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project 03 :: Internet Marketing :: Advertising and PR 01
A Cost Effective Way to Advertise Online. . . A Permission E-Mail Marketing
Achieving success with affiliate marketing programs, or marketing on
the internet in general, is subject to so many issues; the article
you elect to push, the form of advertising you deploy, the magnitude of
your advertising budget, etc. One item in particular has existed since
the start of the internet. It has in past years, and still is creating
large sums of cash for various online businesses. The product I am
eluding to is information. Browsing this site you will discover an
array of facts on marketing programs, marketing, web site building,
advertising and a great deal more. Enjoy!
We all hate e-mail spam, right? I
even have the coolest software program that will help you combat spam
and actually bounces the spam e-mail straight back to the user. (http://www.mailwasher.net)
However, one thing that we often fail to admit (except in private) is the importance of permission e-mail marketing,
where the members of your mailing list have given you permission to
contact them, or where they're past customers of yours. Obviously,
these e-mail lists are always opt-out, so if someone chooses not to
continue receiving information from you, they can easily get removed
from the list.
Many of you know that I write monthly articles
for Planet Ocean Publications, which (in my opinion) is one of the best
sources for up-to-date information in the search engine industry. Their
monthly online publication, Search Engine News, is second to none, and
if you don't subscribe to it, you're missing out on tips and strategies
that could make an amazing difference in your search engine
optimization work. For those of you who aren't familiar with Planet
Ocean, here's their URL. http://www.searchenginehelp.com
Stephen Mahaney is the editor of Planet Ocean, and he's easily one
of the top marketing guru's on the Internet. I spent several hours on
the phone with him recently, and he told me that Time Magazine wrote an
article in their November 3 edition that dealt with the importance and
impact of permission e-mail marketing.
There are a couple of quotes straight from the magazine:
"e-mail marketing is fast, effective and dirt cheap -- a godsend for marketers in an economy that has crunched advertising budgets."
". . . the humble medium of e-mail is blossoming while flashier forms of Internet advertising are going the way of the Pets.com sock puppet."
"Little wonder that old-line companies like Ford and Procter &
Gamble are joining early users of targeted e-mail pitches like Amazon.com and J. Crew."
Can we trust Time Magazine? I do believe we can! They're a highly
trusted magazine and have been for years and years. Time is clearly
going on the record of saying that permission e-mail marketing is one of the most valuable means of making sales on the Internet, but only if done properly.
In the words of Stephen Mahaney, "If you have yet to 'correctly'
integrate 'permission email marketing' into your online business plan,
then you risk being thwarted by your competitors that do. It's just
that plain and simple."
So, while spam e-mail should always remain locked tightly in a closet (NEVER to be let out), permission e-mail marketing is a crucial way for you to keep in touch with your customers and those interested in your products or services.
Let's look at five effective permission e-mail marketing strategies, tips that many Webmasters fail to do, and they ultimately lose business because of it.
1. If someone writes for information on your goods or services,
save those e-mail addresses! Remember that sales aren't always made the
first time someone hears of a service or product. One trusted source
told me that you have to hear about a product, service, or company at
least twenty times before you begin to trust that company enough to do
business with them.
2. Set up an online form where people can sign up with their names
and e-mail addresses to receive a copy of your monthly or quarterly
newsletter or updates to your site, or to ask you questions. Have the
information go straight into a database that contains the e-mail
addresses of everyone who has written to you for information. Then,
create a newsletter that is not just a sales pitch for your products
and services. Offer valuable tips to your potential customers. Give the
newsletter true value, and those potential customers will begin to look
forward to hearing from you. Then, when it's time for them to purchase
the types of goods or services that you offer, who do you think they'll
go to? The company they can trust: you!
3. Respond to your e-mail or to the questions asked on the form
within 24 hours, if not sooner. When people go online looking for
something, they usually send e-mail out to 5-6 companies. If your
company is the first to respond, and if you've taken the time to answer
the questions professionally and thoughtfully, you'll have a jump over
those other companies, many of which won't even answer the e-mail at
all.
4. Always provide a way to "opt-out" of your e-mail list. Make it
very clear how your subscribers can choose not to receive the
newsletter or e-mail any longer, and then immediately unsubscribe them
when they write to you. Remember: having permission to send the e-mail
in the first place by only adding those who have contacted you and
expressed an interest in your product, and giving those people a way to
get off your mailing list, will differentiate you from the millions of
e-mail spammers that have given e-mail marketing such a bad name.
5. Take time in creating your subject line for your e-mail marketing
campaign. Make sure it doesn't sound "spammy" in any way. Including
your name or company name is a possibility, as well as describing the
focus of the e-mail. With these new e-mail programs that combat spam,
if you use a subject line like, "We've got GREAT news for you!" or "Hi,
Friend!," you can expect the email to be deleted without ever making it
to your potential customer.
How can you learn effective permission e-mail marketing strategies?
Stephen Mahaney attributes much of his online success to effective permission e-mail marketing.
He's even gone so far as to write a course on the subject, which I've
personally reviewed. It offers a step-by-step approach on how to create
an effective permission e-mail marketing
list and how to market to that list. The course even comes packaged
with a full version software program for merging each message with the
people on your list so they'll each get a personalized e-mail.
So, with Time Magazine pushing the importance of e-mail marketing
to the forefront of marketing online, here's information about
Stephen's "Business Guide to Permission Email Marketing" course and
software: http://www.email-solutions.com
How effective is permission e-mail marketing?
Traditionally,permission e-mail marketing
campaigns result in a significantly higher response rate than
traditional direct marketing or other forms of online advertising, such
as banner ads. According to FindMoreBuyers.com, the response rate for a typical permission e-mail marketing campaign is 4-12%, where as the response rate for a banner ad is .5-1%. Quite a difference. http://findmorebuyers.com/page.cfm/205
According to Emarketer.com, DoubleClick projects that e-mail marketing
budgets will increase by 17.0% in 2002, which is nearly twice the rate
of other types of online marketing, which are expected to gain 9.0%.
TV, print and radio budgets are all expected to decrease. Not only
that, DoubleClick reports that 61% of marketers plan to increase their e-mail marketing budget in 2002.
Forrester Research estimates that the total spending for e-mail marketing services in the United States will reach $2 billion by the end of this year. http://www.emarketer.com/products/report.php ?email_mktg&PHPSESSID=f564eda06be98116905028b857b834c4
So, hit while the iron is hot, and permission e-mail marketing is certainly "hot" right now! Learn how to use it effectively, and then watch those profits increase!
About The Author
Robin Nobles is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine
Workshops with John Alexander. They teach 2-day beginner, 3-day
advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive "hands on" search engine marketing
workshops in locations across the globe. She also teaches online search
engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com,
and she’s a member of Wordtracker’s official question support team.
With partner John Alexander, she's co-authored a series of e-books
called, "The Totally Non-Technical Guides to Having a Successful Web
Site." And, they opened a networking community for search engine
marketers called The World Resource Center for Search Engine Marketers.
robin@searchengineworkshops.com
We hope you found the information on this page useful and will return often to browse
the many articles throughout our site. We will be adding new material on an ongoing
basis in order to keep our visitors up to date on the latest promotion and marketing
information and tools that allow so many marketers to earn a full time living on the
internet.
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