Keep in touch with your prospects through direct e-mail marketing

E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. There's actually no limit to the uses of direct email marketing within a company's marketing mix. Think outside the box - beyond the traditional view of acquiring new subscribers or simply trying to sell. Because of its popularity and because of its measurability and immediacy, direct email marketing suits many different communication objectives and channels. It can offer business a range of advantages including: helping to drive sales and build revenue, reducing marketing costs, increasing customer loyalty, improving customer intelligence and boosting brand awareness.

Here are some ideas for direct email marketing:

• Email newsletters - Keep customers and prospects up-to-date on news and developments within your organization.

• Alerts/bulletins - Send news alerts to customers and prospects quickly and easily.

• Event promotion - Use email to manage event invitations, reminders and follow-ups.

• Surveys and polls - Quickly gather feedback from your customers and prospects.

• Channel partners communications - Keep all your channels up-to-date on company news and new product or service developments.

Why you should consider being involved with e-mail marketing?

• The advantage of a mailing list is the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.

• Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive.

• An exact Return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.

• It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an email arrives in a few seconds or minutes.

• It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.

• It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, un-subscribes, read-receipts, click-throughs, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.

• Advertisers generate repeat business affordably and automatically

So what steps to I need to make to get started in email marketing?

Just as in any other aspect of business you should have clear goals in mind before embarking on this form of marketing. Here is a brief overview of the steps you should follow in creating direct email marketing newsletters and ezines:

• Start with a plan - Establish why you are creating email newsletters or ezines: Is it for customer retention, selling, upselling and/or brand reinforcement? Set up a realistic publishing schedule. Designate someone who will oversee all aspects of creating the email newsletter and ensure it stays on track and remains consistent - the only way you're going to see business results. Where will your data come from? Where will it come from as you continue publishing?

• Decide on the content - Before creating email newsletters consider if you have the in-house resources or need to outsource content. Look at your content 'WIIFM factor' (What's In It For Me?). Readers need to feel they've received something of value (such as special deals or relevant content), not just advertising or marketing messages. Prepare text in a 'web style'. Remember that people SCAN. Try to keep articles to fewer than 500 words - 800 at most. If the content, product and/or service merits longer content, break it up into several web pages. Create spacing around text for ease of reading, between 50-125 words per paragraph, and use bullet points and for breaking up text.

• Design your email newsletter template - The layout should be simple and easy to navigate. Create a masthead that brands your email newsletters or ezines, which you can use for every issue. When creating newsletters the design should take into consideration the use of a preview pane or the possibility that the graphics are not viewable. Any graphics used should have a professional quality to them and fit into your company's overall image.

• Track & measure results - It isn't enough to just mail your list. You need to build up information about your list - so you can send them increasingly relevant mailings that will keep them opening and clicking. Capture and use the statistics available to you. Hopefully you will have access to your measured open rates, click-throughs, forwarded and most popular articles. This information can help you in refining content for future issues of your email newsletters or ezines. Getting your readers to interact with you is the key to keeping them active and opening. Other ways to gather information about your readers is to solicit feedback within the email newsletter or run a survey - encouraging responses by offering a prize draw. Surveys are a very valuable way to find out information about your subscribers and how you can improve your email newsletter.

What email vendors should I consider working with to send out my e-mail marketing correspondance?

Due to all of the CAN-SPAM compliance issues, you really want to work with a company that specializes in this area to avoid any potential legal issues. Depending on your needs, size of the list you are going to communicate with, and frequency you are planning to send communications...there are two companies we typically recommend.

• AWeber Communications - considered the best by most industry insiders and also who we'd highly recommend it you plan on sending out emails on a regular basis. Pricing is a flat monthly fee based on subscriber list size and not the number of emails sent.

• Vertical Response - Another email marketing vendor who has been around for some time. One of the few that charges by the email instead of a fixed monthly fee. Thus this isn't a bad option for those who only plan to email their customer list on a periodic basis.

Need additional information or advice on how to get started in email marketing?

Contact us and we will work with you to develop and implement your email marketing strategy