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| Relevant Links: |
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Clickz.com Email Strategies
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| - A great place to pick up email tips in columns from some of the most experienced email marketeers in the business. |
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Your Mailing List Provider |
| - a great value alternative to having to deal with email lists. Collect, manage and send to emails to your customers in this great value package.
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Email Sherpa |
| - Sign up to this email for a treasure-trove of email marketing ideas. |
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Marketing Profs Email Marketing |
| - cuts through the marketing hype that has become so prevalent these days. Bring you the know-how you need to successfully compete in your business. |
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Email Marketing
While conventional mail of one sort or another still features heavily in many marketing plans, email is now becoming a vital tool for marketers, and it is proving to be extremely cost-effective for anyone on a tight budget. But while sending junk emails - or spamming - is to be avoided, permission-based email marketing can be extremely effective.
The benefits of email are that it is instantaneous, cost-effective, and durable. Your message reaches the desired recipient instantly, and can remain in their inbox, acting as an ongoing advertisement for your products, services and company.
Some golden rules...
1) Treat your email base as an asset - too many companies break this all important rule. Every email you send is either a chance to sell to, or a chance to push away your customers. Remember that with every email you send out over 90% are likely to read your email and buy nothing. Ensure you don't wear out your message too fast - or you'll lose their eyeballs forever.
2) Target your customers carefully - whether from a bought in list or your own customer list there are many ways to break your email list down. What about breaking them down between those who've just bought and those who've been buying for years? Carefully choose the best product for each group and watch the response fly.
3) Make the email useful - when do you remember TV adverts? When they're funny or interesting? Exactly. Make your email one big advert and you're bound to turn them off. Remember, your customers don't have to read your email and its one click to delete. Try sprucing up your email with a bit of news, a funny theme or a competition.
4) Personalise, personalise, personalise - these days too many spam messages are filling people's inboxes. Make yours stand out from the crowd with the recipients full name embedded in the message.
5) Choose your email subject header carefully - too much sales patter and you'll disappoint when they read it, too bland and you won't even get past the preview pane. Make it recognisable and honest - if you've done your work on the targeting and product choice you'll be half way there.
6) Send it at the right time - don't send it on a Sunday night - you'll be in the inbox with the rest of the crowd on a Monday morning at work. Don't send it when your site is busy - you'll slow the site down with the visitor's that come back.
7) Test, test, test - get a good measuring tool and retest everything. When do you get the best response rate? Keep trying new ideas and test them. You'll find some things work better than others - an email sent without testing is a lost chance to improve your sales.
The best email marketing works on the tried and tested "win win" principle. Develop a customer profile, choose the best product to reach your target audience and then deliver an innovative message that will stand out from the crowd. But when the budget is tight, it pays to remember that it is better to promote to a smaller number of good prospects than taking a scatter gun approach.
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