How to start off email marketing the right way
Email marketing is intended to be a positive relationship based on mutual trust. The customer base has to see their online interaction with the brand as being purely a win-win scenario in order to ensure loyalty and maximize engagement. Like any relationship, the foundation for email marketing is always established at the beginning of the process.
By streamlining the procedures and ensuring that privacy policies and governmental regulations are being complied with to the highest extent possible, the email marketer can help smooth the customer's path throughout their interaction, diminishing eventual opt-outs and spam complaints. The process involves several steps, all of which must be implemented carefully and comprehensively.
Optimize your Opt-In
Your subscriber must be made aware during the opt-in option process what content they will receive from your company, and when they can expect to receive it. Typos in the data entry of email addresses are a major source of problems in an email campaign, therefore asking the customer to enter the email address twice to confirm its validity or embedding a syntax validation system will save headaches down the line.
The subsequent triggered opt-in email should confirm the address through "double opt-in" verification while reinforcing the subscription itself as well as the content which the customer has asked to receive.
Ask permission again & again
A key to ethical and legal email marketing is the concept of receiving full permission from your customer prior to sending any promotional content. Restricting your email newsletters to content that is timely, appropriate, and fully relevant to the customer's expressed needs will emphasize the respect your brand has for their preferences.
The relationship can be buttressed by requesting their permission to receive your promotional messages through other channels, or reconfirming the frequency at which they prefer to receive your email newsletters. At every major step along the way, always ask permission first. This policy will ensure that the customer feels valued and important, not just another email address in a "batch & blast" list.
Comply with the customer's preferences
The process of collecting your customer's preferences is a never ending one. You must keep reconfirming the type of message they prefer as for example, they may have just obtained a new smartphone and would rather receive mobile-sensitive emails rather than the ones which display well on their large desktop computer monitor.
Excessive frequency is a primary cause of unsubscriptions, so directing the customer to your Preference Center to continually fine tune the number of newsletters they receive per week, month, or year will help keep them anticipating your email missives rather than dreading them.
Your segmentation procedures should also supply you with ample information about the specific topics they are most interested in, and your email content should focus on those preferences.
Protect customer privacy
With new and massive data breaches being announced almost daily, your customer cannot be blamed for becoming ever more concerned about the privacy of the information they are turning over to your company.
Protecting your customer's privacy is central to maintaining trust, and your privacy policy should be specifically drafted to be easy to understand, manage, and uphold. The efficient maintenance of a fully secure, centralized database to track operational and marketing customer interactions will result in your subscriber's long term engagement and satisfaction.
There are some cases when the relationship is best terminated quickly and without rancor. At those times ensuring that unsubscribe links are readily visible in each email newsletter and that the opt-out procedure is easily carried out and immediately applicable, will help keep the subscriber from being a disgruntled former customer. If your company can conduct every phase of your relationship with your email subscriber with professionalism, sensitivity, and class, you will both benefit from a truly successful union!
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