Targeted Email Campaigns, the Elixir of Successful Email Marketing

Focus your html email campaigns like a laser beam

"Marketing without outdoor advertising is like winking at a beautiful woman in the dark. You know what you are doing but she does not!" An interesting saying, applicable to the world of marketing emails as well. Assume you are in charge of an e-newsletter campaign to educate pregnant women. You come up with a brilliant email campaign template that includes a colourful catalogue, attractive videos, testimonials et al. You have 5000 email ids on your list. Obviously, you are all set. What could go wrong? There’s one small hitch. Half your mailing list includes men who might or might not be married. Oops! Think about it. Are you are aiming in the dark?

So how do you avoid such a situation? Get set for targeted email campaigns. To create a focussed campaign, keep in mind certain pointers. First, use opt-in forms to gather addresses and identify target audiences. Second, segregate target audiences into groups based on factual data. Devise a separate and direct email message for each of these segments to obtain the desired response. Next, write effective subject lines; keep them short, sweet and to the point. If you can be creative and meaningful, nothing like it! Constantly work on building a good email list and keep it clean at all times. Remember, you send too many emails to "dead" accounts and they’ll label your campaign 'SPAM'.

The timing of your campaign could be crucial to its success. No one fancies a marketing howler in the inbox everyday. Similarly, sending email blasts once in two months might mean the customer has forgotten you already. Therefore, work out an optimum frequency based on metrics such as click through and bounce-back rates. Regularly monitor the frequency of your campaign so that you can adapt it to business cycles.

Personalizing email marketing to increase campaign efficacy and focus is a good ploy. Spin around that email-marketing plan with Benchmark Email’s personalization options. One exciting option is video email marketing, which makes it a snap to drag and drop videos right into email marketing layouts. Use videos to educate customers on how to use a product though a step-by-step demonstration as well as provide product testimonials. You can also use them to provide a 360º tour of popular products and create special messages for your customers. You’ve probably seen enough videos on Internet websites to be able to gauge the impact they can create. In this case, if an email provider blocks videos, Benchmark's feature sends recipients to a mirror page that shows them!

This might be your first email marketing venture but don’t lose heart or focus. Planning is the essence of effective marketing. You set your objectives and target them one at a time and success will follow, sooner or later.