Site Login
Marketing Emails
This may be stating the obvious, but before you can implement an e-mail marketing campaign, you�ve got to collect e-mails. Your best tool for collecting new e-mails for your list is your web site. Every page should have a way for people to subscribe to your list. A lot of people who find you through a search engine, won�t land on your home page. You�ll miss a lot of potential subscribers if you don�t let them opt in wherever they land. Another great resource is your customer base. These are already people who know and like you. Each time you touch a customer ask for an e-mail address. Even in the messages you send as part of your e-mail marketing, make sure people can subscribe. You want those e-mails to get forwarded around. Putting an opt-in option in the body of your e-mails makes sure you capture this viral momentum.
Make sure your e-mail marketing plans are part of a coordinated effort. You don�t want different departments using the list for just anything. Make thoughtful decisions about how often and why you want to send something to your list and who is authorized to do so. Is this an ongoing effort, like a newsletter, or part of a particular campaign? If you want to advertise a sale or new merchandise then your strategy will be very different than if you intend to set up a quarterly newsletter. Since it costs almost nothing to send out it is tempting to treat e-mail differently from your other marketing efforts. This would be a big mistake. Make sure the look and message is consistent with the rest of your marketing. Don�t send something out every other day. You want messages to be timed with relevant and interesting information. Hammering your list too often is a sure-fire way to get people to unsubscribe.
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.
If you want more information about the aesthetics and technical aspects of e-mail marketing, that help is certainly out there. From how to craft your subject line to whether to use html, you�ll want that kind of assistance. But common sense is a fantastic resource as well. Build your list using your web site and customer base. Integrate your e-mail marketing as a central component of all your other marketing efforts. Be judicious in how often you contact your list and send messages people want to hear. Segment your list into groups that make sense for your goals. Make your messages ones that people look forward to receiving and that they want to forward on. Measure your success rate. These are all things that you can do yourself to make your e-mail marketing a huge hit.
