Day two on the official journey to starting my new venture, aka – the conversion copywriting agency, to help businesses get more out of their online marketing efforts by driving up conversions with good, relevant copywriting.

But, today is Good Friday, so not much has happened on the business development front. Instead, we’ve been indoors all day, eating chocolate easter eggs, and watching way too much rubbish kids TV.

One thing that I have however been doing as and when examples crop up, is taking an objective view of the email campaigns that jump into my own inbox. I signed up to some of the websites I knew would hit me with emails almost instantly (think home shopping, furniture, electronics etc) and have been keeping an eye on what they’re doing really well on, and what others could improve on.

Even some of the basic ‘rookie’ email marketing issues have been cropping up from some larger companies, ranging from the email itself not showing up in my email reader as the entire thing is made up of images (I have images turned off), to completely irrelevant products being pushed, or even simply not being responsive – forcing me to zoom in and out to read them.

While some internet marketing “guru’s” will claim email marketing is dead, it isn’t – we just need to think differently about how it works, and how readers will be consuming the content.

As a business owner, it’s your job to get your product or service messages in front of your target audience, at the right time and when they have an intent to purchase. Email is still one of the best ways to do this…and done properly, it does work.

Back to Peppa Pig…

…and sticky, chocolate fingers…While cuddling with Archie today, my iPhone buzzed – it was an email from Dean Morrison (a very funny greetings card firm). This email was responsive (I could read it properly on my phone), personalised to me, and timely.

…Just a few clicks later and I had bought two birthday cards for Zoe’s birthday at the end of April, and Dean has another sale – all because they sent an email newsletter out at the right time, to someone with high intent to purchase.

There’s nothing stopping you from doing the same, you just need to work harder to get the message right and the audience primed and ready to buy.

This is something I’m working on providing for clients, helping them reap the rewards well crafted and planned email marketing campaigns can bring.