eMail Marketing
Sending an e-Mail to a potential customer is perhaps
the best way to attract, generate interest, stimulate
and get action from
viewers that there is.
Despite the emergence of new communication channels
such as social and mobile, e-mail remains a powerful and important means of
connecting with customers. You can use it to deliver highly targeted and
personalized communications that reinforce your brand and build lasting
relationships with customers. Better still, you can use it to gain the
attention of a large number of customers at a very low cost.
How can I find
the e-Mail addresses to send my message?
Right now the old way is to go to web sites that provide information with
the same interests as your targetted audience and extract the eMail addresses
from the sites using a copy and paste method.
This is very time comsuming.
And there are better ways to collect potential customers e-Mail
addresses.
Large companies such as Canadian Tire, Loblaws,
Sears, and Target ask present customers to fill in market research surveys
which inherently have a place where the person surveyed is asked for their
eMail address.
Some company's often when purchases are made ask for
your e-Mail addresses which go into their company databases.
Other companies hold on-line contests and surveys
where if you want to have a chance to win, entrants will have to supply
their e-Mail addresses.
And other companies who can use e-mail address
extractors software to mine e-Mail addressses from lists that are posted on
the Internet. The addresses of real estate agents, school teachers,
members of associations and clubs can easily be mined, put into Excel
databases and listed into the to be sent addreses of e-Mails. In one hour
once can easily mine 1000 addressses in a particular geographic area. - It is just that simple.
When is the best time
to send out a e-Mail marketing message?
Because of the ease in which a viewer can dispose of
an unwanted e-Mail and using statistics gathered from the perfomance of web
sites we can often measure the best time that the viewer reads the message
that is sent. We know that a high percentage of people look at their
e-Mail during working hours of 9 - 5 from Mondays to Fridays. We also
know that if an unsolicited e-Mail is sent on Monday morning between
9.00 - 12.00 pm it will be deleted without the viewer even reading the
subject line. We also know that on Friday afternoon workers are not
really interested in reading and responding to unsolicited e-Mail. So we
recommend that the best time to send e-Mail marketing messages is Monday -
Thursday afternoons after lunch between 1.15 and 3.00 pm - Never send
unsolicited messages to potential clients on Christmas or any of the holidays,
People rarely read unsolicited messages on holidays.
What should you put in
the message?
We have found that to
get market impact, messages should be of an announcement or be newsworthy.
They should be short and to the point and provide a link where more detailed
information is available like the address of a website. Good e-Mail messages
typically are only read for about 2 - 5 seconds and if the viewer is
interested, they will seek additional detailed information before taking any
action.
An example of this is an e-Mail announcing that for the next
24 hours shipping of goods sold will be free. Or a statement that there is a
new condo development with 200 units located along Toronto's waterfront with
a price range starting at $350,000 are ready for sale.
All messages
should have the name, physical address, e-Mail address, a phone contact
number and web stie address of the sender.
In addition because it is
sent via e-Mail the following should be placed at the bottom of the message.
If you
do not wish to receive periodic “Your Company Name” announcements
simply reply with the word "remove" in the subject line
a
What should I put in the Subject?
Regarding what to put into the "Subject" - Keep
it short and to the point with less than 8 words if possible.
Good
"Subject" text is where you either draw the viewer to read the message or
get your message deleted.
An example of one that caught my eye that
was not considered Spam is "We have a gift for you"
Do not put the word "Save" in the subject as Spam
software will automatically identify you e-Mail as Spam.
Finally, there is such a thing as the US / Canada
Spam Act which if there is a violation of the following guidelines a company
can be fined up to $16,000 US for each violation.
1. Don't use false of misleading header
information.
2,
Don't use deceptive subject information.
3. Identify the message as an advertisement
4. Tell the viewers where you are located.
5 Tell recipeitents how to opt out of
receiving future e-Mails from you
6. Honour opt out requests promptly.
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.
What results should I
expect?
If your database of
e-Mail addresses are viewers who are receiptive to your message, a good
response and sales should be expected. This can easily be measured
using statistical analysis software which can measure how many people
actually read your message and take action to go to more information on a
directed website.
h
If your e-Marketing program is not performing as well as you expect - Perhaps we can
help.
tdc Marketing will review your program and provide professional consultation
services.
We do it for a few select clients.
Just
e-Mail
me asking to provide a review of your eMail
marketing program and make suggestions on how
the performance can be improved. I will e-Mail you back with our fee for
services, an
estimation of the time required and how payment can be made on the web.
