What is email marketing?
Email marketing is the first social media. Long before blogs, Twitter and Facebook, marketers use email to communicate with customers and prospects, such as direct mail. Place a message on a list with an offer to generate a response.
Email marketing elements include lists, email formats and copies, subject lines and offers (s). Most emails are delivered by email software or an email service provider (ESP). For a small fee, ESP provides an interface for designing or uploading emails (copies, images, HTML files), managing uploads or lists, and providing metrics or dashboards on promotion results. ESP also has built-in features for opt-out and duplicate removal (D-Dup))
Why Consider Email Marketing?
Rumors of my death have been exaggerated! The email is not dead. In contrast, email marketing is on the rise. According to a January 2011 survey by BTOB Magazine, 3% of respondents were likely to increase their spending on email in 2011 (second only to the website) with a 29% constant cost. Also, the Email Marketing Institute recently released Q1 2011 Email Results, which states, “Results from North America Email Trends and Benchmarks showed a 39.2% increase in the average volume of clients from 2010 to 2011.”
The main reason to consider email marketing is that it works and email is a bargain compared to direct mail. List costs (when needed) may be similar or slightly higher than mail, with no email printing or postage. And when using email software or ESP, metrics or promotional measures are powerful, including open-rate, click-through-rate (CTR), bounce, and opt-outs. The inevitability of email is untouched by any other marketing medium. And the combination of metrics and inevitability allows you to test subject lines, even offers (more after testing later). Of course email integrates well with websites and e-commerce. And email promotions can be easily customized, personalized and otherwise targeted to individuals or market segments. To that end, emails allow themselves to be in constant contact with subscribers and prospects who are unsubscribed in newsletters and related communications.
But email marketing is not perfect. In Email’s infancy (circa 1998-2000), spam-blocking firewalls were open-rate and click-through-rates were statospheric until it rained at the parade. Since then anti-spamming laws have almost killed emails. Now with all the spam-ware received by email hosts, email open rates are much lower, averaging 10-10% in the business section (including construction).
Despite these problems, as the marketing mix evolves rapidly on the Internet, SEO, and social media, emails are an important stream of these electronic resources. And it is better to communicate quickly and at low cost to captive customers and source lists generated from all these internet resources to deliver on the promise.
So how can the holy grill of email marketing be more effective. How to maximize the effectiveness of the campaign. To that end, this blog will share the balance email marketing tips and strategies!
Email tips and tricks
1) List: The list is the basis of any email (or direct mail) promotion or program. Obviously, homegrown customers are most likely to open lists and then select your own email list from a variety of sources. The problem with email lists from business is employee turnover. A good portion of the email (or mail) lists go wrong over time, thus requiring ongoing efforts to correct hard-bounce, or non-deliverable (reported by most ESPs).
Purchase lists are available from publishers, associations, list brokers and online databases. List costs usually range from $ 100- $ 400 per thousand records. List sellers often do not provide lists, but will deliver your email to their list to maintain control. Below is a list of sources for your email list.
Email list source
- Publisher list
- List brokers
- Association list
- Online database
- Website registration
- Website contact form, questions
- Customer phone searches with RFQ
- Sales communication
- The email is forwarded to the friend feature
- Trade show scan
- Warranty registration
- LinkedIn connections
- RSS Articles
- Research people and organizations using directories like Jigsaw
Cleaning the list, or constantly cleaning your list is important for email success. When using ESP, un-subscribers or opt-outs will be automatically removed from the list. If no ESP is used, you must perform this task manually. Hard bounces should be removed in the form of invalid email addresses and lists. Soft bounces should be checked as they may cause auto-responsive or server problems for the client outside the office.
