Effective marketing via email
Email marketing has become one of the more popular methods by which to effectively promote and sell products and services, but the popularity of this marketing technique is by no means an indication that all business owners have the ability to run an effective email marketing campaign. The simple fact is that those who are well versed in the functions and nuances of email marketing, while having the experience in utilizing popular strategies effectively, are likely to gain a huge advantage over their competitors who do not possess these skills.
In this article we will provide information which we think will be useful for business owners who are looking to improve their sales or website traffic via effective email marketing. So if you don’t have a great deal of information about email marketing and do not fully understand the principles involved, one of the best ways to initiate and launch an effective email marketing campaign is to hire a consulting firm to assist you in your goals and objectives using this marketing technique; but keep in mind that the consultant should have a proven track record in promoting business through email marketing.
The consulting firm
The consulting firm strategy may well be the most expensive of any that will be discussed in this post, but it is quicker than educating yourself through trial and error or taking a course on the subject, and may prove less expensive than one or both of these alternatives when the time it takes to accomplish either is translated into loss revenue. But that’s a conversation for another time. The fact is that any business in need of additional revenue can incorporate email marketing into its overall marketing strategy by immediately starting a search for a consultant who is well versed in email marketing and, with his/her help, launching a campaign in as little as two weeks.
Similar to traditional marketing methods like radio, television and print media, those strategies known to be most popular within the email marketing community have been subject to constant change over the years and continue to evolve today. Such change suggests that enough time must be devoted to studying new trends, best practices and most effective techniques; and as a business owner you probably already have enough to deal with just trying to stay up to date on your basic business practices and may not have the time, energy or finances to stay up to date on the latest changes in email marketing also.
For this reason it is certainly worthwhile to hire a professional in the email marketing industry who can devote himself full time to keeping up to date with the most effective email marketing strategies and designing an email marketing campaign for your business to help you achieve your business related goals. However, selecting a consultant from the many options available can be downright overwhelming; because you should look for a consultant who has a great reputation a proven track record and credible experience, who will also listen to your questions carefully and explain concepts simply while making your project a priority.
The hands-on approach
There are those business owners who prefer a more hands-on approach in their business’ overall marketing strategy, and if you are among this group then you would probably be eager to learn the proven strategies pertaining to email marketing, including this popular strategy pursuant to which is to offer an email correspondence course on a subject closely related to your business (website) or the products/services you offer.
These correspondence courses should include a number of short segments, provide useful information, be of interest to your intended audience and help to promote your business in some way. The simplest way to promote your business without having your correspondence course deemed as spam is to use a soft sell approach subtly urging readers to make a purchase or visit your website for more information.
The digital newsletter
You might also consider publishing and distributing a digital newsletter (or eNewsletter if you like), which is another proven and very popular email marketing strategy that has been deemed to be highly effective. An digital newsletter is very similar to a newsletter which is printed and distributed using conventional methods such as USPS (snail) mail delivery. The bulk of a digital newsletter should be quality content in the form of featured articles and shorter articles which includes useful tips and/or product reviews.
The digital newsletter may also contain graphical elements which can simply be graphic designs, or they may be graphics that also serve as links which direct traffic to your website, product pages or other interesting and useful information. Finally, your digital newsletter should contain some type of soft-sell sales pitch, but make sure of the subtlety of your sales pitch because if it appears to be too blatant you run the risk of your digital newsletter being considered spam. Finally, the newsletter should contain a call to action urging readers to either make a purchase or visit your website for more information.
Test and evaluate
Regardless of the method of email marketing you prefer to utilize, one of the most important strategies is to evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing on a regular basis. This is critical because elements of any email marketing campaign that are not working should be weeded out. Likewise elements of your marketing campaign which are generating a high degree of success should be utilized more often. For example if you notice there is a spike in sales or website traffic each time you issue a particular issue, it might be worthwhile to begin issuing digital newsletter more often. This type of evaluation and feedback can turn a moderate success into a huge success.