Resources

How do I get started with email marketing?

There are mixed opinions regarding email marketing. Some say it's a waste of time while others swear by the effectiveness it offers. For an independent retailer, email marketing is a cost-effective way to build relationships that drive success. While it's inexpensive to manage, the main advantage of email marketing is not the cost, it's simply the most effective way to stay in touch with the majority of your customers. It allows you to multiply yourself and keep in contact with people who are already the most likely to buy from you.

You've worked hard at building relationships with your customers. You've invested time, money and resources to build your customer base. A solid email marketing program will help you keep these relationships strong and provide a continual return on your investment.

First, build a list of customer contact information. At the bare minimum, it should include: first and last name, email address, phone and areas of interest. Set this list up in a standard spreadsheet program like Excel and use a different column for each field. As your list grows, being able to sort by what they're interested in will help with targeted email messages.

You may be able to export your customer data from your accounting or POS system. For customers who are missing data you should immediately start collecting the absent information. Create a survey and update your newsletter sign-up form and get these in to every customer's hands. Create a contest and give them the opportunity to win something cool when they return the completed survey or entry.

While many dealers are tempted to use the BCC field within their email program, this is not an ideal method of delivery. In fact, it can cause some serious problems. We live in the age of "Permission Based Email Marketing". This means that the addresses you collect should all have given their permission to send your emails. Any messages that you send to names without permission can be viewed as SPAM. Your email provider can take action to prevent you from sending emails and blacklist you.

Before sending your emails, devise a plan. You should have a strategy in mind. What is the goal of the campaign? Who will it be sent to? How will you grab their attention? When will it be sent? And what about delivery success? How would you know if anyone even opened your email? Don't forget about list management too. You'll need to give customers the ability to unsubscribe from your list.

One way to keep in control of all of this is to use an email marketing company such as www.mailchimp.com or www.constantcontact.com. Both of these companies are simple to use, compliant with email rules and provide tracking statistics to gauge your effectiveness. At last check, both offer free trials and pricing to fit any budget.

Next comes the creation of the email message. The companies mentioned above provide many templates to ensure that the message looks professional. However, it's the content of the message that really matters most. In my previous articles, you've read about the importance of content and how it can be the driving force behind your website. Well, that content can be repurposed in to your email marketing.

You want people to read your email and look forward to receiving more. While it's tempting to just push special offers their way, be sure to include your unique content that sets you apart from the competition.

Never underestimate the power of the Subject Line. Your recipients will decide if your message is worth viewing in a matter of seconds. To grab their attention you need a compelling subject line. Be careful of the wording to avoid spam filters and what the recipient perceives as spam. To see sites that list SPAM trigger words simply Google: spam trigger words. Make sure that the sender of the email is a name that is recognizable (a person or your store name). One of the best ways to grab their attention is to use personalization. Studies show that when a recipient sees their name, your open and click through rates improve by as much as 20%.

Once they have opened your message the goal is to get them to take action and click on something. This is known as the click through rate and it's what all email marketers strive for. To get a high rate, use a headline that grabs their attention and supports the subject line. In your email copy, remember to personalize wherever possible and be clear about what is in it for your customer. Keep your special offers focused and convince them to click through to your website.

Make it easy to click through by including obvious links at the top and bottom of your email that take them directly to your website. Be careful not to confuse your recipients by including too many links.

It's critical to your success to test your email messages. Divide your list in to sections and use different subject lines, see what list generates the most results. Try different email body layouts as well. You may find that the subject of one message may create more opened emails, but the body of another initiated more clicks.

So, how do you get all of this information? The providers mentioned earlier include these tools with in their services. Not only will you see who opened the message, you'll see what they clicked.

Lastly, here are a few helpful hints. Make sure your email messages resemble your website. It's crucial to build confidence. Tuesday and Wednesday tend to be better days to send email blasts. Flash, audio and some video files are stripped out of emails by most servers so make it easy for people to click on these links. You'll know the effectiveness of your message within 72 hours and homegrown lists are the best.

Keep testing and trying new layouts. Before long, you will find the recipe that works the best for your store.