E-Mail Marketing

Successful E-mail

E-mail is a powerful marketing tool. Where a website is passive, waiting for the customer, e-mail is active. It seeks out interested parties and encourages them to visit the site or buy directly. 

It is particularly effective as a means of generating repeat traffic - reminding clients that the website exists and promoting the content, products and services.

Building Your Database

You will need a database of names and email addresses of your existing and potential customers in order to send out e-mails to your target audience. Typically, they will require an incentive to encourage them to give you this information. 

To get someone to give you their e-mail address you have to offer something in exchange. The incentive might be financially valuable or useful information - something of value to the target audience. You will be aiming for permission marketing - to sign up visitors who have specifically opted into receiving mail from you.

Marketing Incentives

Examples of incentives that work for many website owners include:

Once you get people to provide you with data about themselves, you are in a position to build a relationship with them and have the opportunity to use this information to start e-mail marketing. Good e-mail communication is always short and relevant to the recipients - focusing on their interests and expertise while being friendly and entertaining. Try to divide your customer and prospect lists into key market sectors. This will be part of your on-going marketing maintenance and helps with targeting. Some sectors are more likely to be e-mail receptive than others. 

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Personalise

Your e-mails should aim to build a sense of community, encouraging feedback and readers' contributions. 

There should be a number of links to specific pages in your website to encourage visits and to enable you to measure the success of the message. Each e-mail should be personally addressed to each recipient and it must be clear how to subscribe and unsubscribe.

E-mail Marketing Law

UK privacy legislation now controls unsolicited commercial e-mail and SMS to mobile telephones. By law, the receiver is required to 'opt-in' or agree to it in advance, except where companies have a long-term relationship with their clinets in which case they may continue to email or SMS on an 'opt-out' basis. 

Spam is an emotive term and, in order to protect and defend your reputation and your business, you need to ensure that you are never perceived as a spammer. For more information try the European Privacy Law Factsheet.

E-mail Marketing Software

Where possible, aim to cut the costs and time of your e-mail marketing by automating processes. 

The easiest way is to build a distribution list in your e-mail system. This is likely to be Microsoft Outlook or some other proprietary e-mail programme. 

Target different sectors with different e-mail shots using separate distribution lists. Using your e-mail programme, type the list of names into the bcc box. If you the e-mail addresses into the To or cc boxes, you will be publishing the contents of your distribution list to the world at large - giving away commercial information and upsetting your customers. The bcc box solves this problem.