Marketing tip 3: Email marketing – Start using email marketing NOW!
It’s a fact: Email marketing is extremely cost effective and one of the most powerful marketing tool available to small businesses. This is because it provides predictable results and costs little or nothing to use.
Here are just a few things for you to consider, before you start using email marketing.
I strongly recommend that you build your own email database, rather than buy one from one of those list broking companies. The best way to start building your subscriber list, is to ask all your existing clients and contacts if you can have their email address. Never just add people to your email list. You need permission, otherwise they will regard your emails as spam. Then, ask if you can contact them from time to time via email with a newsletter or special offers or announcements. This will get you your initial list and give you something to get started with.
You also need to have an email sign-up box on your website. This needs to be easy to read and positioned in an uncluttered area of your site, which everyone will see. I offer a free email version of this blog, which people sent to them and the sign up box is clearly positioned on the top right of the site. This position works extremely well and people use it all day every day.
If you are asking people to subscribe to your newsletter, I also suggest you offer them something of genuine value, in return for joining your subscriber list. For example, when I was writing my newsletter, I used to offer a free ebook. I also advise that you only ask for people to give you their email address and not their whole life story. Every additional piece of information you ask for, will reduce your sign-up numbers. It’s also really important to let people know you will never, ever pass on their email details to anyone. I built a newsletter readership of over 20,000 targeted subscribers using that approach.
I also recommend you only send one email message every 7 to 14 days. That’s what I did with my newsletter, because people hate being inundated with information; even if it’s great information! As a direct result of not bombarding people with emails, people looked forward to receiving them and very few people asked to be removed from my subscriber list.
Finally, (and this is very important) you must ask your readers to forward your emails on to their contacts. If the content is good enough, they will – but never assume anything, always ask them. Include a message at the end of every newsletter, which says; “if you have had this email forwarded to you by a friend and you would like to receive a regular copy, you can join our readership here.” (Then link from that text, to the newsletter sign up page on your site.)
I also recommend you learn and abide by the rules governing email marketing in your country.
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