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7 steps to effective email marketing
Email marketing - an opportunity not to be missed
The advent of email has opened new opportunities for businesses both big and small. In the past, print and postage costs prohibited many businesses from using direct marketing as a cost-effective means of communicating with customers, but the ease and affordability of electronic communications mean this is a channel that every business should consider.
But, before you forge ahead with an email campaign, here are some points to consider.
1. Who you mail matters most
Mailing the right people is key and this has the biggest influence on the success of your mailing. Name gathering needs to form part of your marketing activity, as people who have said they'd like to hear from you are the best audience for your emails. If you haven't already done so, now's the time to add "create, maintain and grow database" to your marketing strategy. If your business is complex, you may decide to segment your customer database into distinct groups, that way you can tailor your message to each group - ensuring the right people get the right message.
2. Spam is a dirty word
Mailing the wrong people should be avoided at all costs. Respecting privacy is vital and every business that engages in name gathering should have a transparent privacy policy and must abide by the Data Protection Act, 1998*. The legislation states that explicit consent is required before you email someone (unless they have purchased from you within the last two years and your mailing relates to a similar product/service). You also need to include an "unsubscribe" option at the end of every email you send out, and remove subscribers who unsubscribe immediately, as well as cleaning your list, by removing invalid email addresses, prior to every mailing.
Keep accurate records of opt-ins, that way you can demonstrate that you are acting responsibly.
3. Relationships build over time
Building a relationship is going to take more than just one email, so it's crucial to have your customer contact strategy mapped out. Will you send out emails weekly, monthly, quarterly, or on an ad hoc basis, triggered by pre-determined events? An insurance company may send out a sequence of emails as a customer approaches their policy renewal date, a training company may email a newsletter to coincide with upcoming courses, or a small business may contact clients to share relevant case studies. Each email should help to reinforce the relationship you have with your customer, so that when they are in a position to "buy", they will be more likely to choose your product or service.
4. What do you want to say?
First and foremost, make sure you have something to say in your emails! A small business offering a single service may be hard pressed to come up with compelling content for an email that goes out weekly, which is why it's so vital to map out both the timing and content of messages before you embark on your email campaign. Work out what's appropriate for your business - and that includes looking at the resources, in terms of time and money, that you can set aside to manage and write the emails.
5. How do you want to say it?
Remember, making your emails relevant to your target audience will help ensure they are opened, read and acted on. So, once you've decided on the appropriate frequency of your mailings, you need to determine clear communication objectives.
Achieving stand-out is the first hurdle - the average inbox is a cluttered environment - so your subject line needs to grab attention. Once the email is open use headlines so readers can scan your message, and keep content succinct. If necessary layer the information, giving the option for the reader to click through to your website to read more. Remember, your message needs to be compelling enough to appeal to your target audience.
6. What do you want your customers to do?
It sounds simple enough, but this aspect of communications can so often be overlooked. You need to be clear, and realistic, about what you want your reader to do. If you're a clothing retailer then the desired response may be for the reader to go online and see a new fashion range, but if you're a service company, then your email campaign might be about planting seeds for future action - "next time your policy is up for renewal ...", "if you'd like to read more, visit our website ...". In short, don't leave out the vital call to action, which helps take the relationship further and contributes to achieving your communication objectives.
7. How will you know if you've been successful?
The beauty of direct marketing is that it's measurable. Simple metrics can quickly establish if your email campaign is achieving its objectives. It's important to look at your emails over a period of time, rather than in isolation, and to look at broader issues such as customer retention as well as the more direct results of a mailing. Most email management packages include reports so you can assess the impact of your email marketing activity. And fortunately, given the low cost attached to sending out emails, this can be an affordable part of your overall marketing strategy.
If you'd like to discuss setting up an email campaign for your business then please contact me on 01249 653816 or email info@pink-spider.co.uk
* Further guidance on data protection legislation is available from the Office of the Information Commissioner. A useful summary appears on the Advertising Standards Authority's website: ASA website