Have you ever noticed that the good old days of paper marketing is becoming more and more like olden day cars? They still do the job but boy it's expensive to run. And that's because there are now better ways of marketing that work just as well and in some cases, even better! Straight off the cuff I can tell you that there are 3 main reasons why you need to be using email marketing. It's cheap, it's easy and it works! - It's Cheap… did you know McDonald’s provides free wi-fi?
- It's Easy… click, click, send!
- It Works… a client of ours recently scored 5 new clients from this
Who Do You Rely On?
I know that it's common for people in business to rely on mediums such as Gmail or Microsoft Outlook to handle all their emails - including their marketing campaigns. And while it's totally cool to be using it for general communicating between colleagues and clients, you simply shouldn't be leaving the task of marketing to these mediums! It's the equivalent of trying to mow the lawn using a whipper snipper because it takes a thousand times longer to do and the results aren't quite the same.
The Right Tool For The Job
For anyone that's a veteran of email marketing you'd know that using a specialist email marketing provider is key in the success of your campaigns. Some of the advantages of using these providers is that you're able to create cool and unique looking emails (especially if you have newsletters), schedule campaigns to run automatically and most importantly, track the success of your campaigns. And I don't know how many times I've said this before, but I'll say it again anyway, tracking and measuring your performance is essential to improving your marketing.
Getting Started Is So Easy
In the online marketing world we've been spoiled for choices because there's plenty of excellent email marketing services out there. In particular, if you're new to the game of email marketing, I'd recommend having a look at MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com) because it's a totally free service and would be more than adequate for anyone with less than 2,000 email contacts. It takes less than 5 minutes to set up and you can be sending emails to your clients immediately. It's got plenty of great features too and once you familiarise yourself with this system, you can truly spread your wings and start sending regular emails to keep your contacts up to date with great freebies and special promos.
The Golden Question - How Often Should I Send Emails?
There is no definitive rule to this however, in my opinion your email marketing strategy should aim to add value to your contacts and have you positioned as the go-to person when the time comes for them to buy what you have to offer. So whether you email once a week, 2-3 times a week or once a month, so long as you are achieving your purpose then it warrants the frequency of emails.
I'm a feedback lover so share the love and leave a comment or a thought. And remember to 'Like' this post... thanks and happy emailing!
Hi Daniel, enjoyed your blog post and appeciate your detail regarding the right tools for the job. Small Business Coaches and advisors are loving this new free way small businesses can keep in contact with their visitors using email which requires little effort on their part. Would appreciate your feedback too, here's the link http://www.havamag.com.au
ReplyDeleteThanks
Kylie
http://www.thegbrgroup.com.au/bus_advisors
Hi Kylie, glad you enjoyed the post. I've had a look at the link you've sent and i can see this as being a viable freebie that business owners could offer to their clients as a gift. Thanks for sharing this thought Kylie!
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