E-mail Marketing

MARCH 2013

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An e-mail marketing program may be the next step in your on line adventure. If you are serious about getting a return on your investment in your website, some form of e-mail marketing should be considered. At the very least a newsletter can help keep you in touch with the people you have done business with and those you want to do business with in the future. The first step to successful e-mail marketing is actually getting your emails delivered so they can be read. For many folks, the e-mail inbox is the repository of so much unsolicited bulk junk mail that they are disenchanted by the mere prospect of opening their mail folder at all.

The first objective of your e-mail is to provide good content for your readers. Don't waste their time. You may not always be able to offer something that they are interested in with your current offering but if all you are doing is sending the same story and pushing product, even your readers may block you and send you to the spam bucket. Your readers need good content, you are taking up their time and space in their inbox.

Why should you Start an E-mail or Newsletter?

Off-line advertising is expensive and can drain resources that could be spent more efficiently on less routine aspects of your business. On the other hand, with email marketing, You can write email messages yourself or have them written for you and have them sent within minutes. It will cost you only pennies, but the return could be exponential. The Direct Mail Marketing Association reported that since 2005, over $57 was generated for every $1 spent on email marketing outperforming all other types of direct marketing. Not a bad return on your investment. (http://www.the-dma.org/index.php)

Through e-mail, small to medium sized companies can develop a personal relationship with their prospects and customers that their larger counterparts simply can't match due to their size

By sending personalized email to subscribers, you can show them that you're a real, live person with their concerns and interests in mind. Just answer common questions automatically to reduce support costs, then send information they can use and will find helpful.

Don't be afraid of email. An effective email campaign will not require an expensive design firm or copywriter. Our website offers a tool that is easy for you to use. You just need to focus on writing some messages, and you've already got a start on that, whether you know it or not. Just discuss questions, news in the industry, and the unique selling points of your products with your customers. Just put it into writing!

Get your feet wet by setting up a small email campaign. Subscribe yourself and some associates, (if you want, include me) and send some test messages. Then ask for feedback on content and suggestions with your test group. If you have a website, put a sign up form on it. Review and talk about the test messages, find out what works for you and for your customers. You will make some mistakes, everyone has. Mistakes are the formation of a learning curve. No Mistakes=No Learning.

Some mistakes you can avoid

There are several things you want to keep in mind when sending out emails to make sure you stay on an email provider's good side. The providers are Yahoo, Gmail, Bigfoot and many others (about 1400) with some free and some fee based. If you make too many mistakes, your emails can be sent to the spam folder by the email providers before your readers even have a chance to see them.
Email providers understand that people can be spam-button-happy, but if Yahoo gets too many spam complaints from people you're sending email to, then they're not only going to stop sending your emails to the people who marked you as spam they'll stop delivering your emails period.

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e-mail gotcha

Start with the content of your email. There are some words and phrases that will get your email rejected by Yahoo and others, regardless of whether it's actually spam or not.
Here are a couple of things to avoid in the subject line and content of your email:
FREE: in the subject line. The word "free", especially in all caps, is a red flag to email services. You may see emails break up the word "FREE" into F*R*E*E and FR-EE. They're trying to avoid the spam filters but e-mail providers have caught on to this trick so don't do it.

Using !!!: More than two !! in a row is also a hallmark of spammers and will certainly get a raised eyebrow.
ALL CAPS: Sometimes you want to put a little emphasis in your message. Using all upper case letters is not bad here and there, but spammers seem to live with the "caps lock" key engaged. Remember, your objective is to inform and help your people, type your message using normal lower-case letters. If you need to emphasise your message, use bold or reiterate the message a second time.