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The first place to start is to beef up your e-mail list. Your efforts won't stretch very far with a puny list. Your web site is a great resource for building your e-mail distribution list. Don't just put a "join our list" button on the front page though. Each and every page of your site should have a nicely crafted ad promoting your list. Many folks will find you through a search engine and won't ever see the home page. Don't miss easy opportunities to grab these folks. Your existing customers are another great resource. Since your customers already know you, they probably want to hear from you occasionally as well. Every point of contact is an opportunity to ask for an e-mail address. When you send messages to your e-mail list, include an chance to join the list. Hopefully, your subscribers will forward your messages to their friends and family. You'll want to capture these new folks too.
Decide how you plan to utilize e-mail marketing. You'll want to decide how often and why you send mail to your list. Will this be part of one campaign or an ongoing effort? You may want to start sending a monthly newsletter. You might want to advertise a sale or promote a new product. Figure out what you want to say and when you want to say it. Because e-mail is cheap and easy it is tempting to not take it seriously in your marketing efforts It is also tempting to send out something every day. Your e-mails should reflect the image you want to project of your company and the message you want to convey. They should also be timed to convey relevant information. You don't want to irritate your list members with a deluge of e-mails.
Once you decide what you want to say and when, you can analyze your list and target your efforts. This is called segmentation. Take a look at your goal and figure out which segments make sense. Then really analyze your data. People are much more likely to respond to e-mail marketing efforts if the message is one in which they are interested. Customers that shop for baby clothes in your store may not be as interested in your gardening products. Give people the opportunity to tell you what they want to know and then respect that limitation.
Tracking your e-mail marketing efforts is crucial in order to make sure you are meeting your goals. You ideally would like your efforts to increase your subscriber list. If it has the opposite effect, you certainly want to find out what happened. Are you sending too many messages? Are your messages not relevant? When people unsubscribe ask them to fill out a short questionnaire to find out where you went wrong and what you can do better. A certain number of people will opt-out and it won't have anything to do with you. But you want to find this out for yourself. As they say, the best defense is a good offense. Making sure your put the effort in up front to plan a good campaign and target your messages is the best way to avoid losing members of your list.
There are lots of books and resources to tell you how to do e-mail marketing. But a little common sense will go a long way. Get all the e-mails you can using your customers and your web site. Make it a priority to plan how you will use your list. Be judicious in how often you send messages and pay attention to how they look. Break down your list into segments that make sense. Target your efforts so that people get information they want when they want it. Do your best to maintain your list and retain as many members as possible. When people do unsubscribe, find out why. Your colleagues may need a little education on how to do e-mail marketing effectively. But it will be worth the time. With a little thought and effort you can make your e-mail marketing efforts a major part of your marketing strategy.
Category: Email MarketingEmail Advertising was written by:Author:Justin BryceAdded: Sun, 08 Apr 2007 01:44:04 -0400 This Article Has Been Read 171 times View all Justin Bryce's articlesAbout the Author: Justin Bryce has been a contributing author for this website and is an acknowledged expert in the field of Marketing Emails. He can be found on the Internet at this website: http://www.emailsthatsell.com |
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