know exactly what the email is and why they should read it.

Two more things to do with the teaser text in your emails. The first is to change it with every email you send. If you send weekly emails with “Read our latest news” as the teaser text (a) it doesn’t differentiate itself as being a different email and (b) you’re not going to grab your readers’ attention. Secondly, test everything you do. If you can, consider split your list and send  out identical emails with two very different teaser texts – and monitor the results. You could spot some interesting trends in the kind of teaser text that encourages people to open your emails!

If you’re not yet using emails as marketing tools HodgesNet has a comprehensive email marketing and autoresponder service that costs from just £20 a month and allows you to send unlimited emails and monitor the results. Give us a call on 01793 608777 for more details.

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[To learn how to do your email marketing correctly take a look at our Profitable Email Marketing - the 19th July 2012]

When email marketing is designed and executed well it can bring in more subscribers and more sales, as well as building a relationship with your mailing list members. If it’s not run properly, it can have poor results and may even anger your recipients.

Despite many people using web mail services such as Gmail and Hotmail, Outlook is still the most used email client and you need to make allowances for it when you send emails. Outlook has a sophisticated Junk Filter that you need to avoid if your emails are to be read. However, many companies do not spend time learning about the keywords and symbols the default filter searches for. Some common and widely used words are almost guaranteed to send your email to the spam folder – such as using ‘FREE!!!!’ at the end of the subject line. The word ‘free’ doesn’t always arouse suspicion though, so don’t disregard using it altogether. When used properly, perhaps relating to free postage/shipping or a free sample etc, nobody can disagree that it is still the most effective email offer. The trick is to be aware of problematic words and how to use them so your email does not get caught by the spam filter.

Something else to bear in mind is that the subject line of your email newsletter must not be meaningless. For example, subject lines like “SEO Update #37” or “Internet marketing news” or “My newsletter” say nothing at all and are likely to be deleted unread. The sole purpose of the subject line is to entice the recipient to open the email. Make sure your subject line has information that will grab the attention of your readers.

The best email marketing services let you test your emails, both for compatibility with the various email readers and for spamminess. Regular testing of your emails can help you spot problem areas and refine your emails to get better results.

Successful email campaigns tend to be the ones that promote compelling offers. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to give away something for nothing or offer huge discounts, but you should make sure the offer is appropriate and offers value. The best email marketers segment their lists so they can fine tune their offers to make them as relevant as possible for each list member.

Sometimes you’ll find your emails are well formatted but are blocked by certain ISPs. For example, some ISPs block emails with HTML in them (links etc), they have their own spam word blacklists or they’ll filter messages out if many are sent at the same time. Keep an eye on your mailing statistics, especially those email addresses that appear to be bouncing (not being delivered) and look out for patterns relating to specific ISPs.

By bearing these points in mind when preparing your emails you’ll get a better open rate, more subscribers and hopefully more sales.

If you would like to start using email marketing to promote your business HodgesNet has an email marketing and autoresponder system that you can use from as little as £20 a month. It includes list segmentation, live statistics  and a full testing system so you can fine tune your emails for maximum results.

Email marketing can be incredibly powerful but it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and keep sending out the same emails, whether they are information-led, news based or salesy. When people sign up to receive your emails you have a captive audience – they actually want to hear from you – so don’t be afraid to try something a bit different now and then! Here are a few creative ideas for your email marketing that will help you engage with your mailing list in a more interactive way.

Recommend other people’s products
OK this probably sounds like a completely barmy idea. After all, you want to keep your customers for yourself, don’t you? But if you come across a product that you love and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend, why not let your list members know about it too? So long as it’s not in direct competition with what you do, it won’t damage your business at all – and you’ll earn kudos for being brave enough to promote someone else’s products and helping out your list members.

Video mini-series
Video blogging can be really effective, so think about creating a series of videos, maybe half a dozen or so, that will entertain and/or educate your list members. Make sure the first one is really captivating and then send out a link every week to keep people watching – and, hopefully, sharing.

Polls and voting
People like to feel they have influence, so why not let your mailing list members help shape your business! If you’re thinking about launching a new product, ask people to vote on the features they like most. Or set up a poll to ask people what new products they’d like to see in the future. Ice cream company Ben and Jerry’s uses voting all the time and it helps them build incredible brand loyalty and an army of online fans. Last year, for example, they opened the vote to UK customers to choose which new flavour they would like to see introduced, and thousands of people got involved.

Surveys
Similar to voting but surveys can be great for letting you know who your customers are and what they want. Set up a simple survey with five or so questions, and offer a prize to the first name out of the hat. If you’re really clever with your questions you can use this as powerful marketing research; even if the answers prove less than useful you’ve connected with your followers and maybe even grow your list.

Special offers
Reward your mailing list members for letting you contact them regularly by making them a very special, once only, time-limited offer. Give them a fantastic discount on a product or service but only if they reply within 24 hours. And do this on a regular basis – once a month, perhaps. If the discount and product are attractive enough people will share your newsletter and you’ll get many more contacts.

So there you go – five super creative ideas for your email marketing. But it’s all very well reading blog posts – taking action is the tricky bit. Why not try out one of these ideas today – and leave us a comment to let us know how it went!

And if you don’t yet use email marketing have a look at our email marketing system – from just £20 a month you can send unlimited emails and put some of these ideas into practice!

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Bottom image: Ben and Jerry’s