eMail Marketing
Using Email Marketing
What do you do whenever you're in front of a computer, whenever you think of it? How can you reach people at their convenience?
Email.
The most profound change the Internet has made in the way we do business today is in the prevalence of email. It's more convenient than the telephone, because you can answer it whenever you get to it. It provides a handy and reliable way of storing conversations. And it makes it easy to share information.
Think about it: how often do you read your email?
Now ask yourself: how much does it cost to send an email?
Reaching Customers with Email
One of the simplest and cheapest way of reminding your customers you're there is through email marketing. It costs you nothing after initial setup. And when you send out an effective email,
- your website traffic increases,
- your customers remember you,
- you build your customer loyalty, and
- you save money and the environment by not using direct mail.
The first three things make your sales increase; the last one makes your bottom line decrease. And by moving these two lines further apart, you maximize the area between - your profit margin.
With Imand's Marketing Service, you can ensure that your emails are effective and managed properly, with minimal direct work from you. Our web-based email software allows you to quickly and efficiently manage email contact lists, and then use these lists to send newsletters, email surveys, and any other emailed communication you need to send. You can automate email list management, use templates we provide, and track your mailing in real time. And if you only want certain customers to receive email, you can even segment your list out.
Benefits of Using Email Marketing Communications
It's cost effective. Your communication to 1000 recipients via direct mail: 1000 x the cost of printing and the cost of postage, usually totaling between fifty cents and two dollars per customer contact, or $500-$2000.
Your email communication to the same 1000 recipients costs you a tiny fraction of that $500-$2000, and with larger mailings your cost-per-recipient goes down enormously, rather than staying stable. And with an opt-in email list, your ROI is nine times greater than the same ROI on a direct mailing.
How much do you spend on banner ads? Your customer response to an opt-in email is twenty times greater than with a banner ad. It is five times greater than with direct mail.
Your customers are more likely to respond quickly to an email campaign. Within three days, you know how effective your email campaign was, compared to weeks with a postal campaign.
With an email campaign, you're in charge of postal delivery ; if your customers don't get an email in time, it's probably your fault and not because the postman didn't deliver mail properly.
And you can target your email offers to specific customers . Want to send a really good coupon to your top 50 customers? Simple to do with Imand's web-based mail service.
Using your email list wisely to deliver genuine value and good information to your customer, over time, builds customer loyalty . How much more is a repeat customer worth than one you have to market to get? Today's customers are finicky, and will quickly go to other companies to get the products they want if only the other company offers a slightly better price. You can retain those valuable repeat customers if you consistently show them that you care about their needs. How? Regular quality contact through email.
What You Need to Do
You'll need to build a subscriber base. You can create this through compiling a list of emails of customers who have already bought your products, and setting up an opt-in email on your company home page for prospective customers who just haven't bought anything yet - this captures anyone genuinely interested who come through your virtual doors. If you don't know how to do this, Imand's Content Development experts can help.
Once you have a subscriber base to build from, you can provide this to Imand, along with your content.
Imand creates an emailable HTML template, into which they insert your content. Merge fields where your customer's information (names, for instance) can go are also set up if you wish; used properly, this tool can greatly increase customer response. And we set up the email to go out at the most appropriate time for your campaign.
For customers who can't or prefer not to read HTML in their email, text alternative emails are automatically sent as well.
That's it. You provide the email list and content; Imand does everything else.
Getting Great Content
One of the easiest things you can give away to your customers is free information. Whether you sell H-gauge model train parts or allergen-removal products, there is always something new going on in the industry you can share with customers. And if you're trying to push sales on a product, articles targeted to ways that product can be useful can sell it for you.
Of course, the Internet is based around written content, and your newsletter is not an exception to this. Not everyone has the knack for writing great sales copy, but Imand can help you with this too.
Great content can:
- Increase customer loyalty
- Increase the likelihood that your customer will read your newsletter all the way through, and even save your newsletter for its information (for example, recipes and holiday projects are often saved for years)
- Increase click-throughs
- Increase sales
- Allow you to target products
- Help you reward your best customers
If you know what your newsletter needs to tell your customers, your specifications help an Imand staff writer create your articles for you on a per-word cost basis. If you don't know what you want to put in your newsletter, our experienced writers can even help you with content ideas.
If you already have good content, but it needs to be formatted, converted, or edited, we can do this for you as well, no matter how it looks when it comes to us.
Following Up
Imand also gives you the right tools to track your email. Can the post office tell you who opened the mail, who threw it in the trash, who marked it return to sender? Imand's system can. It can also tell you whether the customer's email system marked it "spam" and blocked it, or whether a customer responded to offers within the email and clicked through any links.
At the end of each email is an opt-out allowing recipients to unsubscribe from the database automatically.
The Next Campaign
When you're ready to send your next batch of email newsletters, provide Imand with a new email database (if you have changes - Imand can update this list with opt-outs) and the fresh content. First, though, look at your ROI; how much money did Imand's campaign save you? How many new customers did you get with this campaign? How much did your sales increase?
This is the time to target your emailed newsletter more narrowly. What are your customers clicking through on? Can you increase this next time? Was there an offer they ignored completely? You can drop it.
Over time, you can target your newsletter more and more narrowly to what your customer really wants. And if you can give them what they want, you maximize your ROI, your sales, and your customer loyalty. |
