Launch a Winning Bulk Email Marketing Campaign
A common myth about bulk email marketing is that it is only suited for large corporations, and this couldn’t be further from the truth! Bulk email marketing campaigns lead to great ROI, even for small business owners, and because of the variety of great software programs available, launching a campaign is easy too (See our best email marketing software review to research easy-to-use programs).
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In order to maximize the success of your bulk email marketing endeavors, there are tips which you should be aware of that are easy to implement and will save you thousands of dollars as you develop and optimize your programs. Professional email marketers have developed these best practices from years of trial and error so you don’t have to re-discover them on your own!
Tip #1: Automate from the Very Beginning
Sure, it doesn’t take too much time to manage a bulk email list when you list is small, but believe me, when that list grows into the thousands, what used to be simple tasks will now be massive daily chores. This will cause you to waste time you could be using to test new strategies, or even grow your business!
The good news is, with modern day bulk email marketing software, it’s simple to automate almost everything that has to do with your programs. Sending follow up messages, processing subscribe and unsubscribe requests, answering emails and organizing messages are just a few of the aspects of your bulk email marketing campaign you can automate. Just make sure that your provider offers these features.
Tip #2: Make Sure You Have a Good Autoresponder
Although many software solutions include this, a solid autoresponder is a must. An autoresponder is a program that will automatically send a series of emails to new subscribers. So for example, if someone signed up to receive your “3 months to success” email program, you can create all of the emails that the program will include way before you launch the campaign, and the autoresponder will drip those emails out to new subscribers for the 3 months following the day they sign up! Definitely a big time saver.
Tip #3: Tracking
In order to really drive ROI and constantly improve your bulk email marketing campaigns, you need to understand which messages generate the best results. Likewise, you need to see which ones are poor performers so you can remove them from your campaigns.
Bulk email marketing software often includes key performance metrics built in! For example, you can see how many people opened your emails and also, how many people ended up converting into a purchase! Plain text messages cannot be tracked, so make sure that the bulk email marketing software you choose uses HTML email messages.
Tip #4: Don’t SPAM
New email marketers quickly discover how to build a campaign that doesn’t end up in SPAM folders. One of the primary ways you can guard against this is to make sure you are using permission email marketing, also known as opt-in email marketing. This way, you will only be sending your messages to users that said they wanted to receive it, so less of your customers will mark your message as “SPAM.”
Also, don’t use all capital letters in your subject line and don’t use exclamation points in the email, as this is a sure way to trip the SPAM filters automatically.
Benefit #5: Give Them Treats
Sure, you know that your bulk email marketing campaign is great, but don’t forget to tell your customers too! Make sure your campaigns offer a benefit to the users, such as discounts or exclusive information. This will help keep your customers clicking on your emails and will help keep them engaged. Oh yea, this also helps boost your sales.
Like anything worthwhile, establishing your bulk email marketing campaigns will take some effort, but it doesn’t have to be hard. A great email list drives positive ROI simply because it keeps your business top-of mind, and can be used as a tool to increase sales during a slow month.
Start with simple campaigns, and as you begin to understand what works and what doesn’t, ramp up. Also, it will take a little while to build up your email list, and that’s okay! Just keep delivering consistent value with your email marketing program and remember, don’t email your customers unless they sign up!
See our best email marketing software review to get software that can help you successfully manage your campaigns.