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eMail
and eMail marketing have been around for a while and there are signs
that the use of eMail is declining. Some universities in the US
for example do not give their new students a university eMail account
anymore, as too many of them turn to social media platforms instead.
Thus it is a good question to ask yourself if you should still use
email marketing with your customers. Is it better to look elsewhere
for your internet marketing? Or does eMail marketing still deliver
a profitable return on your investment?
eMail
marketing has a couple of very strong advantages. An eMail marketing
campaign can be set up quickly and easily, enables you to reach
a large audience at relative low cost and can be almost completely
automated, so that it does not need a lot of work to keep it going.
These are important advantages from an economic and resource point
of view, but the main power of eMail marketing lies in its use to
target your customers on a one to one basis and to reach them with
the right message at the right moment.
eMail
marketing campaigns
When implemented correctly and based on your buyer profiles, you
can set up an email
marketing campaign around situations, specific events
or phases your customers go through, sending them the next message
when they reach the next phase. For example, if you sell new cars,
you will know how much time it takes people to drive the first 3,000
kilometres, which is usually the moment they need their first service.
By sending those new clients an email one week before that average
time has expired, you will reach most customers at the moment they
are thinking about getting a service and they will be more positive
towards receiving an eMail from you instead of seeing it as spam.
Based on the time they come in for the first service, you will get
a better idea of how much kilometres they drive per month and your
next eMail, for their following service, can thus reach them even
closer to the date they do need a service. By constantly interacting
with your customers and registering every interaction and every
customers’ action in your eMail database (or CRM), you will improve
your timing of every new eMail messages over time, turning it into
a valuable service for your clients.
After
a while you can also start using your eMail newsletter to get more
of your marketing messages out, by adding other (marketing) messages
and advertisements beside the main message. This should never become
the main content of your eMail, as this will turn customers away,
and once they stop reading your messages they will most likely never
do so again. Thus your ads and other messages should either be small,
or be accompanied by a gift or discount, to make them more attractive
to your clients. Specific messages could be added as part of a news
article or an article about a certain topic that is of interests
to your target group.
Make sure you build in sufficient options to interact with you,
either as an interesting discussion about a certain topic, or as
simple feeback about your product, services or the eMail newsletter
in specific. Ask your clients what they like about the newsletter
and what not; ask for their opinion about subjects and make sure
you find out what their interests are. Interaction will keep your
clients involved and you can use their feedback to improve your
newsletter and thus the amount of leads it will bring you.
Automated
interaction
The feedback will also help you to create a completely automated
newsletter. Once you know what your clients different issues are,
you can create a series of newsletters that will automatically go
to the right target group. Based on interactions in the newsletter,
your server will be sending out either follow up newsletter A or
B, each dealing with a different issue and thus delivering the content
each specific customer is looking for. This also means that once
you have set up the system, you do not need to do much anymore.
Every new customer receives the first newletter and based on the
interactions will receive the right follow up mails after that.
The only thing you need to do is check the results regularly and
fine tune the whole process and the specific newsletters when needed.
The
most important reason for using eMail marketing campaigns is that
they allow you to maintain in direct contact with your clients.
Once you have their eMail address and their consent to send them
emails, you can send them new messages , offers and discounts whenever
you want. Mind though, this kind of campaigns work best (and is
not considered spam by your customers) when you send them what they
want, when they want it. That is why the interaction is so important.
It will give you the information you need to determine what your
customers are in need of; what they are looking for, and when it
is the most convenient time to send it to them.
Like
with all new marketing methods, you need to start with little steps.
Set up small campaigns and measure what works and what doesn’t.
Ask your customers for feedback on your campaign and for their preferences
to improve your interaction with them. You can set this up yourself,
but there are a lot of services out there, that could help you both
with the eMailing system, to help you develop and send the emails
and with the development of your email marketing campaign.
eMail
use might be declining within certain population groups, but it
is still one of the most used communication tools around and an
effective way to stay in touch with your customers.
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Social
media
