maine web development, web design, internet marketing

I don’t think I can ever stress just how important it is to build your list organically to make sure your email marketing campaign is a success. You are taking time out of your busy life and creating great content for your email newsletters  — the best thing you can do for yourself is to make sure it is getting to people who want the information!

Think long and hard before buying a list – If a third party sells you a list of people’s email addresses, do those people actually want to hear for you? Email service providers can be pretty harsh on companies that are tagged as Spam by the recipients. Protect yourself in the long run and make sure you aren’t a candidate for someone to mark your email as Spam.

Trade Shows & Events – The bottom line to your Inbound Marketing campaign is meeting, connecting and doing business with people. Marketing itself is about building relationships. As you meet people at events or trade shows, ask them if they want to receive your newsletter. A sign up sheet on your booth is great but a conversation is better. When they see you in their inbox next week, they will remember who you are, the conversation you had and are excited to read more about your expertise, industry events and products.

Existing Customers – Everyone has those customers that they talk to every week or every other week and are always curious about what you have going on. Ask them if they want to be signed up!  Sign up for them or show them where on your site they can go to sign up.

Sales leads – Got a sales lead that isn’t ready to purchase yet? Ask them if they want to be added to your list and then they can keep up with what is new and exciting at your company. Then when they are ready to purchase you will be in their Inbox AND top of mind.

Email Footer – Quick easy one. Add a subscription link to your newsletter in the footer of your outgoing email. People like hearing from you day to day but this way will get an easy way to access what is going on with your company.

YOU are putting out important content. You are witty, funny, informational, clever, have great images and spent your quality time putting this masterpiece together. Why throw all that away on someone who doesn’t want your email? They click delete before opening or worse click ‘this is spam’. OUCH!

Numbers are cool. Having 2,000 subscribers is cool but… but wouldn’t it be better to have 500 active customers who look forward to your emails, not dread them? I bet those 500 active customers will also come to you first when they have a purchasing need. Email marketing is an easy, inexpensive, effective tool in your toolbox. Make sure you are using it right AND using it on the right people! It may take a little longer but you will see a big difference in the effectiveness of your email campaign.

Want to know more? – READ: Email Marketing is so NOT ‘out’

I had an interesting conversation with a client recently on their reservations about starting an email marketing campaign. They thought email marketing was ‘out’ and getting emails from companies was considered spam. I am not sure if I could have disagreed more.

Email marketing campaigns are a great way to stretch your marketing dollars and to keep in touch with those customers and potentials who want to hear from you the most. In these tougher times email marketing is a great low cost way to market your company with a proven method of high return.

Email is the number one thing people participate in on the internet! Your ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have done an outstanding job lately coming up with new ways to protect you from spam.

Here are a few major point to help get you started and to make sure your email marketing campaign is a success:

• Quality over Quantity -Build your email list with quality contacts. Try to avoid scanning every badge you get at a trade show or collecting as many business cards as you can stuff in your pockets. Of course you are interesting and your products or service is the best – but make sure the people who are on your list want to hear from you regularly. If not, you may start with 1000 subscribers but over time that list will dwindle as people unsubscribe or, worse, mark your email as spam in their inbox.  Poor open rates and clickthroughs are not only a waste of computing resources, but will negatively impact the overall deliverability of your campaigns.
• Lay out your agenda right away -
  Try to set up a welcome email for when people subscribe to your campaign. Let people know right away what they will be receiving from you in their inbox and make sure to take note in that email how often they will expect to hear from you.
  Example: Thank you for signing up for our monthly newsletter. Each month you will hear from us tips and tricks about our industry.
  Set that bar right away. Try to keep that schedule of emails coming out on a regular basis. It creates a trust between you and your potential reader.
• Monitor your results -
  After you are cranking out stellar emails it isn’t quite over – you have to constantly measure your success!  Figure out which emails got the most feedback, the highest open rate or were forwarded to more people. Think about cleaning up your list or tailoring special offers for particular subscriber behavior.Have ten people who haven’t ever opened your email? Send an email out just to them to see if they are still interested in receiving your correspondence. Have 5 people who always seem to forward your emails to their friends? Maybe create a special offer just for them for spreading the good word.

Email marketing is a easy cost effective way to spread your message and drive traffic to your website. The best way to not let yourself be catorized as spam is to produce good, worthwhile content that your readers will look forward to receiving from you.

Photo Credit cdevroe