Email marketing is seldom used as a weapon in the arsenal of any company (large or small).
Even online businesses based fail to find time to exercise the critical tool which predominantly keeps existing customers in the loop on your company’s product and service offerings. It also aims to remind previous customers about your business too. The name of the game is to increase repeat custom.
Every customer has a cost – so why not take advantage of more to use them? Each company should carry out email marketing, at least once a month, be it through a monthly newsletter, or your e-shots to promote special offers, new products, publications, etc.
As far as online retail is concerned, it’s mainly the more successful online stores that are starting to get serious about email marketing. I think this is partly down to the digital agencies charging exorbitant amounts for them to do so – for many, it’s not economically feasible.
Various systems are available on the market that boast an entirely painless and financially affordable solution. For example, a familiar platform exists at £ 19.99 a month that allows unlimited emailing to some 2500 email addresses.
With such systems in place, there’s no surprise regarding the new “buzz” around email marketing. It is now profitable to do and easy enough for companies to implement.
If you have thousands, hundreds or even tens of thousands of customers in the database of your company, or CRM, why wait?
Can my company do Email Marketing?
Both offline and online businesses can use email marketing strategies. This covers all types of organisations from retailers to wholesalers; charities to businesses and beyond. Basically, any company or organisation that coordinates their customers should use email marketing.
If you email clients / your contact base on a regular basis, you can be sure your business is always “on the radar”, or at least creates a lasting impression.
Your company’s name, logo and range of services will always be at your fingertips, stored in the recipient’s mailbox waiting to be read or stored for later use. And if you have a good offer… you will more than likely get some campaign inspired business.
Is everything not just spam?
Email Marketing is grouped with “Spam” and vice versa. However, there is a fine line between the two, depending on where your data (emails) comes from.
If you created your database of customers, partners, affiliates and members of the (ultimately “selected” data), then you are very much on the ethical side of e-mail marketing and would not be classified as spamming. Data of this kind incurs healthy results, the highest number for open rates and, most importantly, results.
If you purchase data from a third party, then you’re probably entering SPAM territory rather than e-mail marketing.
Measurable Marketing
E-mail marketing brings you efficient and accurate measurability. Unlike many traditional methods of marketing, the messages can be monitored and controlled in real time. Finally, we have come up with a checklist of things you might want to focus on:
Email Marketing Checklist
Here are some tips for those seeking to do email marketing effectively for their business:
• Seek out a reliable and robust solution with integrated reporting
• Use clean, selected in data wherever possible
• Personalise your greeting to say ‘Hi Joe,’ for example.
• Include an unsubscribe link
• Make good use of graphics and your own business brand
• Create a vibrant design to entice the recipient
• Include a link browser for shared viewing (they can also access the e-mail online)
• Go for it!
