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Is Targeted E-Mail Marketing the Solution for You?
By: Eric Durrand
Spam,
or Junk E-Mail, is a terrible thing. It clutters our inbox with
irrelevant
trivia (or worse), wastes time, and interferes with our ability to
effectively
focus on important messages. E-Mail marketing done properly, however,
can be a
major value to both your company and your subscribers!
 While
spammers try to reach the greatest number of readers in hope of finding
a few
buyers, legitimate e-mail marketers care more about the quality of
their
contacts and their level of interest. While spammers send e-mails to
the
unwilling, e-mail marketing experts recommend sending only to opt-in
clients,
or clients with whom the company had previous contact. While spammers
do not care
about whether their victims wish to receive their ads or not, in
effective
e-mail marketing the right to opt-out is inviolate.
In
terms of effectiveness, targeted E-mail marketing usually comes ahead
of
other mediums. According to a study by the Winterberry Group, E-mail
marketing
brings in $15.50 per dollar spent. This is about 17% more than
direct-mail
campaigns and 73% more than telemarketing campaigns. Given that a
successful
E-mail marketing campaign can start with just a few dollars per month –
the sky
is truly the limit.
But
for an E-mail campaign to be successful, a company must differentiate
itself in
all possible ways from spammers. The name and contacts of the company
must be
clearly indicated (this is also the law), as well as clear unsubscribe
instructions, usually at the bottom. The most important differentiator,
however, is content.
Content
is the king of e-mail marketing. To be read in this age of spam filters
and
swamped inboxes, your message has to offer a value in and of
itself! Let
me repeat that: unless your marketing campaigns offer some value
regardless
whether the person chooses to buy the product, it will not be read.
Worse, it
will create a negative association with your company, and will cause
more harm
than good.
This
means that before you can approach your subscribers, you
must
have something unique to say, which they would want to hear. But don’t
worry! By
the very nature of your business, you must hold some information and
knowledge
that your potential clients don’t. If you sell surfboards, you must
know a lot
about surfing, and if you’re a business lawyer, you should know more
than your
clients about new business laws and regulations.
 If
you offer some of your privileged information as free advice, in the
form of a
monthly newsletter, or a bi-weekly update, you have better chances of
having
subscribers actually anticipate your messages, and develop affection
for your
brand.
If
you are one of those writo-phobics who can’t even think about writing a
short
article without breaking out in sweat – there are two possible
solutions. One
is – get over yourself. Buy a book about writing, like the famous On
Writing Well, or Elements
of Style, and get down to business.
Another
option is – find someone else to write for you. Some new companies
specialize
today in providing affordable, tailored content for just such an
occasion.
Companies like CMP United Business
Media
can assist you in creating the type of content you need. Alternatively,
you can
identify a content provider in your field, and make an offer to buy
articles
from them!
The
last step is selecting a proper technology platform. Here, the market
is full
of serious, mature solutions that make it a pleasure to manage,
distribute, and
send your letters. Solutions providers like JangoMail, IntelliContact,
and SubscribeMail provide
you, for a few
dollars a month (depending on the number of subscribers), with a sleuth
of
useful tools for your campaign, including:
- Contacts
Management –
Allows
you to import, track, export, and manage multiple lists for different
campaigns.
- Automatic
Subscribe and Unsubscribe –
Lets users subscribe and unsubscribe themselves reliably and
automatically – so
you don’t have to worry about it!
- Tracking
– Allows you
to see how
many subscribers opened each E-mail, which links were clicked most
often, how
many unsubscribed, and how many bounced e-mails in each distribution.
- Spam-Check
– Allows you
to estimate,
prior to sending, how likely is your message to be blocked by spam
filters.
Suggests ways to improve message to avoid being blocked. (Changing
certain
words, removing certain features, etc.)
- Personalization
– Allows you
to personalize
each message to the specific subscriber, with fields like name, title,
address,
and more.
 Designing
your letters is
the last and perhaps most crucial step in a successful E-mail marketing
campaign. Using HTML, or the friendly tools and templates that many of
the
above services offer, you should aim to keep your design simple and
clean, but
professional – with the content featured most prominently, and
marketing ads
and other materials set unobtrusively around it.
Whether you
sell
insurance, bikes, or fish-hooks, your customers would love to hear what
you can
teach them. Potential customers who left you their details, or were
referred to
you by name, would also not resent it, as long as you provide them with
a clear
opt-out option. They would learn to associate you with useful tips and
knowledge, and remember you when the time comes for their next purchase.
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