Seventy-seven percent of small business owners report that e-mail marketing increased their revenue and that $1.00 spent on e-mail marketing $40.00 in revenue.* Many businesses are smartly discovering that e-mail marketing can be a vital part of their business. It’s a great way to keep in touch with customers and to invite them to special deals for your freelance services (or products, if you have any). The information and tips in this article will explain some of the practices you should engage in or avoid to ensure the success of an ongoing e-mail campaign.
1. Rather than purchasing or renting a mailing list, build your own from the ground up. You can do this by including opt-in forms on your website or blog, gathering business cards at conventions or other industry events, and encouraging your subscribers to share your e-mails with others, which can garner even more subscribers. Of course, I would suggest creating a downloadable piece of content, preferably with instructional information that your target audience will find of value to them. The idea is to trade your free content for their e-mail addresses.
2. Always get permission! Unsolicited e-mail is not welcome, and in certain cases, can get your ISP blocked. The last thing you want is to be branded a spammer.
3. Be especially careful when crafting your first three e-mails to new customers. A new customer should get an introductory e-mail inviting them to join your marketing list. Once they accept your invitation, the next e-mail should tell them about discounts or special offers they can expect to get now that they’ve signed up. The third e-mail should contain their first newsletter and their special offer.
4. Make certain that it is easy for your recipients to opt out of receiving further e-mails. Not having a way to opt out can cost you customers since some of the people who wish to opt out might like your business and your products. They may simply wish not to receive e-mails. The process that you put in place should include asking for feedback as to why they are opting out. The information you receive can help improve your campaign.
5. Try to make it as easy as possible for customers to unsubscribe from your e-mails. By not making it simple, they will feel like you are being too pushy and may be turned off from your product or business. Give them the option to opt out from some of your e-mails or all of them.
6. Everyone knows that e-mail filters are getting more and more strict. Graphics and other things included in e-mails are blocked out, so a reader might not even see what you are trying to say. Therefore, a good piece of advice is to use plain text with a hyperlink to your site.
7. Utilize engaging e-mails and target customers who are inclined to use or share knowledge about your services. Make sure you are also soliciting feedback from them. Getting feedback from targeted customers is key to knowing what you can do to make your marketing strategies even stronger and more effective.
8. What worked for you before might not work for you the next time around. That is why it is vital to always look into new e-mail marketing strategies. Learn from others in your business niche, and always try out new methods to add to your arsenal of what works for your business.
It is a well-known fact that the use of the Internet has opened up an entirely new way for businesses to interact with customers. E-mail marketing is one of the most effective ways to keep in touch with loyal customers and to reach potential customers. Use the techniques and tips from the article above to create an e-mail marketing strategy for your business.
*Aweber Communications
I have been trying for a couple of years now to do email marketing. I know that there are systems out there that help to do this but they cost a lot of money. To be honest, I don’t even know what the point is in having email marketing anymore since we have places like facebook and twitter that we can post valuable information on and if it is newsworthy, it gets past on. If it is something that someone is interested in, then they will click and maybe even purchase it. I use social sites to do most of my business but then again, maybe I am missing something here.
As Marketingsherpa can attest, email is still a vital part of the marketing landcape. A large percentage of consumers still prefer email marketing over other forms of marketing.
I use email marketing to give out information to my customers and also to get them to buy products. I have to break my email marketing into a few groups and then I allow them to sign up for whichever one would benefit them the most. I find that this makes it easier on them and lets me only market those products that interest them.
I once used my facebook page to create a link back to my opt in form. I gained a lot of customers this way but I offered them an incentive for doing it. I gave them a discount on a one time total purchase at my store. This was a huge success.
I just got through reading an article about the rules of email marketing and this goes hand in hand with it. Now that I have read the rules I can use those rules and this article, I think I have better knowledge of how to write my emails so that customers won’t opt out. Also, I never thought about the first three emails like this before. I guess it would make a lot of sense to let the customers know exactly what they are in for so that they continue to read them and use the knowledge.
While I think it is important to send an email out to your opt-in subscribers that let them know what they can expect from the newsletter, I’m not sure I agree with sending them the offer in the first mail. I’ve found it’s quite important to make it look like you’re not trying to just sell them something by getting their email attention. Some articles I’ve read quote a 75-25% rule when it comes to content and marketing. More experiments need to be done by individual newsletter publishers to see what works specifically for them.
I understand your point. I agree that in the vast majority of your emails you should be sharing information and content that is of value to your customer and free of offers; however, as noted by Marketingsherpa, an offer can make its appearance in the early part of your series of welcome emails.
A sure fire way to tell a spammer is the lack of unsubscribe links in the email. It bugs me to no end. I’d like to add that an unsubscribe link that leads to a very short questionnaire form about why they decided not to keep receiving your newsletter is a great idea. Then you can tweak your campaign to increase success. Great read.
Thank you, RobP. Glad you enjoyed it.