Email marketing is another tool in your marketing toolbox.
As with any marketing campaign, email marketing must be handled correctly if you wish to gain customers. Not only gain new customers, but pique the interest of your established customer base. Email is a great way to reach these people or annoy them.
Sadly, some CEOs are clueless on email marketing. This is where you come in as a dedicated staff member.
Move With The Times
While your CEO might be stuck in the 90's where email campaigns meant flashy, multicolor HTML layouts, today's emails are streamlined.
People access their email on many different types of devices. While one layout might look gorgeous in the inbox on a laptop, it may look horrible on a mobile phone. Talk to your CEO about streamlining the emails for a clean, polished look. Stripped down doesn't have to mean bare.
There are layout choices among most email marketing providers, these allow a mobile version to be sent to mobile customers. If your CEO refuses to change, show him or her emails from other companies that are streamlined. Research the response and encourage a move to 'now'.
Stop Selling and Start Talking
There's a time when your customers will be sick of the sales talk.
For some it comes sooner than with others. To encourage interaction use your emails to send customers to your social networking pages. By now you or your CEO should have set up social networking accounts. At least have a Facebook page where customers can visit. Customers love social networking with companies, it makes them feel as if they are 'friends' with the company and their voice is heard. If your CEO hasn't thought about adding social networking links to your marketing emails, now is the time to do so.
He/She Won't Change!
If your CEO refuses to change email marketing strategy, your campaign might just be sunk.
It can be hard to change the minds of people who believe they know what is best. HTML 'code monkeys' from the late 90's and early part of the 2000's sometimes won't acknowledge that they aren't up to date on what makes the Internet tick. There isn't a lot you can do to change their minds by force. You can drop hints, leave links to email marketing information or if you're brave enough, suggest hiring an email marketing company.
Sometimes you may be stuck with a CEO that won't change no matter what.
In this situation you'll need to bite the bullet and resign yourself to a failed email campaign. As subscribers to newsletters or email notifications drop even lower, you may be able to talk some sense into your CEO.
But, until your point can be proven by cold, hard numbers, you may just have to live with a clueless CEO.