Achieve Success With Email Marketing

By: MarkD McCormack
Submitted: 2007-01-17 13:14:44
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I know from practical experience with colleagues and clients, that people are very wary of using email as part of their marketing contact strategy. Because of abuse by spammers, business people are afraid of the medium and they resist using it. The matter is also made complex because it's use is now regulated. You should familiarise your self with your obligations under the various regulations before running any email campaigns.

What is the basis for this wariness? Email is a medium that needs some care if you are going to get a good response from potential customers. We have an immediate advantage in B2B marketing, because most reasonable people expect to get communications from other businesses asking for their custom. The key to success is to follow some simple rules when planning your campaign.

1 Build Your Database Carefully

Do not be tempted to buy thousands of email addresses from a source that you don't know well. You may need to start your database by purchasing data, but make sure of the source of the data. In particular, make sure that everyone on the listed has opted-in to receive marketing emails. You should design your web pages to accept email addresses and you should offer your site visitors something in return for their email address. Over time you should aim to collect enough addresses so that your database is mostly people who signed up to hear from you.

2 Don't Start By Selling

Give your readers some useful information related to your business. If you sell books, let people know about the latest releases, and include reviews of books that you have read. If you can show off your expertise while informing people, you will start to engage with them, while letting them know about things that you could do for them. Make sure that the tone and content of your emails is always in line with what the readers signed up for. If your website promised readers the latest information on e-commerce trends by email, don't send an email trying to sell them a website. You can remind them of your services at the end of an information email, but give them what they asked for when they gave you their email address.

3 Make The Tone Informal

Email is not a formal medium, even when used in business. You should make sure that the tone of your language in the email is informal and chatty. Avoid strident statements and never let people feel that you are preaching to them. When making statements, make them using terms like "In my experience...." to make them sound less directive. Read your email copy and think about how it will make the reader feel as well as what it says.

4 Always Personalise Email

One of the most powerful aspect of email is that it costs virtually nothing to personalise. Add to the informal tone of your copy, by addressing your reader by name.

5 Don't Write About You

There are some exceptions to this, but particularly in your first few emails, you should talk about solutions to your customers problems. You should be very careful about suggesting that you are the solution to their problem before they have got a chance to know and trust you. Avoid using your company name in the email subject heading. Avoid too many I's and We's in your copy. In this way, you give the reader a chance to find out about you without them living in fear of you attempting to close a sale at every available opportunity.

Email offer huge potential for almost every business and it is a very underused opportunity. If you use it, following these simple rules you will avoid the risk of being seen as a spammer and you will open the door to lots of new business. Why not try it today?

This article was written by Mark McCormack from Markmedia, a B2B marketing consultancy. Mark has over 20 years experience in all aspects of marketing. His website is http://www.markmedia.org.uk. This article is copyright.

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