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Many email marketers focus on getting customers to open their emails via
enticing subject lines, discounts and other low-lying fruit. But the most
successful email marketing campaigns bring in the bucks by courting customer
opinion, showcasing the most popular products, and making it ultra easy
for email recipients to make a purchase.
When used correctly, your permission-based
email marketing solution
and its back-end reporting tools work as a powerful vehicle for both driving
and measuring online sales. Here’s a four step plan to maximize your
return through a customer-centric email marketing campaign.
Step 1: Send out
a "Best Of" email survey to gauge customer opinion
Craft a “Best Of” email survey that asks your customers what
their opinions are on your products or services. Which ones do they like
the best? Which ones truly make the grade? Give your customers an incentive
or reward for answering your questions, such as a coupon code or nice discount
on a future purchase.
Step 2: Gather your email data and narrow down
your results
Some email marketing services
not only allow you to create your own email marketing survey, but they quantify
the results for you. Gather your answers and narrow down the products you
want to showcase. Once you have your list of featured products, decide how
you’re going to release the results. We suggest no more than six items
per email. If you have too many to squeeze into one email, announce your
winners over two or three campaigns.
Step 3: Design a dynamic email that showcases
your winners
Now it’s time to create a visually stunning email layout that truly
shows off the products your customers like the best. If possible, include
a picture of every product, as well as a price and a short summary. Link
each picture back to a landing page on your site where customers can buy
the product you’re promoting. Kick things up a notch by offering a
discount the winning products, enticing recipients into opening their wallets.
Step 4: Send your email marketing campaign and
measure your results
Once everything is in place, send your HTML campaign with a dynamic subject
line. For instance, use a phrase like “Customer favorites: The products
you can’t live without” or something along those lines. Use
up to 50 characters (including) spaces to woo each customer into opening
your email, and then use your reporting tools to see which customers opened
which links and made a purchase. If you had just one runaway hit, you’ll
already have moved enough inventory to make your entire campaign worthwhile.
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