I use email marketing, a lot. But that doesn’t mean I’m some kind of dinosaur – set for extinction as the climate changes inevitably toward social media. In fact, I’m right where I need to be, say two branding experts from Constant Contact.
On my latest show, Sandi Abbott, owner of Xpresso Content Café, and Alex de Carvalho, Constant Contact’s educational marketing expert for South Florida, said email campaigns are more relevant than ever.
“E-mail was the first social platform, and it continues to rock. Even Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter – all of them still send you email notifications with what’s going on with your social site,” said Abbott.
“I look at social media as dating, and email marketing as taking the relationship a little bit further.”
I recently switched to Constant Contact for my email campaigns. I wouldn’t say it’s cheap, but it’s a great bargain. Most services charge by the campaign, said de Carvalho. Constant Contact charges by the size of the list, so you can send as many times during the month as you like for the same monthly fee.
If you don’t have a list already, you might be tempted to buy one. If you do, de Carvalho said, be sure to audit the list and ask the broker how he got the addresses. Be certain that the potential recipients are expecting something from you as the sender.
The better way to build a list, he said, would be to advertise on somebody else’s newsletter.
Added Abbott: “Everybody has a list. They know people. You can start out with a ‘seed list.’ The way to grow it is in social media.”
And Constant Contact offers several tools to integrate with social media.
But I had to ask: If I invest the time and money into an email campaign, how do I make sure my messages don’t end up in the spam folder?
First, make sure you have permission to send to the recipient, said Abbott. Second, have valuable content. If they like it, they won’t send it into the abyss.
Constant Contact offers a spam check that scans your email – before you send it – for things that might trigger a spam filter.
When you start sending messages, your audience will get used to your schedule, said de Carvalho. Try it weekly and monitor your unsubscribe rates. If they rise, you might want to back off. Most businesses send once a month.
It helps to create an editorial calendar to plan your content, he said.
Again, I had to ask: How do we get people to open the email in the first place?
There are three keys, said de Carvalho:
- Who is it from? Do they recognize you?
- What’s in the subject line? The first two words are key. Words oriented toward lists, scarcity and deadlines work well.
- When do you send it? You need to test this, because it depends largely on your audience.
Some additional tips for successful email marketing campaigns:
- Content in the preview panel is important. Some people look at this before deciding to open an email.
- Test the mobile view. The Internet is being viewed on mobile devices more than ever.
Want more? Click here to listen to the full interview with Sandi Abbott and Alex de Carvalho of Constant Contact.
