Email Marketing solutions

Effective Email Marketing

There is one question that I hear most from small business owners looking to crack the nut of online advertising. It's a nut that continuously eludes even the craftiest of businessmen.

"Where can I purchase a list of email addresses?"

HTML email newsletters and email campaigns are great! They are a fantastic way to build awareness of new products, position yourself as an expert and touch every client on a regular basis. They help to drive a constant flow of repeat traffic to your website, and correctly instituted, result in big sales increases.

Now our marketing execs, just having crafted a new newsletter and having found Constant Contact or one of the multitude of Email Marketing web sites, are eager to get a list and start advertising to every inbox in a thousand miles. They're blown away by the price point difference, between the email and direct mail. Finally, they can reach everyone and for almost nothing... and there is the catch.

It's relatively easy, with a quick Google search, to buy a list of anything. You want the entire library records of Omaha, Nebraska... Done! How about the addresses of every construction company in the nation... Done! Email addresses can be purchased with ease as well, but a word of caution on any of these lists...

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SPAM EVERY POTENTIAL CUSTOMER?

There's a couple of big points here. Not only is spamming illegal (and there can be some pretty big penalties for this, i.e. shutting down your domain), but it's also just not wise from a marketing standpoint.

Hold on! What about direct mail? Everyone knows that you can get a list and send out as much as you want. Companies do it every day, and it's considered one of the most effective forms of advertising.

While all that is true, remember that the big advantage that email marketing has over direct mail is price point. In fact, while direct mail is legal, it's also costly. This serves as a self limiting factor. You can only send out as many ads as you can afford. A computer, on the other hand, can send out a million emails in an hour for almost nothing.

I don't know about you, but getting SPAM leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth. It sure doesn't provide me any incentive to use the service of a company, so unprofessional, as to cloud my inbox with every offer, promotion or survey they can think of. In fact, it can do a lot to hinder the building of customer relationships that CAN help drive your business to the next level.

Email marketing is and should be conducted on a permission basis only! In fact, the other name for this type of service is "permission based marketing". If spamming is reported, the email dissemination service will ban you very quickly.

So here is the big question. How do you reap the big benefits of email marketing? How do you get permission to send out your emails? How do you build a list?

Well, every business card in your Rolodex is fair game, but we highly recommend that you contact these people before entering their name into a database. Enter-to-win campaigns are also a popular way to build your list, but require you to have a storefront. Having a signup box on your website is a must. Each type of business is unique and requires a different solution. There are just too many options to list here, and new, creative ways are being invented everyday. Every beginning email marketing campaign should start with a thorough conversation on how to build a successful list and appropriate names where possible.

Used properly, email marketing can position your company as a provider of solutions instead of a spamming pain in the neck.