e-marketing e-ssentials

by Ben Fewtrell / ActionCOACH

e-marketing is becoming a ‘must have’ strategy for many of today’s businesses, so the question is, do you bother with using this in your business? And if you do, how do you maximize your return?

One of the biggest benefits of e-marketing is the low cost to implement; this is also e-marketing’s biggest problem! Because it is cheap to implement, everybody is keen to give it a go. Your inbox starts to resemble a mailbox on a deserted house with so much junk mail stuffed into it, it’s starting to overflow. Then there are the ‘spam’ filters that unfortunately, will sometimes scoop up an email that wasn’t really spam, and you miss it!

The good news is that e-marketing is a great tool for you to add to your marketing strategies. I have personally been using e-marketing for several years and I continue to get positive results. No matter what business you’re in, you can benefit by using e-marketing.

Before you say… ‘But my business is different’ lets take a look at some of the different ways you can use e-marketing. The first thing is to understand that ‘marketing’ is not just about generating a new enquiry, in fact, marketing starts well before the sale, and should continue long afterwards.

One of the easiest ways for you to utilize e-marketing in your business is to send out an e-newsletter on a regular basis, this does 2 things, firstly, it forces you to create a database of all your customers in a structured format, secondly, your customers will receive regular information from you, making you look like the ‘industry expert’. You can keep your customers informed of what is happening in your business or industry, and also make regular offers. A good newsletter will always include valuable information your customers would like to read. You can also offer your newsletter to prospects as well; this will help to create the trust and credibility required for them to buy from you. You should be sending a monthly e-newsletter as a bare minimum!

You can also use e-marketing programs to send out things like reminders and e-cards (for birthdays etc.) for a fraction of the cost of the traditional methods. You can schedule messages to go out days, weeks or months before they’re due, making it easy to manage.

e-marketing is also a great way to get new customers. Using email, you can send out regular offers to your database for a fraction of the cost of traditional mail or fax. Check with your local authorities regarding the spam laws for your area. In most cases, you are not allowed to purchase an email list. This means that you need to put some time and effort into building your email database. I can assure you it is worth the effort! The best way to build your email database is to make sure that every time your business comes into contact with a ‘prospect’ you ask for their email address. If you say something like “is it okay if I add you to our e-newsletter database so you receive regular offers from us?” most people will say “yes”.

Basically, you can email anyone that has given you their email address.

Here are my top tips to make e-marketing a success for you…

• Resist sending large files or pictures. If your email takes too long to download, and clogs up the users email system you won’t be very popular! A lot of email programs will charge by the amount of data you send, so this is also a way to keep the costs to a minimum.
• Make it easy for people to respond to your offer. If you ask too much of your prospects they will give up before you get to talk to them. Use a simple ‘click here’ link and ask for just their contact information. At least then you can call them!
• Send a maximum of one or two messages a week. Any more than this and your database will start to get annoyed and unsubscribe. Some people are surprised that you can send 2 a week! I have personally tested this, and if I send more than 2 per week, the amount of people that unsubscribe increases.
• Use dedicated online email software. These programs will manage a whole lot more than your standard email programs. As a minimum they normally have functions for you to track email campaigns, responses and people. Usually, for a small fee, they will also help you design your templates and e-newsletters. By using dedicated email software you will more likely comply with spam laws, automatically allowing everyone on your database to unsubscribe if they feel they no longer want to receive emails from you.
• Steer clear of fancy HTML emails. As nice as they look, they are ‘spam filter food’ and will get eaten up before your prospect has a chance to read it. Use plain text and simply type a letter to your prospects. This way you will be guaranteed more people will be reading your emails!
• Do your market research. Make sure you look at each marketing email you receive, have a look what automatically ends up in your spam filter, work out what words work and what words don’t. Spam filters look for specific things like large font sizes, words like free, amazing, complimentary etc. They also look for hyperlinks, web addresses and pictures, so as you compose your message keep this in mind
• Finally… use the KISS principle. Keep it simple!