| There's no longer any question if permission-based (100 percent opt-in) direct email marketing works. There are now years of research and testing that have proven it's the most cost-effective mass media channel any business can implement. And most of us know email is a critical component of any marketing campaign. Internet users rate email as their most important online activity, so it's clearly an incredibly effective promotional delivery vehicle to ignite the fuse that leads a buyer through the initial phases of the sales cycle. That said, all you have to do is open your Inbox to see that anyone can run an email campaign. Running it well is another story. Email is only one channel in the overall communication sequence to your audience. It's best used as part of an integrated marketing program in which all messages work in concert, geared toward the overarching goal (whether that's sales, customer retention/ loyalty, new customer acquisition or fundraising, etc.). There are many issues with which to deal when considering any kind of marketing communications campaign. At the most basic level, you should be asking yourself, "What's our strategy?" and "How will we accomplish it?" In order to ensure that you accomplish a successful email marketing for B2B or fundraising applications, consider these key conecepts: 1. Do you have permission to email to your audience? 2. Are you offering something of real value? 3. Are you keeping it brief? 4. Are you interacting with your audience? 5. Can you track your emails? 6. Are you branding your company's image? 1. Permission If you don't have permission to email people, you're an intruder. Chances are, the recipients will slam the door in your face. Sure, messages can be blasted out to any email address you can get your hands on. That's a technique many of the most annoying sellers of everything from herbal Viagra substitutes to home-equity loans use. It's called spam. And certainly, if you throw enough of it against the wall some will stick. But it's about 99.9% more likely to anger customers and prospects than to bring home the bacon. Some people define spam strictly as anything that they don't want to read, whether you have their permission or not. Some are more liberal, and are fine as long as they have the ability to opt-out. Another school of thought says it's just like the lunchmeat product-- 1) Nobody wants it or ever asks for it. 2) No one ever eats it; it is the first item to be pushed to the side when eating the entree. 3) Sometimes it is actually tasty, like 1% of junk mail that is really useful to some people. 2. Value Even if you have permission to send email to people, that email is less than likely to get read and acted upon if it doesn't contain real value. Newsletters had better have real news, interesting articles, and tips that will help recipients do a better job. Offers had better have something to offer. They need a hook. Is what you're offering new? Is the price great? Is time running out on it? And in the end, does the recipient care? 3. Brevity We all know the expression "short and sweet." In email marketing, short IS sweet. People want to get through their email quickly. So keep it simple... Nobody wants to wade through a message that is several screens long. If you overwhelm them, expect to be passed by at the first opportunity. In the online and email world, customers vote with their mouse. 4. Interactivity Most email messages I receive (from "hot housewives at home" to "get your cheap printer cartridges") are boring. You want to engage the customer. Nothing engages the recipient like the opportunity to do something. They have itchy button fingers. They want to pull the trigger on something. Provide one-question polls they can answer. Get their attention. Engage them. Lead them into taking an action. Give them a call to action-- make them want to act now. Or give them links that can be clicked, and take them to a web page.Tease your recipients with a little info and a link they can click to get more.info about your products and services. Ask yourself: are you letting your users get away once they get to your site? You could be, if you're not using the power of the second most important Web activity: Search. When motivated buyers become distressed, the search box is the first feature they look for. For optimal sales, harness the significant advantages of uniting email and site search. Usage trends reveal an unequivocal link between email and search. A recent DoubleClick consumer email study concludes email motivates consumers to purchase on- and offline. Two-thirds of online shoppers plan to use email to purchase this holiday season. Make sure you're in the running. Consider that 80 to 90 percent of Internet users are searchers, not browsers. Rest assured these searchers will not only utilize direct links from your email to locate information but will also seek out and use that little search box to find more about what you offer. 5. Trackability Whatever you do, don't send out email the same way you would postal mail. Don't simply push it out and wait for somebody to contact you. One of the great benefits of smart email is your ability to track it. You can tell who opens it, when they open it, what links they click, what polls they answer, and how they answer them. You can track their point of entry to your web site. Then you can save that data in a profile of each individual. There's almost no point to email marketing without taking advantage of this kind of data. And don't just collect it for fun. Use it.. drill down and make it work for you. 6. Branding Every company since the dawn of time has traditionally created letterhead before even opening the doors to their business. In the online world, however, I've noticed how often companies overlook e-mail as a branding tool. Many e-mails in my inbox, sent by people at some of the world's most respected brands, don't even display consistent signature lines. They change from message to message. Worse, often there's no signature line at all, just the sender's name (which, by the way, seems to become abbreviated to just a first name when the dialogue is friendly). As a result, their brand is 100% invisible. The person sending the e-mail is a more visible brand than the company at which they are employed! To ensure basic branding with your emails, be sure to have a well-designed e-mail template. This should be something simple and memorable that reflects the brand's values without overpowering the e-mail message. Everything about the way emails are presented should be consistent-- and this includes subject lines, signatures, font choice, and the emphasis of content in a consistent, brand-led manner. Be sure to set guidelines for template use, such as variations on the template for separate divisions, countries, products/services, and so forth. And this includes insisting upon consistent use of that template by everyone in the company. Also, have a backup template for recipients whose technology can't read the fancy HTML edition (plain text). Your brand is not merely your logo. It's every consumer touch point. That includes e-mail. Permission, value, simplicity, interactivity, trackability and branding... if your email marketing doesn't have them, don't waste your money. |
| Key Issues in Email Marketing |
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| Anne P. Sharp |
| Anne P. Sharp Los Angeles CA, USA Telephone (310) 600-9247 |
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