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Email marketing 101 By　Charlz Wachira According to an
article published in Business 2.0, permission based marketing,
commonly known as email marketing is reported to earn a response
rate of more than 11.4%, easily outdoing banners which reported
a mere 0.55% response rate. Based on these statistics, it is
obvious that a successful web marketing strategy should embrace
email marketing as one of the key strategies. In this article I
am going to discuss the nine basic principles you need
to　know to apply this result-generating marketing
strategy for your web venture. Read on.
1) Do not Spam
In the world of internet marketing, SPAMMING is the absolute
SIN. Spamming is the one area in which it is better to be safe
that sorry. Spammers get blacklisted and become pariahs in not
only the marketing world but in any internet related activities.
The damage done by spam is deemed irreparable; in fact, the only
lasting solution to sites that have been listed as spammers is
to give up the whole endeavor all together and begin afresh
under a different name and with a new look, a time consuming and
expensive exercise. Send out product offers and newsletters only
to those who have opted in for your list. Do not be deluded into
thinking that the attractiveness of your offer might offset the
anger of somebody on your list receiving an email they did not
ask for. As long as the person did not clearly subscribe to your
list, then it is spam and you risk being blacklisted as a
spammer with the aforementioned consequences.
2) Build your own email lists There are numerous companies
advertising for those interested in purchasing a custom made
mailing list. Beware of these fraudsters. According to most
surveys, for any purchased mailing list of about 2000
subscribers, at least 20% will be hostile, another 10% will
eventually lead to dead ends and you can expect at least 15-18%
to be outdated. This leaves you with a paltry 50% of the initial
list. Take into account the statistics mentioned at the
introduction and you are looking at less than 5% of the list
purchased. This leaves you with only one other option. Creating
your own home-made mailing lists There are many ways of
achieving this but the best approach is by publishing your own
e-zine and posting an announcement on community sites and
related newsgroups and generating an interest before you start
sending out the e-zine to those who opt in. Initially, you
should count yourself lucky to have even 100 subscribers but
gradually as the word spreads round, and depending on the
quality of your content this should increase to reflect on your
site’s popularity and rating with the target market.
3) Acknowledge all subscriptions Subscribers do usually forget
what they subscribe to and it pays to send a confirmation of the
initial subscription followed sometime later by another mail to
reconfirm their status before sending any email messages to
them. The first confirmation message can be auto-generated text
that can be easily created using any web programming language.
The second re-confirmation email however should be a
personalized mail that will set the atmosphere for your dealings
with the subscriber. Everyone likes to be referred to by their
names in any correspondence and this includes email. The purpose
of this second email is twofold. On one hand it enables you to
confirm the authenticity of the subscriber’s email address and
secondly, and more importantly it gives you a chance to explain
and clarify to the subscriber what it is that they are
subscribing to.
4) Maintain an updated list of all subscribers To protect
yourself from any legal backlashes, maintain an updated list of
all subscribers to your e-zines. If possible you should also
have the ISP addresses saved for future reference. If your
subscribers choose to complain about your e-zines being an
invasion of their privacy, you should be able to show them proof
of their subscription, complete with dates and ISP address. This
list if properly maintained can save you a lot of trouble later
on.
5)Utilize the subscribers information for better service As I
mentioned earlier, people are more likely to feel a bond with
you if the messages to them are personalized. Personalized
salutations especially are a powerful attention grabbing way
that improves the chances that the reader will read your mail
and better still respond to the offer included in it. Avoid
using salutations such as “To whoever it may concern”, “Dear
Unknown”, “To Subscriber”. Instead try to have the subscriber’s
name in the salutation but only when you are certain about their
names, otherwise refer to them by their email addresses for
example, “Dear myname@yahoo.com” etc. Making a mistake in the
salutation ensures that your mail will never see the light of
day and your effort will be wasted. Do not use any personal
information provided for any purpose not clearly indicated in
your Legal Disclaimer.
6) Respond promptly and clearly to all enquiries On the Net, the
best way to assure your clients of your dedication to their best
interests is by a quick, clear and informative reply to their
email questions. You should have a 24 hour reply service that
generates automated messages in the absence of someone to reply
to the subscriber’s question. Good customer support is paramount
to your success on the Net. Subscribers need to feel that they
are cared for otherwise they will go elsewhere where they feel
that their time, effort and money are going to be better
appreciated.
7) Allow opt-out with every email sent It is necessary to have
an opt-out section in every email you send out to your mailing
list subscribers. Humans are by nature dynamic and this means
that change is inevitable. Someone who may have been interested
in your newsletter may no longer have a need for it. Be sure to
have clear and easy to understand instruction for anyone who for
any reason might want to discontinue their receipt of your
mailing. When a subscriber opts to unsubscribe, make sure that
you send a confirmation mail to indicate that they have been
removed from the mailing list. The subscriber should leave with
no dissatisfaction as to your conduct as a Web marketer. You
should avoid creating bad blood as it might come back to haunt
you.
8) Give something of value in return to the subscriber’s time
You subscribers should feel that there is mutual benefit by
their subscribing to your mailing list. When the subscriber
receives any email from you, they should feel that by reading it
even without taking up the offers included, that they are
already gaining valuable information. Just like the content on
your site, the content in your mail is important if you are to
have a loyal and devoted group of subscribers.
About the author:
Charlz Wachira is CEO and co-founder of
http//www.e-gnorance.com, an online venture aimed at promoting
entrepreneurial endeavors globally. He writes on a variety of
issues related to entrepreneurship, e-commerce and online
marketing.
