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Email Marketing 101

Are you talking to your customers on a regular basis? If yes, then you’re on the right track! But if you’re not, you need to start doing so. Many companies are starting to go online and they’re using all resources available out there to stay in touch with their current customers and attract new ones.

One resource big companies are using is email marketing. You would be surprised what a simple monthly newsletter can help you do.  Among the many things you can achieve with email marketing is to build a relationship with your customer and by doing so it will bring your customer close to you, which means that he will trust you and your products.

Starting a newsletter isn’t that hard! It’s only a four-step process.

1. Choose the right email system provider/IT Company or IT Developer/Geek. This is probably the hardest part, while many options exist, there’s a couple I would recommend, the first recommendation would be to develop your own news letter system, interview a couple of IT professionals or companies, get your quotes and choose the right one, based on experience and budged, cost range would be from hundreds to a couple thousand dollars.

My recommendation would be to sign up for an email marketing service with a reliable company that already has an email system in place and has passed through all the steps to develop such a reliable email system. There’s a couple of email system providers out there, one of which is Domain Carts. They offer a variety of services; and among those services they offer email marketing services for a low monthly fee, the sign up process it’s pretty easy! Simply go to their website at http://domaincarts.com/express-email.htm , select your preferred service plan and follow their checkout instructions. Their price it’s pretty low and it depends on the amount of emails you will be sending per month, they start at $7.99 per 500 emails and so on.

2. Remember to add a sign up form to your website homepage, blog, online ads, social networks, or other social media. This is really important, because you will be encouraging your website visitors or ad viewers to subscribe to your newsletter when they see your subscription form, link or button.

3. Once step two is done, train your staff to ask every customer for their email address and start their subscription to your newsletter. Be sure to sent your news letter the same day each month, as you don’t want to keep your customers waiting! If you don’t, the next time they receive your email they will most likely unsubscribe from your email list because you’re not consistent. You don’t want that! Try to avoid subscribing people that you don’t know or are not related to — in other words, avoid sending spam.

4. Finally, write and send your news letter. All email system providers have an easy to use Word editor where you will be creating your own email for your customers. It’s as easy as typing, checking, and sending. If you’re in insurance, you can write about insurance news and updates, policy changes, financial info, company updates or changes, agency news, etc. If you’re not, you can write whatever you think your customers will be interested in reading.

For example, if you’re into shoes, then write about the new shoes that just came out this summer. new fabrics being used, or how an artist is using the same shoes you’re selling. If it’s related to you and your business, it’s good to write about.

If you need help developing content for your newsletter, or just want someone to proofread and edit your material, the LAAA can help! Just e-mail Don Lukenbill (our Agenda Magazine editor) at wordsmith_works[at]yahoo.com.

Also remember to link your email to your product page (e.g., if you’re writing about shoes, point the link to the description page of that specific pair of shoes). If you’re just writing about something in general, link to your website homepage.

I can guarantee that if you start your newsletter and have a good amount of emails on file, your website traffic will go up and your visitors will start coming in. Eventually they will turn in to sales.

Remember to stay in touch with your customers and build a relationship with all of them. I hope you liked my article and remember comment about this and other articles I have written. Each comment is taken seriously and I try to answer each as soon as possible. If there’s a question you would like to ask, you can reach me on my contact page, I’ll be more than happy to answer your question, maybe even write about it!

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