Email marketing is one of the most affordable (and fastest) ways to get the word out about your company, services and/or products. Unfortunately, far too many businesses don’t take the time to develop the same streamlined professional campaign they would if using a traditional marketing plan. Whether utilizing today’s high-tech internet services as a marketing tool, old-fashioned Direct Mail or a full blown publicity blitz, your marketing strategy should be the same: to spread the word about your company and what it offers.
That requires presenting yourself (and your business), in the most professional manner possible to give future customers a reason to check you out further. Sending out a poorly thought out email blitz to your customer base, or a shoddy e-zine offering little more than a sales pitch isn’t going to help you stand ahead of the pack among potential clients. The goal of email marketing isn’t to reach as many people as possible with a poor message - it’s to show as many people as possible why they can’t live without you and your services. How? By giving them your absolute best!
Before initiating a new email marketing campaign, watch for these common mistakes:
-Failing To Get Permission From Recipients. You buy a mailing List, and then you email everyone on it with your email-marketing message or newsletter. Sound like a great idea? It’s not. Unless you have permission from each recipient to send them regular business updates, messages and/or e-zines, it is considered spam and can get you into trouble. .
-Offering Little or No Real Content. If all you’re sending recipients are email ads, then they’ll get used to hitting the delete key and never read what you send anyway. Take the time to offer them some useful content in addition to your pitch. Tips of the day, industry news updates and the like, are all great ways to interest potential customers, while still getting news out about your business.
-Making It Too Difficult. If you want to get people to sign up for your email newsletter and updates, make it as easy as possible. Make applications too long, or include too many links and they’ll click off before they ever finish registering.
-Using a Personal Email Address. Nothing screams unprofessional louder than using a personal email in your reply to. Always send customers to your business website for more information.
-Assuming People Remember Who You Are. Even if you have obtained the proper permissions to send email marketing information, if you wait too long to get your program started, your recipients may forget who you are and think they are being spammed anyway.
-Ignoring Campaign Reports. No matter what type of marketing campaign you employ - traditional or technological - follow-up is extremely important to ensure that you’re marketing strategy is working the way it should. Ignoring trends and statistics will only ensure failure.
Email is an easy, fast and inexpensive way to market your business, as long as you follow these few simple rules of business etiquette to ensure that your time and energy were well spent.
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