10 Attention-Grabbing Email Marketing Ideas

Email continues one of the most effective ways for direct marketers to reach their customers. Try these attention-getting ideas to make the most of your next email marketing campaign.

10 attention-grabbing email marketing ideas

1. Sponsor a contest

Give away prizes in order to entice prospects. The gift doesn't have to be large or expensive, although trips and cash tend to draw the most attention.

2. Publish an online newsletter

Develop a newsletter about your business or a related topic that will interest the people with whom you want to do business.

3. Publicize special promotions or events

If you are promoting a new product, hold an open house or participate in a trade show or co-branded campaign. Use your mailing list to publicize it.

4. Drive traffic to your website

Email, direct mail, and advertising all have a stimulating effect on your company's website. Use your mailing lists to get the word out.

5. Make new product or personnel announcements and press releases

Got a hot new service? Product upgrade? Did you hire a new sales manager? Moving to a new location or changing your phone number? Mailing lists are the perfect way to distribute this type of information. Give your customers advance notice of what's coming, and let the trade press know what's happening.

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6. Offer discounts

Everybody loves a bargain, and you can use your mailing list to alert customers and prospects to your latest deals. When the discount is offered exclusively to the mailing list, you communicate the feeling that your customers receive special privileges.

7. Solicit surveys

Mailing lists are an easy way to solicit participants for a survey and to communicate survey results. Send out the questions. Tally up the responses. Report back the results. Readers appreciate having their voices heard.

8. Care for customers

Stay in touch with clients, cheaply and quickly. Thank them for their business. Ask their opinions about your service, your products, your website. "What can we be doing better to [___________]?" You may not like everything you hear, but creating a dialogue builds loyalty and trust.

9. Encourage participation in government, civic, and community projects

Publicize issues and meetings, and solicit public support at hearings before commissions and boards, city councils, and industry associations.

10. Tell a joke

The internet is famous as a joke-sharing medium. Get a jump on the competition by sharing good, clean jokes with your clients. It may not make a sale today, but a good joke can help your name stick in a buyer's mind.