Creating an e-Marketing campaign is simple and painless and if used responsibly and effectively it can launch your company towards growth and success.
The first step of a successful e-marketing campaign is to build a database. It’s vital for your e-marketing campaign to have contacts for all your past/current/future clients. It’s important to develop a system for storing your new client contact information every single time. Before you know it you will have a large enough database to startup an e-marketing campaign.
E-marketing is simply sending a sales or newsletter by email. In the early stages you can start off by sending your database information from email by using the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) option to enter their addresses. As your database grows you’re eventually going to want to use an e-marketing company or software program. It will save you countless hours while only sacrificing a bit of your time to set up.
One option is http://www.phplist.com/ – an open source e-marketing software program that can handle large databases and is completely free.
These are DYI e-marketing companies where you pay a monthly fee to use their email templates. You compile your newsletter and it sends it whenever you’re ready. These companies are huge asset for your e-marketing because they provide you with an assortment of valuable statistics. You can get reports on your open rates, read through rates, link clicks, and information. By using these reports you can discover the strong and weak spots in your newsletters and make changes where needed.
These e-marketing companies can do whatever you need for your newsletters. They can automatically add subscribers, reply, even create your newsletter. Like all things it just depends on your budget.
Next, you want to focus on your e-marketing content. If your newsletters aren’t interesting and include too many advertisements your readers are going to unsubscribe. Make sure you send out your newsletters with a purpose. Include information, product reviews, and special sales that are pertinent to your readers. The key is to keep it fresh and interesting.
If your website is a major part of your business and you have an online shop the aim of your newsletter should be to get your readers revisiting your website. Some techniques to get them over to your website include sales offers that link them to your shop, an enticing intro paragraph then link them to your site to finish the article, basically link any further information to your site. That will increase your site traffic and hopefully sales. Be sure to put a “share with a friend” link on your newsletter too, as that will grow your data base, site traffic, and in turn sales.
How often should you send your newsletter? Many marketing gurus believe that customers begin to forget a product altogether after 21 days. You want your business constantly on their minds so newsletters should be sent at least that often. You could also incorporate an Eblast. An Eblast is a short and sweet message, normally offering a really good deal that mainly contains images and calls for instant action. These are great for exclusive promotions. They’re a quick sales pitch, it is important to keep them brief and concise. Use the reports from your e-marketing companies to track the successes and failures of specific newsletters and campaigns. Learn from your mistakes and change your newsletters fittingly for your ideal results.
By following these few easy tips your e-marketing will be up and running in no time. Remember that your readers are people too and want to be interested when they read your newsletter. They don’t want bombarded by endless promotions and useless information. By using e-marketing responsibly and effectively, it becomes a tool that will continue steadily grow your business with little cost to you.
– Leah Squire is the author of “Marketing with No Money …how to get your business the attention it deserves” and founder of internet based travel company www.byokids.com.au, your family travel gurus.
