Three sure-fire ways to maximise the ROI of your email marketing campaign

How though, do you structure your email campaigns to ensure that you convert the interest into sales?

1. Your value proposition

The first rule of any good marketing campaign, is to really look at it from the customer's point of view, and then ask yourself: "What's in it for me?"

And what exactly is it that is in there for the customer? What benefits will they receive, how will this make their life easier, how will this make their jobs easier, or even how will it help them save money?

A powerful value proposition has many distinct elements...

• It's short and to the point
People don't read much anymore - and they want to know the offer up front - so tell them, in clear language, at the beginning of your marketing, exactly what's in it for them.
• It's specific
No pussy-footing around here, a great offer tells the prospect exactly what they'll get, what it will cost them and strongly motivates why yours is the offer they should take up. In addition, this is also a great practice to adopt in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, which is all about clarity and straightforwardness in your marketing.
• It is in the language of the customer
We have 11 official languages in South Africa, with the vast majority of our population using our business language, English, as their second language. The trick in situations like this is to speak in clear, simple English, eliminating confusion and making it accessible to the average Joe. This way, it doesn't matter in whose inbox it lands - your message will get across.
• It must pass the 'seat-of-the-pants' test
Does your campaign excite you, and does it offer something that you cannot wait to get your hands on? If not, then rethink it. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many people read your emailer, you want them to turn into conversions - and what is it that you're offering that will excite your prospect into reaching out and taking action?

2. Magnets

Magnets are a great way to get prospects to take action - and a magnet is something that you give away in order to get the prospect to sign up to your website and join your ongoing mailing list.

Great magnets can be any number of things.

A competition, for example, to win something cool - and even relatively inexpensive - like an iPad, is a great way to get people to sign up to your mailing list. Once they're on your mailing list, it means that you are that much closer to reaching the number of contacts you need to convert that client into a sale.

If your offering is product-based, you could give away a product, or product sample, or something that people may be interested in that is not a fast mover for you, and one of which you have extra stock.

Less expensive options for magnets include e-books offering real, salient information in your area of expertise, or even a free, no-obligation consultation, or, if your offering is service-based, a prize that includes your marketable skills.

Really though, the point of a magnet is to gather the information of the people who may be potentially interested in what you have to offer, so that you can continue creating touch points with them. This way, they will turn to you when they have a need in your area, because your repeated touch points keep you front of mind.

3. Dedicated landing pages

So, how many times have you clicked through on an email, or even a link online, and when you get to the next page, the thing you were looking for is just nowhere to be found? Frustrating isn't it?

And what do you do in a situation like that? Right, you navigate away - and mostly feel that you've wasted your time.

The art of great digital marketing is to make it as easy as possible for the prospect to reach and contact you, and take all the guesswork out of how to do it.

Effectively then, the best kind of landing page is one that clearly (and only) does what the link promised. This means that if your link says click here and we will contact you, it should go directly to the form they need fill in. This form too, should have the same title, and even the same look and feel, as the mailer does.

This way, prospects know that they have landed in the correct place, and know exactly what they need to do - with the minimum amount of time and fuss.

A great way to extend this is to ensure contact details such as telephone numbers are clearly displayed on the same page, and also included in your thank you redirect page, as well as on the email confirmation the prospect receives after taking action.

In closing, email marketing, when done correctly, is an effective and powerful way to boost your sales and visibility, and help you reach the contact ratio that turns prospects into closed deals.