The Dos and Don’ts of Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great tool for any small business. It allows you to stay in long term contact with your customers and prospects, keeping them updated on your products, promotions, events and news. That’s great, however, I’m sure you can remember being sent countless spammy emails from companies you don’t even recall engaging with and certainly don’t intend buying from. In this article we give tips and what to do and what not to do to maximise your engagement and stop your contacts reaching for the unsubscribe button (if you even have one!).

Keeping your email subscribers happy.

Ask for consent: Ask customers if they would like to receive email marketing information from you in the future. Explain what they will receive in these emails (i.e. special offers, updates on products/services, details of upcoming events).

Allow opt-ins on signup forms: If you are providing a tick box for customers to opt into email marketing when they book an appointment or make an enquiry, make sure it is unticked by default, so that they have to opt themselves in.

Use a GDPR compliant email platform: Popular email marketing platforms include a lot of features to keep you GDPR compliant. Many popular CRM apps have also made updates since the new regulations came into effect. Make sure the system you use is up to date and helps you to stick to current legislation.

Allow recipients to unsubscribe: Make sure there is an option for people on your mailing lists to opt out. Most email marketing platforms will automatically add unsubscribe options at the bottom of emails to make this easy to manage.

Focus on customer engagement and user experience: Make sure all your emails deliver value and a great experience to your readers. That way less people will unsubscribe or complain about receiving them.

Avoid these rookie email marketing mistakes.

Add emails to your marketing list without consent: GDPR laws require that you obtain specific and informed consent before adding customers to your mailing lists.

Purchase lists of email addresses: It may seem like a quick win, and there are hundreds of companies out there trying to sell targeted lists of email contacts. By purchasing these lists, you have no consent to contact these emails so it is clearly a violation of regulations; you must avoid this.

Pass on email addresses or other data without consent: You are not allowed to pass on customer data to 3^rd parties without prior consent. If you are planning to share your customer’s data, make sure you get specific permission first. They need to know who their data will be shared with and how it will be used.

Automatically Opt Subscribers In: It is easy to think that your email marketing lists will grow quicker if you automatically subscribe all enquiries and customers to your email marketing lists. However, remember sustainable marketing relies on building trust with customers. Start as you mean to go on and stick to the regulations by not automatically enrolling customers to your email marketing campaigns. Give them the option to tick to opt-in and make it clear what they are opting in to.

Spam Your Audience: No one likes receiving too many or low quality spammy emails from a business. If you do this to your customers, they will unsubscribe, and you have lost the chance to send future campaigns to them. Focus on interesting and valuable content and space your emails out so they don’t become bothersome.

A fresh approach to email marketing.

At FreshOnline we have seen many of our customers reap the rewards of email marketing. We help them do this with well thought out strategies to grow their contact base and by designing and executing high quality email marketing campaigns. If you want any further advice on what you should do and what to avoid, get in contact.