How Email Marketing Chapter - 3

                       How to Start Email Marketing

Email is a really powerful tool which can establish rapport, build relationship with customers and generate lots of new business if used wisely.
Whenever I talk to businesses I find out that very few of those are using e-mail properly and majority of those businesses are not taking advantage of this really powerful tool.
For example you will find many small businesses even don’t have an e-mail list for their customers. Can you believe it ? Yes it is a fact.
According to the Direct Marketing Association email marketing generated $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009. That is an absolutely stunning rate of return and virtually unparalleled in any other marketing option open to you.
Here is how you can start quickly and start building your list really fast.

Tools required

I use service called AWeber which is a great tool to build your e-mail list, it is easy to use and has great tools which helps you to do advance e-mail marketing.

Why I use AWeber?

• Built in e-mail templates
• You can manage all your e-mail lists easily like new customer enquiries, existing customers etc
• AWeber gives you complete analytics.
• Already designed sign up forms
• You can send pre set messages to all your subscribers
• You can send your blog posts to your e-mail subscribers
• Great customer support (huge benefit cause you will need help at the start

Get Started Today For Only $1! - AWeber Communications

The First Step to Start Email Marketing is to choose right Software. You will need to buy bulk email marketing software with a sufficient number of user licenses to accommodate your projected initial need

The major email service providers have the capability of reaching inboxes through permission based email marketing with an efficiency you would be hard pressed to achieve in any other fashion. They also enable you to study every aspect of your email campaign through their extensive email tracking and reporting; set up comprehensive surveys; enjoy extensive email list management tools; and receive guidance from experienced professionals.

Bulk Email Marketing software reduces your time input and give you more output as compare to simple email service. You can send emails in bulk, But also when you are not present on your business desk, as it have number of features like Auto-responder, Rss email etc.

After this your real work start, you will have to work on following steps: -

Generate a Contact List

 Legally, you can send your marketing e-mails to people who agree to receive them as well as those who have bought your products and services within the last two years. The latter one is easy. Figure out who bought something from you recently and get their email. Now the hard part: getting new contacts on your list. One way that your business can generate new leads is a button on your web site's home page. Tell visitors that if they sign up for your monthly e-newsletter, they will be entered to win one of your products. You can give away products to subscribers and sent out an e-mail letter about the winners. Your list will grows every month. And since those who sign up fully agree to receive our e-mails, they are more likely to read them. I truly believe that our "click rate" in opening our e-mails is higher than if we sent unsolicited "spam." Regardless of which way you get a contact e-mail, it is imperative to make it easy for someone to unsubscribe to your e-mails, current client or not. If you do not let them unsubscribe, you are breaking the law and damaging your reputation.

Develop Content

So now that you have a mailing list, what do you send to the contacts? Write about topics that matter to your clients or potential clients. If you own a flower shop, maybe you'll want to write about gardening tips, how to make that new bouquet last even longer, or any new varieties of roses. Enlist your employees to come up with article ideas too. Sometimes a different writer with her own unique voice makes an e-mailed piece more interesting and gives a fresh perspective. From time to time, e-mail about a new product or special promotion, but try to make the tone of the e-mails to be more about informing people of issues and topics that might be helpful to them rather than trying to sell them something. Recipients are more likely to open your future e-mails if they find them to be consistently of interest to them rather than continuously offering them a sales pitch.

Send Your Message

You could send your email messages yourself by typing in each name from an address book, but it is not recommended for this type of e-mailing. You do not want your clients to see the names/addresses of others on your list, to protect their privacy. There are some great online e-mail marketing services out there, like INTELLIGENT EMAILS that can help you maintain your database, schedule and send e-mails, and even track results such as who's opening what message. An advantage of using our services is that you can easily upload and modify your contact list, create multiple lists for different marketing purposes, and track your results to see what messages are working and what messages don't have a high click rate. However you send your message, be sure to limit the number of e-mails you send to no more than a few a month, maximum. If people are bombarded with e-mail messages from you, they will be more likely to unsubscribe.

All of the above shows why e-mail marketing is easy to use and much less expensive to do than traditional, mailed pieces.

I hope you enjoy this article and information in it.