Question: What is your best email marketing tip?
Social Media Email Signatures
"My best email marketing tip is for people to add links to their social media accounts in their signatures. If your company is recently new to Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIN, add the links to increase new followers. One of attorney clients landed his biggest deal yet by adding in his LinkedIN link to his email signature. His web bio differentiated him from the competitor and served as a value prop."
Follow @sparklingruby
Set expectations
"Set expectations: type of content, frequency of content, etc. Ensure that subscribers know what they're getting themselves into by providing them with newsletter samples before they join your mailing list. Explain your goals and your mission. On Brazen Careerist, our goal it to tell members about the best networking opportunities occurring each week in our community. We don't stray from that."
Follow @ryanpaugh
ABC Of Email Marketing!
"A. Don't cut corners! Use a professional email marketing service provider like aweber or constant-contact so that you can better manage the subscriptions, lists, and send professional looking emails. B. The best word in anyone's dictionary is their own name so, greet them with their name & avoid writing mass emails that start with "Dear Friend" or "Dear Subscriber". C. NEVER spam! Period."
Follow @Break9to55Jail
Put Personality Into It
"It's so boring when you get an email newsletter that has no personality to it at all and it's easy to hit the delete button. Most keep reading from the start if it pulls them in and they can relate to it. Write it as if you were talking one on one with them and as if they are a friend. People can tell if you're actually sending out an email just to send one or if you have something good to say."
Follow @businessbeware
Be an educator, not a marketer
"Unless people are signing up for your newsletter specifically to receive deals, I recommend keeping marketing content to a minimum in your newsletters. If you can provide real information that is useful for your customers, that they would otherwise pay for, then you'll get a loyal subscription base. "
Follow @beatthegmat
Best email marketing tip
"Think about what headline you absolutely could not possibly resist opening yourself. It will likely have a "need-to-know" or superlative (e.g., best, worst) element to it, or feel "urgent" so that it can't just sit in someone's inbox for weeks. Make your subject line imply that your email conveys information that someone in your target audience would be at a huge disadvantage without. "
Follow @stephaniekaplan
Subject Lines Rule
"I typically get an open rate of 25% or more on my e-mail newsletters, and I think a great deal of it has to do with subject lines. Instead of thinking about practical descriptions, come up with juicy teasers that will make people so curious that they have to click. A recent example from my ScheduleMakeover.com newsletter: refrigerate this (or else...)"
Follow @RealLifeE
Spice Up Your Subject Line
"You can create an incredible newsletter packed full of valuable content but it might not get read if your subject line doesn't stand out. You are competing against all the other emails and newsletters in a person's inbox. It is important to create a personal and memorable subject line that screams, "Open me!" "
Follow @nataliemacneil
Test, Test and Test Again!
"The best way to improve your email marketing is to constantly be trying new approaches. Test different subject lines, break up your list and try different discount levels, break the list into smaller groups that allow for more direct targeting. As you do it, track clicks and conversions. Testing is not difficult and the upside can be HUGE!"
Deliver top quality and unique content
"No one wants to be "sold to" consistently. Offer enough value and they will reciprocate by either purchasing your products or services or spreading the word. Today, sales are not sustainable through a "transaction-based" model. If you want to be successful in marketing in this new emerging marketplace, you must focus on a "relationship-based" model."
Follow @Kent_Healy
Deliver free value
"A strong email marketing campaign is one where you deliver free value over time, while incorporating your products and services into the mix. I would also recommend adding social networking icons so that the email can be shared and distributed in other places."
Follow @DanSchawbel
Know Your Audience
"E-mail marketing is a very diverse topic, and advice surrounding it depends largely on your audience. How often do they check e-mail? Do they prefer text-only or HTML messages? Survey your audience first -- or conduct some other sort of research based on what you know about your audience -- to determine what will work best. Not everyone prefers to be marketed to in the same way."
Follow @heatherhuhman