Sending and receiving emails is a daily practice for small business owners, however have you ever considered how many of your emails don’t arrive at the other end?
Depending on the email software you use, one way to ensure your email has been received is by using a read receipt. This function is a small pop-up that appears when the receiver gets your email. However, it is not always reliable as the receiver has the option to click No to informing you the email has arrived. Another way an email can be tracked is by seeing if it hit the server at the receiver’s end. This is also not guaranteed, but more a way to narrow down if there is an issue with emails being delivered.
When sending an email containing important information, a great business practice is, follow up with a courtesy phone call. The same applies when sending an email that requires an answer. While it may not be possible or practical to follow up every email, it’s well worth the time and effort as a second point of contact.
Read on to discover more useful information regarding email including:
- Why don’t emails arrive?
- Using email to advertise your business
- Email Signature
- Privacy Laws
- Email Marketing
- Keep relevant to your audience
- Ensure your emails are mobile friendly
- Watch your timing
- Keep it simple
- Avoid hard selling
Why Don’t Emails Arrive?
The most common reasons emails don’t arrive include an incorrect email address, sent to the incorrect person, spam filters or blocked at the recipients end. Human error is a common reason emails don’t arrive with a misspelt email address an easy error to make. Emails can be blocked at the receivers end for numerous reasons. Emails starting with info@, sales@, accounts@ are commonly targeted by spammers or caught in spam filters. If this occurs, the email won’t ‘bounce back’ nor will you receive an error message. If you are emailing large companies, governments or schools and having issues with your emails not being delivered, you may need to consider changing your email address.
Using Email to Advertise Your Business
A business email address portrays professionalism and is a great way to advertise your business. Using a g-mail or service provider email isn’t perceived as being professional. If you prefer the g-mail interface, you can have your email service routing through your g-mail account. This means you can view your email in G-suite while still having your email address as your business domain.
Email Signature
Make use of the email signature function by adding your business signature to the bottom of your emails. Customise your signature to include a professional photo of yourself and/or your business logo. Your contact details, website address and social links should also be included.
Privacy Laws
When receiving a group email, you may be able to see the other recipients email addresses. It is against privacy laws for you to use these email addresses to promote your business. You can only market to people who have given you permission to do so and it must be an active option. They must have ticked a consent box or signed a form allowing you to use their email information. If purchasing email lists, be very cautious, the way the email addresses were sourced can now be unlawful.
Email Marketing
When done correctly, email marketing can be a powerful business tool. It’s all about building the relationship with your potential customer and adding value while keeping content relevant, interesting and timely.
Put thought into the subject line – it could be what determines whether your email is or isn’t opened. Be honest and ethical as using click baits or trick subject lines will only end up being detrimental to you and your businesses reputation.
Keep Relevant to Your Audience
If promoting or selling different products, services or audiences it’s a good idea to organise your email lists. This will ensure a relevant message is being sent to the correct audience. To build the know, like and trust factor, you need to “talk their language” and the quickest way to do that is by giving customers relevant information.
Ensure Your Emails are Mobile Friendly
The use of mobile phones to view websites and read emails is continuing to grow. It is important to ensure your email can be read easily on a mobile device, but how do you make your emails mobile friendly? Avoid using large images that won’t load and large blocks of text. Keep your content short and direct.
Watch Your Timing
When reading interesting information on a websites blog, it’s common to opt in to continue receiving new content. However, after opting in, if you are then inundated with daily emails, it becomes overbearing and you either unsubscribe or automatically delete the emails. Be aware of your timing to ensure you don’t alienate your audience with too many emails and too much information.
Keep it Simple
Ensure your email content is simple and to the point. If you want to give extra= information, do so by including a link to your website or blog.
Avoid Hard Selling
The same principles apply to emails as they do to sales for small business owners. Build the relationship, create trust and add value before trying to sell your product or services to your email list.
Cathy at CATCO Enterprises is Your Local Digital Marketing Expert
Cathy Smith has run the same Marketing Agency for more than 19 years and has helped hundreds of business owners achieve their marketing goals. If you want to build your social media channels, increase traffic to your website or develop a digital marketing strategy for your business, call Cathy today on 0409 489 464.
