Email marketing is a powerful form of permission marketing.
When you send out emails you?re contacting people who actually want to see your marketing messages rather than interrupting strangers.
Unfortunately this form of marketing often isn?t used correctly or even at all.
Here are 7?tips you can use to take your email marketing to the next level.
1) Make it easy for people to sign up for your email list
People obviously aren?t going to receive your emails if they don?t sign up for your email list in the first place.
It?s very important that you make it as obvious and easy as possible to sign up for your list.
Make sure you subscribe forms are featured prominently all over your website.
Your subscribe forms should also have as few fields as possible. If you?re collecting information from prospects try to keep it to just their name, email address and maybe phone number if you absolutely need it.
The more fields you add to a form, the less likely a user is to fill it out.
2) Offer an incentive
Many websites offer incentives for joining email lists which can be anything from a discount coupon to a free eBook. In marketing terms this is called a ?Lead Magnet?.
A free eBook with tips about your industry is a fantastic incentive to get subscribers.
It?s not difficult to implement something like this on your website using either a plugin or even just an email autoresponder.
3) Make sure your emails are mobile friendly
A huge percentage of the emails you send out will be read on a mobile device like a smartphone.
It?s very important that your emails are easy to read on mobile devices. If you?re not sure if they are then you need to test that.
Send a bunch of emails to your friends and coworkers and get them to show you how they look on their phones. Be sure to test it out on different sized tablets as well.
Ideally your emails should be using mobile responsive design which will automatically resize depending on the screen of the device.
If your emails are just plain text then they?ll probably automatically resize as well, just make sure.
4) Use Video
Including video in your email can boost your click-through rate by as much as 200% to 300%.
Video is an unbelievably powerful tool, especially for the real restate industry where you can show your clients home walkthroughs and other features.
The easiest way to include video in your emails is just to insert an image with a video thumbnail and some sort of overlay with a play button.
When the image is clicked on it should open the video on your website or YouTube channel.
If you try to attach an actual video file to your emails though you?re going to run into problems.
5) Keep your emails short at scannable
People read differently on the Internet then they do with books. If you send emails with large blocks of text your emails will likely get deleted.
Whenever you email anyone you need to keep it as short and to the point as possible.
Use very short paragraphs with one or two sentences at the most and also consider bolding important parts.
Most people get a huge amount of email every day so keep that in mind and make your emails as easy as possible for people.
6) Add a personal touch
Business is all about building relationships and your emails are an excellent place to showcase your personality.
Instead of just sending bland corporate emails come up with your own personal way of signing off or other personal touches.
You should also compose each email as if you’re writing to one person only. Even if all your emails are automated ?personalizing them a little bit shows your clients that you’re human and that you care which is great for building rapport.
7) Know your local spam rules
There are rules regarding how you?re allowed to send out emails and they differ depending on where you live.
In the United States you have CAN-SPAM and Canada recently introduced it?s new anti-spam legislation CASL.
In general you can only email people who have specifically asked to be on your email list.
If you collected a bunch of random emails at an event then you?re technically not allowed to email those people.
You also need to make sure to include your contact information as well as a very obvious unsubscribe link in every email you send.
Take a few minutes to read through your local rules so you don?t run into trouble down the line.
In conclusion
If you?re not using email marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy it?s definitely time to start.
Even if you don?t have a plan start including forms on your website and start collecting email addresses today.
When you eventually put together a content strategy you?ll be glad you started collecting emails a while ago.
If you have any other email marketing tips please share them in the comments.
This post originally appeared on the Realty Digital Marketing Professional Community here:?7 Surefire Ways to Get More Success from Your Email Marketing
