Email Marketing Best Practices

Email marketing is a fantastic way to keep in contact with collectors and to grow a contact list of people interested in your work. Further to my previous post, here are 12 things to keep in mind with your e-mail marketing efforts.

1. Send emails no more than once a week – more than that will be annoying and they won’t get read.
2. Use for important announcements – if you send an email every time you complete a new painting it will become monotonous. Sending a newsletter once a month saying “5 new paintings” and an invitation to an upcoming show will be much more exciting and effective.
3. Use compelling subject lines – it is harder & harder to get people to open emails so make the subject line interesting so they will be compelled to open it.
4. Include images – your work is the reason they are interested and signed up for your email list. Show your best.
5. Don’t give everything in the email – you want to provide a teaser then send them to your website for more information. For example, show one image of your new work then direct them to your website to see more.
6. The email address you send from should have your website domain in it – info@janedoe.com promotes your website address and is more professional than a generic address such as janedoe27@telus.net.
7. Don’t share your email list with others – with spam and strict privacy laws this is extremely important! Don’t send to multiple email addresses in the ‘to’ line where everyone can see who the email is going to. Put email addresses in the ‘bcc’ field (blind carbon copy) or use an email system that sends the emails for you. Also, don’t sell or share your list with anyone, and don’t send something to your contacts they didn’t ask for.
8. Follow privacy laws – legally you are required to provide a way for people to unsubscribe in every email you send out and if you collect personal information you should include a privacy policy on your website.
9. Track your email response – how many people open the emails, click through to the links you provide, and request info about your work? This shows the things people are interested in and if your newsletters are effective.
10. Use an email system – This will make things a lot easier for you. It maintains a database of your customers including subscriptions & unsubscribes, provides reports on how many people open emails and click through to your website, etc. You can even set up a template that matches your website so it’s all branded the same. MailChimp, GoDaddy’s Express Email Marketing and Constant Contact are a few popular services available (MailChimp is free up to 2000 emails).
11. Ask people for their email address – people who express interest in your work and who you meet at art fairs, exhibitions, galleries, etc. Also, give people the ability to sign up for your newsletter on your website, blog, Facebook page and any other pages you maintain online. It gives you the control rather than giving out your information and waiting for them to contact you.
12. Get everything working together – If you have a website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter account and any other areas where people can find you online, provide links to all of those items on everything – each website, your email newsletters, in your business email signature, etc. Make it easy for people to find out how they can connect with you and to join. Also, offer a link to forward or share with a friend to encourage people to spread the word.

Tags: email marketing