A basic email marketing campaign can produce significant results quickly. For many entrepreneurs, that's enough to comfortably grow sales and attract new customers.

• Others, however, see the potential in taking email marketing to the next level.
  
  Once you've mastered the basics of targeted email campaigns, try incorporating a few advanced techniques to improve email marketing. As you work to raise the bar of your email efforts, remember to focus on what produces the best results. In testing out advanced techniques, you may find that your subscribers prefer a more basic approach. Bottom line: Keep an open mind and put your customers first. So, are you ready to improve your email marketing?

• Refine Your Email Campaign Based on Results

  Analyze the reporting from your email campaigns. What does the data say about your customers and their preferences?
  
  You might notice that certain content - tips lists or case studies, for example - continuously receive the most clicks. Tweak your content strategy to include more of those communications elements. Do charts and bar graphs receive a significant amount of clicks? Then incorporate more visual, research-based items in your emails.
  
  The popularity of content isn't the only type of data you can learn from. Look for patterns in the times and days you send your emails. You might learn that your messages get the most results when sent on Tuesday mornings, as an example.

• Provide Your Customers Exactly What They Want

  List segmentation is an advanced technique to improve your email marketing campaign. It allows you to fine-tune your campaign based on customer preference. Here's how list segmentation works:
  
  1. Split up your email list into groups based on a common factor.
  For example, you could segment your list based on age, education level, sex or past buying behavior.
  
  2. Test out subtle tweaks on your groups to see what produces the best results.
  For example, send your groups different subject lines to determine which is more popular. Or, try out different color schemes in your messages to see which is preferred.
  
  3. Lastly, analyze and incorporate your findings in your messaging going forward.

• Improve Your Email Marketing Campaign by Taking Content to the Next Level

  Once you've mastered the basics of email marketing, take a few measures to improve your email marketing content by making it more exciting, innovative and diverse. Try a few of these ideas:
  
  
  • Conduct a customer survey to find out the type of content customers would like to see. Include questions such as: “Do you prefer information that's visual or text based?” and “What's more useful: tip lists, news articles or case studies?” Revise your content going forward based on what you learn.
  • For each email newsletter, poll your customers by asking them a question. The question could be more thought-provoking and based on a current news event, or just for fun. Provide poll results in your next newsletter. You could even highlight the results in a bar chart or graph to add some visual interest.
  • Interview a few of your customers and turn those conversations into case studies. It's a great way to add a human element to your newsletter and it will keep your content fresh and unique.
  • Plan ahead by creating a content calendar. Map out the article topics you want to cover over the next few months, and incorporate relevant promotions, sales and events. This way, you won't be scurrying at the last minute to come up with a concept. Plus, you will improve the quality of your newsletter content.
  Gain even more ideas to improve email marketing campaigns by checking out a few email marketing resources and books.
  
  Have you tapped into the power of EasyContact to simplify your email marketing efforts and maximize results? Sign up for EasyContact today!

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