Wednesday, February 04, 2009
A standard issue email marketing package – part 1
By Mike Lake
I’ve been talking to several small businesses lately about how to cost-effectively promote their product or service. I find myself recommending the same course of action to them, one that very few do with any regularity or strategy. What I recommend to them is email marketing, and I explain how to do it effectively and cheap. Let me share with you some of the advice I’ve been recommending in order to help you get started effectively using email marketing.
First, why use email marketing? Because it is a very cost-effective way of communicating with your prospects and clients. The more often you communicate to these important people, and do so with life-benefiting information, the more likely they will see you as a trusted expert and your product as one they should consider. Notice I didn’t just say, “the more often you email them a sales pitch about your product…”, because people don’t want to be solicited. We want to be given value. That is the key to effective email marketing.
As your fist step, you need a list of people to email. Hopefully, you’ve been keeping a database of names and email addresses of customers and the people who inquire about your product or service. Your list is key. If you have no such list, begin now by compiling one. Start by… creating an Excel spreadsheet of your customer’s names and emails. There is no magic number of names in order to start. If you have 27, start with 27. The most important thing to do is just start!
Next, how will you mail to your list? To do emailing correctly, you need a service into which you can upload your list and then compose and send your email. Vertical Response and Constant Contact are two services I would recommend. A more robust service that the emailing pros use is AWeber. AWeber has some great features including autoresponders that will send out emails on a pre-determined schedule or automatically when someone responds to your message in some way.
This brings up the subject of permission-based emailing. You can send unsolicited emails, but you risk services like AOL locking you out if people using AOL complain that they are receiving unwanted email from you. You can also be restricted by your service provider if they get too many complaints and you can risk getting flagged as spam by people’s servers when you try to email them. Unlike Vertical Response or Constant Contact, AWeber won’t let you send out unsolicited emails. Your audience MUST agree to receive emails from you. In fact, your first campaign from AWeber must be an email that literally asks them if they wish to receive information from you–and if so, to agree and then confirm. Once you make it through that step, you’re home free. Why go through that hassle? Because your emails are now fully permission-based so that they will make it through the spam filters and will most likely be more read by more recipients. Email programs and servers are getting much smarter. They know if you’ve been given permission to send email.
So, you now have your list and a service through which to send them. Now, what do you send? Send the people on your list information that will benefit them. Think of questions people ask you. Think of important topics that people are unaware of, but need to know. Think if current news topics that relate to your business, product or service.
Let me give you some examples. Say you are a day care facility. How about “7 little known cost cutting measures that will benefit your child.” or “3 tax benefits of which you’re probably not taking full advantage.” or “Questions you need to ask any perspective babysitter before they care for your child.” or “The single most dangerous food ingredient, and how to know if your child is being effected by it.” or “How to save money buying clothes for your child.” or “Vaccinations: The two sides of the argument” and so on.
Say you are a Yoga facility. How about: “How to shovel snow without adding strain to your back.” or “Why you’re probably not getting enough water.” or “Milk: What may it be doing to your bones that you’re unaware of?” or “How to improve your work and disposition by a 10 minute meditation at your desk.” or “The most neglected muscle and why you should pay attention.”
One more. Say you’re a bed and breakfast. How about: “Planning the most romantic getaway ever.” or “Great things to do in New York’s Hudson Valley.” or “Three key considerations when choosing a bed and breakfast.” or “What most people don’t think about when planning a long weekend getaway.” or “How to save money while having the 3 day weekend trip of your dreams.”
Notice what they all have in common. They’re providing value, not a sales pitch. None of them are: “Why you need Yoga.” or “The top 3 reasons our Bed and Breakfast is the best.” or “Why more parents prefer our day care facility over the others.” These types of messages will be ignored and people will opt out. Wouldn’t you? So, keep them focused on a value you can provide people that is related to your expertise or product/service. Only then, will your audience see you as a leader in your field and an indispensable expert they’ll want to seek out should they need your product or service.
By the way, didn’t all those topics sound like blog topics? Yes they did, and in part two we will show you how a blog integrates perfectly with a good email strategy.
February 8th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
[...] Vertical Response and Constant Contact are two services I would recommend. A more robust service that the emailing pros use is AWeber. AWeber has some great features including autoresponders that will send out emails on a pre-determined …Next Page [...]
February 12th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Great article Mike.
I’d like to add that when emailing your list, you ensure to avoid or minimize spam words such as xxx, FREE!!!, Opportunity, money, etc. Using these words within your email will set off the spam filters. If you’re using aweber for instance, their service warns you about potentially unsafe words within your message. This is very important because your email address, or entire domain name may be black listed if too many of these messages are sent. The last thing you want, is to be considered a spammer.
Thanks again for sharing this great information on your blog. Look forward to part 2.
Edison Guzman
http://www.HowToAttractCustomers.com
February 16th, 2009 at 10:19 am
As usual, the information you offer is pertinent and valuable.A Weber sounds like a worthwhile tool. I would like to learn more about it and blogging as well.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Mike,
My target market in the first step of my sales cycle are decision makers with in small businesses. Almost any type of small business. Sometimes this is the owner. Many times it is an office manager, practice administrator, HR director or spouse of the owner. Just like with anything, there needs to be a perceived value if they are going to offer Aflac to their employees. That value does exist in the form of better recruiting and retention of employees, FICA tax savings, enhanced benefits, better appreciation of employer paid benefits, increased employee morale, etc… However, these benefits are conceptual and unquantifiable and, often times are not experienced until after our programs have been in place for a while. To get a busy decision maker to take action sometimes it requires a value proposition that is more concrete and immediate. And it doesn’t have to be complex either. If I can offer them something small that saves them a little time or money or, increases their profits that should be enough. As I’m sure you are aware these decision makers tend to be overwhelmed with the day to day issues of running their businesses. Anything that makes their lives a little easier is of tremendous value to them.
Thanks,
Lou
February 20th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Mike:
Great stuff. The examples you provided were excellent reminders that an e-mail (or letter or Super Bowl ad) needs to always benefit the recipient. No benefit = no response = no sale.
You also mentioned a couple of e-mail service providers. Can you recommend a few CRM companies? We are finding it more and more difficult to manage our information on a spreadsheet.
Thanks!
March 4th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Yes, Tom. A good CRM is a must these days, and Excel in NOT the place to put your contacts. By the way, for anyone who may not know, CRM stands for Customer Relationship Managment. It is the database for all your contacts – customers, prospects, vendors, partners, etc.
In it, you can enter their contact info, notes on conversations, your calendar and even email campaigns can be run from it. One very good CRM with which I have recently become acquainted is call Sales Nexus http://www.salesnexus.com/.
Sales Nexus is not a high priced CRM with more bells and whistles that you will use, but rather, they consider it the next step up from ACT. ACT is a CRM that many companies begin with, but in my opinion, I’d skip ACT and start with Sales Nexus.