Grow Your Business

E-mail marketing is exactly what the name implies: using electronic correspondence to deliver timely and detailed messages about a product or service to consumers. E-mail marketing remains an important part of an entrepreneur or company's arsenal of tools: unlike traditional methods and despite the dominance of Facebook and Twitter, e-mail marketing gives businesspeople the opportunity to communicate with consumers on a personal level.

The industry may be marred by a few bad apples (okay, a lot of bad apples!), but e-mail marketing remains a lucrative tactic. Email Marketing Reports (EMR) provides the following numbers, culled from different web companies and sources: 350 million active users for GMail as of January 2012, the same number of users for Hotmail as of October 2011, and 310 million users for Yahoo! for that same month (last two are from comScore). In the United States alone, Kristen Purcell of Pew Internet has found that 92 percent of adults use e-mail as of August 2011. And several items in the 2010 Econsultancy study for both the United States and the United Kingdom indicate that consumers are receptive to e-mail marketing: 36 percent of the surveyed British consumers buy products online after getting e-mails and 57 percent like getting these e-mails if it provides them with a direct advantage, while 68 percent of the surveyed American consumers in the 18-26 age bracket use e-mailed coupons for online purchases.

Many have also made their predictions for e-mail marketing for 2012 and beyond. Shar VanBoskirk, Christine Spivey Overby and Sarak Takvorian of Forrester Research stated in August 2011  that interactive marketing (including e-mail) will help advertising spend go up as much as 26 percent of the estimated US$77 billion for 2016. David Daniels of ClickZ  has also put forth his predictions for this year, including increased consumer segmentation.

So how exactly do you do e-mail marketing? These tips will help you get started.

• Always ask. No one likes unsolicited mail, whether in actual inboxes or those of the digital kind. After a customer purchases your product, ask if he/she would like to be included in your mailing list. You can have them sign a guestbook, leave their business card, and/or fill up a form. If you don't have a physical storefront, ask your Facebook/Twitter/Multiply friends and followers if they're open to getting product/service-related e-mails from you, and request their e-mail addresses only if and when they say yes. If they give their consent, it means they actually want to hear (or rather, read) more about what you and your company have to offer − a receptive audience can lead to repeat transactions and a loyal base.

• Automate the process. Check out Mailchimp and AWeber, two of the most popular names in the e-mail marketing software/services industry.

• Give it a personalized touch. Don't just follow the provided templates; make sure your message is well-crafted and caters to specific types of customers. A good way to go about it would be to group your recipients according to age, gender, interests, and/or past purchases, then formulate your messages accordingly. Make it seem as if you're directly talking to them − and only them. A customer who feels special is much more inclined to reach for his/her wallet.

• Catch their attention --- and keep it. Write great headlines and content that would push your readers to buy your products and services. Also, don't write an entire novel; keep your copy short and sweet. The challenge is to have brevity while underscoring the value of your products and services. For great tips on how to compose catchy and effective copy, check out Copyblogger and Problogger and see how they do it.

• Bundle 'em up. Create special product/service bundles for Valentine's Day and other holidays, then offer these bundles at a lower price than you usually do. Need a sideline idea that can be done even after the Day of Hearts? This list may help you out.

• Go retro. Consider including products that seem to spend a longer time inside the stockroom. If your business website has separate pages for these products, include the links in your e-mail! What didn't sell before may be a bonafide hit now; consumers' tastes change rather quickly, so don't write off those items just yet.

• Make all your online accounts play nice with each other. Besides e-mail marketing, businesses also have to maintain Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Tumblr accounts to engage their target audience. In your e-mails, always include links to your social media accounts and suggest that your customers follow you. Likewise, you can use buttons or pop-up windows to entice site visitors to join your mailing list, and regularly tell your Facebook fans and Twitter followers that they can get more detailed product and service updates via e-mail.

• Practice self-restraint. Don't bombard your customers with e-mails; limit your correspondence (like those about new items or product lines) to around twice a week, max. For promos, special occasions and holidays, you can forward additional e-mails at least once a week.

• Review the numbers. Periodically check your stats and clickthrough rates to see which e-mail campaigns had an impact on your customers, and which campaigns shouldn't be done again. You can then tweak those hit campaigns to be suitable for other holidays, or even make new ones.

Photo courtesy of Micky.! via Creative Commons