Email Marketing

Email marketing has to be considered one of the greatest marketing breakthroughs of all time. The two most common uses of the web are getting/sending email and surfing the web. Your customers (potential or otherwise) are not on the web looking for you. They are on the net looking for information and to communicate by email.

The basics of marketing with email must be understood by the small business owners to even begin to appreciate the advantages of email marketing. Not only can you communicate with email, the knowing small business owner can build leads for her business, as well as attract traffic (visitors to her web site).

Email Marketing Basics

Email marketing is not about spamming (sending out large numbers of emails to unknown web surfers that did not give their permission – there currently are laws about spamming). This type of effective marketing can build up traffic when practiced correctly and consistently.

When sending emails as part of your marketing campaign, your main goal is to provide tons of valuable information and get readers excited about receiving email from your business. Don’t fall into the trap of writing emails that are little more than a pitch for your products and services!

For one thing, your readers will see right through this strategy – and they will resent you for making them open and read an email that doesn’t deliver valuable information to them. You can be sure that they will tell their friends what a disappointment your emails are…resulting in bad PR that can be really difficult for you to overcome!

Plus, even if your sales pitch is effective and does result in some sales of your product or service, your readers will be far less likely to pass it on to their friends, relatives, and associates. And they probably will stop opening emails from you.

Think about it: When you receive email, which ones do you read and pass along to friends? Probably not ones that are little more than a hyped-up sales pitch wrapped in some flimsy, so-called ‘friendly, informative’ email.

If you are anything like the majority of people seeking and sharing information online, you are much more likely to pass along the following types of content:

• Up-to-the-minute news and developments, such as headlines from today’s news sites
• “Insider” information, such as a report from a recent, exclusive indus try event
• Unique and entertaining content, such as a collection of jokes
• Useful resources, such as current research from your field
• Reviews of products that you and your friends or associates plan to purchase

Of course, when you are constructing your marketing emails, you’ll need to consider exactly who you are targeting. Who are the people that you want to get talking about you, your business, and your products?

As a photographer, for example, you’ll want to be sure that your email marketing appeals to potential customers. Depending on who those potential customers are you might write about free or low-cost digital photography software resources and tips…or an email with reviews of digital cameras…or even a collection of jokes that would appeal to photography buffs.

When you are writing you email, keep the consideration of value first and foremost in your thoughts. Think of your target market and ask yourself: "If I were reading this, would I send a copy to any of my friends?"

Email Marketing Tips

Here are a few suggestions to keep you on the right track when you are writing informative content for your emails:

• Make it timely: Some of the most effective email based marketing campaigns are ones that cash in on hot new trends or breaking news stories. However, if you are writing emails based on trends and news events, you should be prepared to move on to other s trategies quickly, once the current buzz about your topic dies down.

• Make it funny! Some of the best marketing out there is based on funny stories and/or jokes. People love to share a new joke with friends and family.

• Make it original: People aren’t going to take the time to share your email if it looks similar or identical to something they have seen before. While you are planning your email marketing campaign, be sure to do some research online and look for similar information that’s already out there.

• Make it simple: Whether your target audience is children or brain surgeons, the KISS rule applies – Keep It Simple, Stupid!

• People everywhere value their time and they certainly don’t want to be wading through a pile of complex information and struggling to find something that’s relevant to them and their situation. Whether you emails are about raising turtles or building rocket accelerators, give your readers the “payoff” up front. Make your emails easy and fun to read, and they will reward you with plenty of referrals!

• Keep product plugs subtle: Of course, your second goal after convincing readers to share the valuable information in your emails is to gather potential customers for your other products and services. To this end, it’s perfectly natural – and acceptable – for you to mention those products and services, and even include links to web pages where potential customers can learn more about them and make purchases.

• The key to including product plugs in a successful email marketing campaign is to keep them subtle and make sure they don’t interfere with the overall message you are delivering.

Inform and Entertain

In the end, if you write your email with the main goal of informing and entertaining your readers, you are sure to create something that will get passed on. Help your readers, and they will help you in return!

Email Marketing Strategy

Decide exactly what action you want readers to take

Now that we’ve discussed ways to make sure your emails are appealing, it’s time to make sure that they will be effective as well.

After all, it’s great to write emails that get passed around the web…but if they don’t accomplish anything else, it’s not exactly effective, is it?

Keep in mind, also, that your emails must be personalized for them to be taken seriously by your customers. Therefore, you must request information from people – at least their email address and their name.

Email marketing should not be just an add-on to your marketing efforts. It should be seen and used for the cost-effective, marketing tool that it is.

Do you really understand email marketing, what it actually is and how to unharness its power?