Easy guide to creating an effective email marketing strategy: Part 1

Email marketing is still one of the most prominent ways to attract new customers/clients. In order to do this your company has to have an effective strategy in place and over the course of the next few weeks we will show you how to do this.

Why use email marketing

People often question whether email marketing is anywhere near as effective as it used to be…didn’t spam kill it off!?...The answer is no, spam has not lead to the demise of email marketing and yes; email marketing is still as effective as it used to be, but only if you go about it in the right way. 

A survey conducted by Econsultancy in 2011, 72% of respondents described email’s ROI as good or excellent. Only organic SEO scored better, which is expected. Another marketing tool that scored highly was social media, to find out how to best optimise your social networking performance you can visit any of my following blogs:

• Using social media
• Using facebook
• Using twitter

Using email is a form of communication that people are familiar with. In the case of social media, there are still those who feel uncomfortable using it and those of an older generation that don’t use social sites such as Facebook or Twitter. It can be real cost effective strategy that can provide a high ROI.

So we established that email marketing can add significant value to your company if there is method in your delivery. Sending emails to random people doesn’t work and you will only receive spam complaints. We will look at how to build your mailing list, later on within this blog.

Email marketing should be used to:

• Educate people
• Differentiate your business
• Ask for a sale
• Increase loyalty; this can be done in the form of thank you letters, holiday greetings and special privileges to make your customers feel appreciated.

Technologies required for email marketing

There are two technologies required for email marketing and they are:

1. Authoring technology: To create content and html.
2. Delivery technology: The ability to track and deliver emails.

For each of these you require an email server, extensive programming knowledge and database skills. If you lack the knowhow on how to do this, you can use an email provider (EMP) such as MailChimp.

EMP’s can help companies to create, send and track marketing emails. By tracking emails, they can help with:

• Point of sale integration 
• Email automation
• Advanced segmenting
• Behavioural targeting

How to become a respected email sender

To become an appreciate email sender rather than a spamming nuisance, it’s recommended that you follow the CAN-SPAM act, which entails:

• The need to build a relationship of consent.
• A way to opt out of your emails by a maximum of 2 clicks.
• Accurate information.
• A physical business address.

Building an email list

Permission is essential in building an email list. There are 3 types of permission:

1. Implied permission: This can be done by simple tactics such as handing out business cards or using a confirmation email for people to join your list.
2. Explicit permission: This is when you talk to a potential prospect and get their definitive consent.
3. Confirmed permission:  An example of this is when someone clicks on a link to your website or an email that you have sent them.

You should never build a list based on someone else’s position. In addition, do not share your own mailing list with anyone and don’t send irrelevant emails.

Gathering information

When collecting information to build an email list, you can use the following methods:

• An online signup form on every page to increase your chances of signups.
• Collecting information in person. This can be done when someone calls your company or at networking events.
• Using print marketing, for example your company can use signup forms or printed advertising
• Using QR codes and signup forms on mobile devices.
• Providing links to signup forms on your social media sites.

Remember not to ask for too much information the first time round, as it’s important to build trust before asking for additional information.

Offering incentives to increase signups

A good way to increase signups is by offering real value for information. Valuable content can be something as simple as free advice. Immediate incentives in the form of automated email can be good for offering discounts, downloads and free products/services.

If you are an events company or similar, it can be worthwhile to send out emails before they receive the incentive like a future tour for example.

So what have we learnt so far?

What we have learnt about Email Marketing up until now:

• Email marketing is still as effective as ever.
• The different technologies required for email marketing.
• To stick to the SPAM-Act. Avoid sending emails to random people.
• To attain permission of those you send emails to.
• To collect information by as many different means possible.
• To offer incentives to increase signups.

Don’t miss out on part 2, where we will learn about designing an effective marketing email.