If you have an email marketing strategy, that is very impressive. Most people do not even have an email marketing strategy and may not even include it in their marketing arsenal. Email can be a very important part of keeping your business healthy and you wealthy.
An interesting fact about email is how fast it became a normal from of communication. Fifteen years ago, many people had not ever heard of email let alone even used it. Now, just about everyone has an email address and for some it is the most popular form of communicating. The many benefits of email include: instant gratification, it’s fast, it’s free and it is a great diversion while at work.
However, this can be the downfall of email and it is the reason why you should have an email marketing strategy. An email inbox can become the victim of spam since it is free and quick. Offline, junk mail required money and manpower.
Online junk mail is less labor intensive. Junk mail needs a person to press a button and it is transmitted to your inbox. You should not be emailing people at random in an attempt to gain business. Lucky for you, I will make email marketing a little easier.
There are many strategies to use, however I will lay out a simple email marketing strategy that you can use.
The first step is to make sure that you are using your email correctly. In your signature line, do you have a link to your website? You may be losing some marketing exposure with the people that already email you if you do not have your website link in your signature. The same people that read your email, may actually forward that email so if you are lacking the website link, you may be missing out on a viral marketing opportunity.
Your next step is to sign up with an autoresponder service. This is a relatively low cost and easy way to collect email addresses and manage the list of customers who want to hear from you.
The autoresponder allows you to create a mailing list so that you can send personalized emails to your customers. Building a mailing list is done by adding an email capture form to your website. Then you can send people to the website and offer a free report or coupon in exchange for them providing their email to you. The autoresponder service will provide the html code to add to your website, or you could have your webmaster add it. It is a quick five minute job.
Once you have your autoresponder service setup and your current and potential customers opting in to your list, you will need to talk to them. Do not just try to sell to them.
Give them a reason to want to continue doing business with them. You could offer special bonuses and advice. This is probably the simplest email marketing strategy available. It should take less than an hour to set it up. Your customers and business will thank you.
