Email Marketing

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Using email to promote your goods or services can be very cost effective, it is fast and a completely paper free way to comunicate.

Email promotions should be relevant and interesting to both existing and potential new customers, this is essential if you do not wish to annoy potential customers and have your emails treated as simply spam.

Target the right people

Remeber to target the right people, that is those who you believe would be interested in what you are selling. You should be economical with your email marketing, people can be put off by long and laborious emails, kepp it short, interesting, relevant and to the point. We have all experienced spam and realise howannoying it can be.,

Relevancey

Analyse what you know about your customers to deliver more relevant messages. If possible give rewards for loyalty to your best customers. Customers who tend not to spend the most money with your company may be enticed to spend that bit more if they are informed about any offers or new items and products you have available.

Get people to opt in to your email marketing

Try to get your customers to consent to recieving mail from you, legally you should also give them the option of being able to stop receiving emails from you whenever they wish to.

Email which is considered spam or junk can create a bad impression of your company. However, put to good use email can be very effective marketing tool.

incentives

Incentives can mean more people are will opt in to your email updates. Special, exclusive offers or discounts will get more to sign up for the emails.

Building your email list

If you're running an email marketing campaign, keep it in mind when creating your other marketing material. It's well worth putting opt-in tickboxes for email information on all your paper-based marketing material.

A good website will be one of the most powerful tools for getting customers to opt-in for email updates. . Make sure that signing up for emails is simple and quick, maken the public understand the benefits to receiving emails from you.

Email newsletter

A regular email newsletter could help keep customers interested. inform them what is new, what happening but keep it short.

An email newsletter should :

• be interesting and relevant so that recipients will open and read it, use the subject line of the email to create interest, give an impression of what the email is offering them.
• be written in simple language, so readers can understand clearly what you have to offer and how they could benfit.
• be customised so people pay more attention - local recipients will be interested in local contracts, while those further afield will be interested in what you can do for them. Tailor you email to customers needs.
• prompt recipients to phone you or make them want to click through to your website
• display your contact details prominently so people can easily find them.
• Offer exclusive benefits, which customers can only get through your newsletter this will encourage them to keep reading it.
• be sent only when and if there is something worth saying.

Monitor and follow up your campaign

Monitor the effectiveness of your campaigns to determine whether the time and effort you put into creating the campaigns is worth the results. Record the number of responses you recieve and from who. This will help you find your most valuble target audience.

Response rates for email marketing are often slightly higher than for other direct-marketing methods. A 5 per cent response rate is generally accepted as a good result for email marketing.

The right response

Can you cope with the extra demand you may experience after a new campaign? Can you deliver the promises made in your emails? Make sure you can cope with more calls or emails which will be expected if you get a 5 per cent response rate. Ensure you can cope so you dont let anyone down.

Email marketing is governed by law on data protection, privacy and e-commerce, but this shouldn't cause you any problems if you plan your campaign carefully.

Respect people's preferences

Some people choose not to receive sales or marketing by email by registering with the Direct Marketing Association's email preference service. Check you don’t send marketing emails to anyone who has registered.