Email Marketing in the UK: The Basics

As a UK-based business owner, you may have heard plenty of talk about email marketing. This sophisticated technology not only allows you to promote your business, but it gives you a chance to build stronger relationships with customers at the same time. With the United Kingdom being one of the top countries in the world, and millions of English-speaking customers seeking the best products and services, email marketing should be one of your top priorities if you want to see your business survive the next decade.

One of the biggest benefits of email marketing in the UK is the ability to tailor campaigns to customer likes and dislikes. Once you build a permission-based email list, you can track your customer preferences based on what they buy and what links they click on. To take things a step further, you must segment your list according to those customer characteristics. Nothing disappoints a customer more than receiving an email that is obviously meant to go out to everyone. Because customers want to feel special, you can create campaigns that directly suit individual customer needs, which is something that simply can't be done with television, radio, or even print advertising.

Just because you have a good idea for an email marketing campaign doesn't mean you'll succeed. But if you use the following tips, there's a great chance that your UK campaign will be a smashing success:

Do you have beautiful color photos of the products you're showcasing in your email? If so, make sure that you use them in the email. Your goal is to entice the customer to open their cheque book or take out their credit card. With stunning photos, you can actually woo your customers into thinking your product is something they definitely need.

Your email marketing copy should not only be crisp and clean, but it should create an emotional response in the customer. Don't just list out the steps to use an easy product, talk about how the product will save them time that can be used to do something they really love.

The key to successful email marketing is finding the balance between sending too often and not sending emails enough. Send too many emails and you'll make your customers angry. Send too few emails and customers will even forget that they signed up to hear from you. Find a happy medium and send out emails at least once a month, and no more than once a week.

Ask your customers what their favorite products are and give them a “best of” email. Customers love to be involved so do what you can to make them happy by having plenty of contests and surveys.

Once you've got your campaign going, you'll see how it helps your business. Follow the rules above and you'll practically be guaranteed success.