What are the email Marketing Best Practices 2012?

Most companies realize the importance of email to their operations these days. While it is used extensively for communication purposes, it can also be an excellent marketing tool that can be used to help a business grow.

Using email as a marketing tool can yield some excellent results especially if those emails are targeted and customer specific. Using previous customers and really defining your niche of new customers will mean that you can send emails which will have a much greater chance of providing a return on investment.

Like all business practices, it is important to keep up to date with the latest trends. When considering email marketing best practices for 2012, there a number of issues to consider for those that want to get the best out of their email marketing efforts.

Social media has been on the rise in recent years and while this is excellent for private means it also has a use in the business world. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter. Linkedin and others are increasingly being seen as a means of promoting businesses and many companies now have a social media presence. This has not signaled the death knell for email as a means of marketing, rather that the two need to be meshed together to provide an effective strategy.

One of the email marketing best practices that has developed recently is to include social sharing buttons in marketing emails that lets a customer easily link into a company’s social media presence. This enables the company to keep in touch with a customer in a simple way, without the need to continually send emails and this can keep customers up to date with latest developments and offers, which has the potential to generate sales.

The rise in smart phones and advanced hand held gadgets mean that more and more people are accessing their email through mobile devices rather than a PC these days. This trend has been growing in recent years and this looks set to continue in the future. Email marketing best practices 2012 needs to consider this.

Content that displays well on a larger computer monitor may not look so good on the smaller screen of a mobile device and companies should think about this when preparing an email marketing campaign. Producing content that effectively shows up on a mobile device as well as PC monitors will ensure that a business can reach the widest audience possible and that the content remains appealing to those that read their email on the move using a smart phone.

Targeting customers with the best deals can be a way to make an email marketing a success. Best practices email marketing campaigns need to consider this and include discounts, free offers and other perks to gain the interest of customers they are targeting. This has the means to increase sales and while it can impact on profit, a way to compensate for this is to offer loyalty and VIP programs as part of a marketing campaign.

Encouraging customers to sign up to this will aim to get them coming back to a company on a more regular basis and this can ramp up sales over time. Providing incentives for a customer to use a company is an important part of an email marketing campaign and offering them perks and loyalty programs that will save them money can help a business grow.

A trend that can have a positive effect on a marketing campaign is triggered emails. These campaigns aim to send emails when triggered by an event rather than just sending out general emails in the style of a mass mailing. This helps target emails at those who have shown an interest in a company’s products or services and this offers more chance of generating sales.

Companies can use a variety of events to trigger the sending of an email. This can include a purchase confirmation, a customer subscription to a company website, a reminder for a subscription renewal and a number of other events. This latches on to the fact that a potential customer has shown an interest in a company and targets them with a marketing email. A triggered email marketing campaign has the benefit that fewer emails will be sent, meaning there is less chance of being identified as a spammer. However, while less mail is sent, those that are specifically target customers that offer the best opportunity of making sales. This makes it one of the best email marketing practices to consider.

While targeting individual customers by email is common by companies, they should also consider the merits of business to business email marketing campaigns. This type of campaign requires a different focus and there are a number of things to consider for b2b email marketing best practices.

The tone of a b2b email needs to be more businesslike rather than the personal tone adopted when targeting an individual customer. It should reflect the style of a face-to-face meeting and keep the message simple and businesslike. Email marketing messages to fellow businesses should be kept short and simple. They will likely already know the merits of other companies in their sector of operation and any message to them should not over market. Keep it simple and allow a business to quickly assess the merits of what is being offered to them. Business executives are busy people and will likely read their emails on the go or in lulls in their day. It is important to grab their attention quickly and spell out to them the benefits of an offer. Also put a clear call to action in the email that allows them to easily respond if they are interested.

Other best practices for b2b email marketing campaigns include understanding the audience and targeting the look of the campaign to this. While one-size-fits all campaigns may work fine when targeting customers, it is unlikely to work in a b2b campaign. Carefully consider the business recipient of the email and set it out in a style that they will find interesting and engaging.

Like any business practice, marketing evolves as time passes and email marketing best practices 2011 may not be relevant for the world of 2012. Taking the time to understand the advances that are being made and the email marketing best practices that are coming into play should enable a company to set up an email marketing campaign that has the best chances of success.