You might think it's a radical claim, but creating an email marketing program for your business can be a bit like installing your own cash machine! Marketing by email, if done properly, can produce instant results, generate sales within minutes, and over time builds customer loyalty, brand awareness and increased web site traffic.
Despite all the the Internet developments in the past decade, email still remains the single most important "killer app" online. Almost everybody reads their email (even when they may not look at web sites that often), and you can reach almost every decision maker in your target market within minutes, whenever you like.
It's cheap, too. If you've ever done a traditional direct mail campaign, you'll know that the cost can be between £1 and £5 per recipient. Yet email can cost just a few pence per prospect. Plus, an email campaign can be completed in a few hours, while with traditional Direct Mail it can be months before you can see results. With email, early responses can be measured in seconds, and within 3 days you'll have 80% of your orders in and processed! And it's measurable. With the resulting automatically-generated statistics you can work out who read your email and who responded. Live. Try that with traditional mail! |
So What's The Catch?
There are two, actually, but both are easily overcome. First, you can't send out promotional emails randomly to people who've never heard of you (that's called spamming!). Second, your campaign MUST be carefully planned, created and executed. You can't just blast out any old "Buy this now" message and expect results. It must be carefully targeted, contain a truly great offer for the target audience, be relevant and interesting and of some value to the recipient, and the copy must be compelling . And just like any other marketing communications activity, it will only be truly successful if it forms part of your overall advertising and communications strategy, and is not just a one-off blast to raise some cash.
Where to Start
The golden rule for email success is to send out regular information that is of value to your audience. So your starting point must always be to think of what your potential market wants to receive from you. If you're lucky enough to have a thriving demand for what you sell, then sending out new product announcements may be OK, but generally, you will need to be more creative that this.
Some good examples are:
- For a Lawyer's or Accountant's web site - a regular newsletter to clients updating them of the latest law, rules & regulation changes.
- For a hobby web site - new product announcements, tips and advice
- Clothing web site - fashion features and tips
- Software web site - Information on updates/upgrades. Case studies and "how-to" guides
Bad Examples:
- Isolated special offer announcements
- Uninvited invitations to join mailing list (spamming)
- "Visit our new web site" announcements
How To Get Email Addresses
This is the catch that most companies have difficulty with. But with patience and a little hard work, you can build a good opt-in mailing list that will grow in value over time.
Step 1 . Make sure there is a real incentive for people to join your mailing list. If you are offering valuable information (see above) this should be enough. But you can add incentives such as a member's discount scheme on a shopping web site or money-off coupons. You can also run competitions.
Step 2. Install a newsletter sign-up system on your web site. Make sure it is in a prominent position, and most importantly, make sure that the benefit to the user of signing up is clearly displayed. Make sure that the system is automatic, clear, sends a confirmation email to the customer, and comes with clear instructions on how to unsubscribe. And make sure it is very easy to unsubscribe - people get nervous when signing up for newsletters - they all hate spam - so if you make your unsubscribe system easy and clear, they'll feel more in control and be more likely to subscribe (and ironically, much less likely to unsubscribe!) |
