Gone are the days when marketing meant salesmen knocking on your door. These days, with everyone having email accounts, sales people are knocking on your inbox instead. So, do you have an email newsletter working for your company?
When e-mail was launched almost 40 years ago (yes, 40 years ago, check out the history of email on Wikipedia), it was a new and innovative way of communication. Then came the desktop, the laptop and then broadband, and email became the best way to reach someone instantaneously. Today we can’t really imagine a life without it. We are addicted to it. We probably spend hundreds of our waking minutes in checking emails, sending hi’s and hello’s to friends and family who live across the globe.
Naturally, the marketing gurus figured that getting into your inbox would get more results than knocking on your door. Email marketing’s major benefit is that it is cost effective. How much does it cost to create a marketing email? Next to nothing compared with traditional print media. (We can give you a real quote if you’re interested.) Email newsletters can have a creative and truly stunning branded format. Neither will cost even a fraction of hiring sales representatives, printing flyers or promotional cards and distributing them.
As far online marketing goes, email marketing is definitely effective. However, if yours is not working then you may need to make a few adjustments. There are a few guidelines to follow in email marketing, starting with the content itself. It is after all an advertisement and should be made to sell.
Instead of being verbose, email marketing should lean towards short, sharp and simple. Make offers, keep them straight and lure buyers right from the first line. Keywords like FREE, DISCOUNT, VOUCHERS all trigger our curiosity and make us read the email. However, words like FREE can also trigger spam filters so be careful how you use them as they can be costly mistakes that earn you a spot in the trash folder. It is also important that email marketing maintain the same brand identity as offline marketing. Emails should carry the colors and logo of the company being marketed.
Email marketing should be targeted towards the right audience. There is no point in sending emails with offers on baby products to teenage boys, now is there? However, it is not easy to build mailing lists online. It is possible to start with affiliate programs with other websites and then retaining the visitors by offering a “subscribe” option.
Additional features and discounts on the site can also be withheld from non-subscribers thus encouraging subscription, which will add to your mailer list. Some companies also rent out their mailer list but we don’t promote this to our clients as it’s heading down the road of non-permission based email which we don’t approve of. These lists can be accessed through public libraries in the US, but again, be careful how you use them. You don’t want people to associate your business with spam!
Be interactive. Make your emails more interactive, encourage customers to provide feedback and send personalized messages to returning customers. To do this you will need to track the activity of recipients in your subscriber list. Referral offers for long time clients can also generate more clients that are loyal.
There are of course many other tips and tricks of email marketing that you can learn from the industry leaders. Sometimes, a little bit of professional help can go a long way in producing results. If you’d like to know more, please do give us a call.
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