In the second of our series of blogs on email marketing, here’s a handy reminder of 5 things to remember when creating email marketing campaigns or newsletters.

Proof read

There is no way of stopping an email once you have pressed the big green send button! If it has taken you a while to put an email together, it can be tempting just to press send and get it off your desk. In addition to spelling and grammar, remember to check that all the links work. If possible, get someone else to check it over as well – it can be easy to overlook minor errors.

Link back to your website

Once you have your recipient’s attention, it is the ideal time to get them interested in other products/services you offer. Make sure links back to your website are meaningful – don’t just send them to the homepage.

Make it easy for people to share your content

When people find information – in the form of an article, a blog, a video or otherwise – useful, it is commonplace for them to want to share it with others. These days, the most likely way for them to do this is to tweet the link or share it on their LinkedIn or Facebook profile. Incorporating social sharing tools into your email is pretty simple to do and makes it much easier for recipients to then go on and share your content should they feel inclined. Once an article is shared, its reach can pretty soon escalate into hundreds or thousands of potential readers/viewers – without you even having to do anything!

You don’t have to start from scratch

The first place I go when I am looking for inspiration for an email newsletter or bulletin for a client is the blog / news page. If you’re not as well trained (or assisted!) as my clients, this may not have such fruitful results. However, if you are regularly creating content for use on your blog or in the form of articles for magazines etc, make sure you get the most value of these activities and re-utilise them in your email marketing! You probably won’t want to include the whole article on the body of the email, but if the original article has been posted on your website you can include the first couple of paragraphs on your email, providing a link to read the full article. Et voila!

Don’t forget the essentials!

You’ve gone to all the effort of putting together the content for an effective email campaign, but then you fall at the final hurdle. It’s amazing how many times I come across an email campaign that doesn’t include a phone number or other form of contact details. Don’t make it hard for people – the easier you make it, the better. These days, ‘the essentials’ should also include links to your business’ social media profiles so people can share and let the world know how great they think your email is!

All that sound like a bit too much hard work? That’s where we come in… For more advice on outsourced email marketing, get in touch with us.