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To promote your business, you have many options. Yet email marketing remains one of the easiest, most cost-effective methods. Read on to learn the basics of developing a strong email marketing strategy.

Focus on Strong Content

A key piece of your email marketing is what you communicate about your business. Consider your goals, whether they are establishing and maintaining trust in your business, selling your product, establishing brand loyalty–or all of these. Provide content that educates and entertains your audience, and inspires them to respond. For example, consider including recent news about your company, or a whitepaper pertaining to some important issue.  Also, consider looking at the email marketing efforts of businesses in your industry, to get an idea of what interests their subscribers, and what you find interesting. What do you want people to do after visiting your site? Do you want them to receive your newsletters? Be sure to put an easy-to-find subscribe button. If you blog, include an invitation to contact your business at the end of your posts.

Keep an Eye on Metrics

How do you know you’re actually reaching people, both current and future prospects? Your email service provider can give you statistics–or metrics–such as delivery, open and click-through rates, the percentage of recipients that receive your emails, that open and read them, and that click on at least one link in your email. Healthy percentages in these metrics can indicate that your content impacts your audience. Bounce and unsubscribe rates are also important to note. A bounce or an email returned as undeliverable, indicates an address that is incorrect or out-of-date; this rate should ideally be less than ten percent. Unsubscribe rates, where a recipient opts out, could be an indication that your content is not engaging readers; this rate should be less than one percent. One way to minimize these rates is to keep your contact list up to date.

Maintain and Update Your Contact List

As already stated, your bounce rate can tell you that you need to update your contact list. Check the accuracy of your email addresses; just one character that’s off can result in a bounce. In adding to your list, put quality over quantity by including emails of people you know–who you’ve met at a networking event or exchanged business cards with. Don’t buy email lists, which can include spam. Omit addresses that end in sales@, support@, or info@, and get rid of any that have bounced or unsubscribed.

These practices–creating good content, looking at and acting on metrics, and keeping your contact list in good repair–enhance your email marketing strategy. For help with your marketing plan, contact ClikCloud today at 866-474-8515.