Our take on email marketing

There are different views on whether email marketing is a positive, useful tool or not. We all have to clear our in-boxes of various emails from companies that we have never heard of offering discounts on products we certainly don't want! It is also true that some people will ignore email marketing, it just isn't for them.

On the other hand emails can be useful and boost business if they offer information that is useful or offers that are of interest to us. Product offers leading up to Christmas can certainly help us find a bargain and relieve some of the stress of shopping.

Our experience of email marketing using RedMail (www.red-mail.co.uk) for not only us but for our customers shows that the large majority of email campaigns that are sent out are well received. We also see a spike in visitors to the websites linked from the emails, meaning that the reader found something of use to them.

Of course success does depend on the content and relevance of your emails and ensuring that they are sent to the right people.

Some tips for email marketing:

• Make sure that your campaigns are permission based, only send to those who request to hear from you
• Strike a balance on how often you send emails, too often and you run the risk of being marked as spam, not often enough and you will lose relevance
• Ensure your content is well written and provides relevant information, offers or services
• Make sure that your emails are short and to the point, use them to highlight your main points and link to further information
• Measure your campaign activity, see how many people open your emails, how may follow links, how many unsubscribe and how many mark you as spam. This will all help you to tweak and improve the quality of your email campaigns