I was browsing the shelves at Barnes and Noble the other day (I know what a quaint idea) and I saw this title sitting in the marketing section of the Dummies series.
I couldn’t resist and took it home to review how they approached this tricky marketing channel.
I’m happy to report they got it right!
John Arnold takes a very pragmatic approach to email marketing is gives the proper foundation for you to learn and build your email campaigns on.
There are lots of good examples and resources for you to draw upon and even though this edtion was published in 2008 many of the core principles are as true today as they were then.
Remember, email marketing is not a dead channel, quite the contrary. I mean even Facebook is on the bandwagon–encouraging you to setup and use an @facebook.com email address.
Why on earth would they do that if they didn’t want you to receive email there!
Keep these three principles in mind and no matter where you get your email marketing knowledge from (or even if you hire an email marketing consultant like ZinMarketing) and you’ll get better results.
1. Keep it Relevant. Only send messages that are important and relevant to your readers. Stray and you’ll see unsubscribes galore.
2. Keep it Simple. Make your email more like a personal message from you to me and less like a weekend flyer.
3. Write good copy. The words in the email matter the most. Write clear and compelling copy and watch the response skyrocket. Clarity trumps most other considerations.
Don’t delay getting on top of this. If your competitors are building a big list of prospects and competitors they will have an advantage over you in no time at all.