In this final article in our 4 part series on email marketing for your wedding business we look at the tools and techniques to use to run a successful campaign.

Which software to use?

To manage and send your email newsletters you should use a proper email marketing provider, not your regular email client. If you send bulk emails via Outlook or similar you will quickly run into problems and find ALL your email blocked as spam. And it also makes managing subscriptions very time consuming.

There are plenty of email marketing providers out there. Mailchimp is a good starting point as it is free if you have less than 2000 subscribers (although the free version has some limits).

Others worth looking at are Constant Contact, Mad Mimi and Aweber – all have different strengths and weaknesses, so check out some demos and choose the one which best meets your needs. Some charge based on subscribers while others on number of emails sent.

Building your contact list

Make sure you have an email sign up box on your website.

• Add a link to the sign up in your email signature.
• Ask clients if you can add them to your list
• Collect email addresses from wedding fairs and other events. NB: Do not add email addresses collected in this way directly onto your list unless it was very clear that the person was signing up for regular emails. A better way is to send a personalised follow up email after the fair which invites them to join your list.

Keeping your list up to date

It’s worth cleaning up your list every year to remove those who are no longer interested in your service.

• It will save you paying higher fees for a list of uninterested subscribers
• Reduces the chance of mails being marked as spam

This is particularly relevant if you only do weddings – brides may no longer want to receive your emails once the wedding is over.

Remember, legally, you must include an unsubscribe option with every email you send - email marketing software like Mailchimp will include this automatically.

Finally.....

There is lots of advice available on email marketing. Email management providers like Constant Contact and Aweber have great help sections and tutorials.