Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most powerful yet most underused and misunderstood tools in your online marketing toolkit. Even businesses which go to the trouble of collecting email addresses from visitors to their website then don’t actually use them for anything worthwhile.

The truth is email marketing is fast, effective and can be incredibly profitable... but only if you do it the right way.

And, unfortunately, there are a lot of wrong ways to do it – and most business owners do get it wrong, if they do it at all.

This is a real shame, because it’s just as easy to get it right as it is to get it wrong. Having said that, there are some widely believed myths about email marketing I see being constantly repeated, and I think it’s time we dispelled them once and for all.

The biggest myth is people don't want to receive emails because there’s too much spam. This is simply not true.

People don’t want to receive spam, because they don't want emails from people they have no relationship with; moreover, they don't want boring emails continually trying to sell them stuff they don't want!

However, they do want interesting, useful emails from people they have a relationship with. This is why I recommend the lead-generation model and another reason you should begin the relationship by giving – and by giving something both useful and valuable when they first hit your web page.

Here are 4 tips to help you get the most out of your email marketing:

1.

First, mail more often. I don’t know how often YOU are emailing your list, but I bet it’s not often enough – because most business owners don’t send emails frequently enough. If you're not emailing your customers, clients, and prospects at least once a week, you're almost certainly losing out on profits which could so easily be yours. It is possible to email them too often, but the threshold is much higher than you think it is. And if they really do get tired of your emails, they'll soon tell you. Your job, once you have their contact details, is to keep sending them stuff until they buy, die, or tell you to stop!

2.

Secondly, use an autoresponder. A common “complaint” – really an excuse – is business owners “don’t have time” to write frequent emails. This really is an excuse and not a very compelling or persuasive one, either. For one thing, you can use what’s called an autoresponder. You pre-write a sequence of emails and when someone leaves their details they get drip-fed the emails you’ve written at predetermined intervals. You write them once, and everyone gets them in the right sequence and with the right timings. And another thing is if you think you don’t have time to be marketing... you might want to rethink your idea of being in business at all – because it’s the most important thing you’ll ever do.

3.

Thirdly, forget what you learned about writing “formal” letters in school or college and begin writing like a real flesh-and-blood person. Make emails friendly, personal, and personable. Write as if you were writing to a favourite Aunt or Uncle. Use apostrophes, contractions and -- as often as you can -- the word “you”.

4.

Finally, keep them simple. You don’t need fancy newsletters - simple plain text is fine (and often better because it gets delivered more reliably and email programs usually display it more consistently). Good, solid, informative and useful content is king, despite what graphic-designers tell you!

So, there we have it: 3 specific strategies you can put to work in your business TODAY to dramatically improve the results of your email marketing.