How to Effectively Run an Email Marketing Campaign

Last week we had our very first Twitter chat and we talked about email marketing campaigns. We had six questions that we tweeted out throughout the hour, and our followers responded to these tweets with their answers. Our Twitter chat focused on the basics of email marketing; what works and what doesn’t. Below are all six questions that we asked followed by a few of the answers from our followers.

What email marketing campaigns have successfully attracted you?

We are always giving out our emails whether it is at the restaurant we are making a reservation for, at a clothing store for our e-receipt, or an online store offering a promo code. Our inboxes are flooded with promotional emails all day long. We asked our followers what email marketing campaigns have successfully attracted them to either open the email, go to the stores website, or ultimately purchase something. “Warby Parker e-mail messages that introduce new products and have super cute images of the new products” and “I love getting emails from FabFitFun with sneak peeks of their new boxes! It makes me even more excited to get mine in the mail” were two answers that we got. Successful email campaigns need to include new products and promotions, and they need to be exciting to open and appealing to the eye.

How would you describe email marketing in three words?

Everyone views email marketing in different ways, so we asked our followers to describe email marketing in only three words. One of our followers said, “instant. targeted, and cost effective.” Another follower answered with the combination of “informational, entertainment, and awareness.” We couldn’t agree more with these three words. Email campaigns need to be informational before they are promotional, but they need to be entertaining enough for the subscriber.

What newsletters are you currently subscribed to?

Many different businesses are running email marketing campaigns, so we asked our followers which newsletters they are currently subscribed to. One of our followers answered, “Newsletters from my favorite stores, bloggers, and restaurants. I like to be in the know!” Customers love knowing about new products, promotions, and more behind-the-scenes information about your business. Another one of our followers answered with the “St. Petersburg Preservation Society” as the newsletter they are currently subscribed too. This newsletter is an informational campaign that lets local community members know more about the local preservation society and what’s going on around St. Petersburg.

What is better: informational campaigns or promotional campaigns?

We asked a very important question to our followers about which campaign is better informational or promotional. A couple responses were “I say 80% informational and 20% promotional,” and “Informational campaign for sure. The nature of digital marketing is ‘value first.’ You can let [the reader] know more about yourself after you’ve got their attention.” It is important to establish a relationship with your followers before being too pushy with promotions and offers. However, your customers do want to know about sales. One of our followers said, “Promotional! I want to know about all of the sales.”

What prevents you from opening an email campaign?

We asked our followers what prevented them from opening an email campaign and the responses we got were “being too pushy on selling” and “corny or boring subject line.” Subject lines are very important when it comes to creating a successful email campaign because it is the first thing a person sees. Another one of our followers said that the thing that prevents them from opening an email campaign is “Any subject line that’s promising me too much. It always feel like spam or a waste of my time.” It doesn’t matter if you are giving away something for free, if you don’t have a great subject line then the open rate is going to be very low.

What equates to a successful email marketing campaign?

It is great if your small business has a huge mailing list, but if there is not a high open rate or click-through rate then the campaign is unsuccessful. One of our followers answered, “When it delivers all of the necessary information without being too pushy and is entertaining to read.” Your email list subscribers want to know more about your business, your products/services, and your offers because that is why they signed up in the first place. Think of email campaigns as a puzzle, if one piece is missing the puzzle is incomplete and unsuccessful.

After our Twitter chat we released the same email guidelines were constantly being referred to: don’t be too pushy, be informative before asking for the sale, and be interesting to read. If your small business is not running an email marketing campaign, or if your current campaign is not converting, contact us at info@kapokmarketing or (727) 214-5844 to find out how we can help.