Communicating with prospective and existing customers through e-mail can be a very powerful, cost effective and flexible marketing tool that can maintain and increase your customer base. However, an e-mail campaign is only truly effective when it is correctly planned, well written and targeted.
E-mail marketing is an excellent way to cost effectively communicate with each specific segment of your target audience, instead of promoting a general message about your brand, product and services.
Targeting potential customers via e-mail enables you to further segment your audience.
This means that your target audience can receive messages that are more specific to their needs. If you have a large database of contacts, it is worth analysing what you know about them, to ensure that you can send them the most relevant messages. Each product or service that you provide is likely to appeal more and less to certain individuals. For example, your high spending customers are likely to respond to an e-mail about loyalty schemes, whereas those that do not make regular purchases are more interested in an e-mail detailing your latest products or services. Specific databases can also be purchased for different campaigns; this is a worthwhile investment to ensure targeting the wrong people with the wrong message isn’t wasting the valuable marketing budget. When you do send the same message to a group of people, make sure you protect your customer base by entering the recipients names in the Bcc: field.
The very nature of e-mail allows you to send key and last minute information to your customers at times that suit them, you and your business. E-marketing is a 24 hour marketing tool; your audience are given control as to when they read your message and are only a few clicks away from your website, enabling them to more easily make a purchase or find out more information at times that suit them. E-mail has the potential of turning individuals that have little interest in your product into prospects, then these prospects into customers and by following up sales, these customers may soon turn into a repeat customer.
The key to transforming your first-time buyers into loyal customers that repeat purchase is by building relationships through consistent communication. Although e-mail is faceless, it can still greatly and cost effectively assists you in building a solid relationship with your target audience. A regular e-newsletter is the ideal way to facilitate consistent communication with potential and existing customers. A properly planned and targeted e-marketing campaign can reach the right audience at a much lower cost than any other marketing tool.
However, there are important considerations when developing an
E-marketing campaign, not only must the e-newsletter reflect and enhance your brand through well written copy and excellent design but there are also legal and spamming issues to consider. For example, The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations have introduced an ‘opt-in’ consent procedure, making it illegal to contact any business or people that have not agreed to be contacted. These rules only apply to new customers, so you can continue to
E-mail existing customers providing the can ‘opt-out’ of future messages.
An e-mail broadcast tool such as Verticalresponse or Constant Contact are affordable and easy to use platforms, with an unsubscribe function sent to all recipients, to ensure your e-marketing campaign is kept legal. The online tools enable you to build, target, send and track
e-newsletters, online surveys and e-mail campaigns.
These tools enable better analysis and planning of campaigns by providing reports that detail who opened the e-mails, when and which hyperlinks they clicked on. By using these results you are able to target campaigns and contact customers that have a specific interest in articles or products that they clicked through on. These tools can also greatly support and compliment alternative marketing campaigns such as telemarketing and direct mail.
By working with a professional team of marketing consultants you can be assured that all e-mails sent out comply with these regulations, they can also source data that will enable you to target new markets and customers without breaking any rules.
Skala Marketing continue to design and implement successful
E marketing campaigns for their clients and ensure that:
• E-newsletters enhance the companies reputation and increases lead generation
• Each e-newsletter provides instantaneous traceable results, making it easier to monitor and measure the campaign
• All e-marketing they carry out provides customers with the opportunity to easily interact with each company
• Each e-newsletter that Skala create promotes positive dialogue between the target audience and the client
Skala are an International team of marketing consultants that provide
practical solutions to grow your business through consultancy, outsourcing and a full range of marketing services. For more information about how Skala can become your ladder to success, please visit www.skalamarketing.com.
