Effective and Economical E-mail Marketing

... From Biz2Biz NWA February 2009

Part Two: Effective and Economical E-mail Marketing

By Shan Pesaru / Sharp Hue / Springdale

E-mail is now the number one means of communication for business in the United States. To obtain results, your e-mail marketing has to embody the three E’s: Ethical, Effective, Economical.

Effective
There is nothing to stop you from sitting down with your e-mail program and shooting off a quick paragraph to your clients telling them about your upcoming sale. However, considering all the e-mail they receive, your message will need to catch and keep their attention, and they need to recognize that it comes from you.

Whether it is for e-mail campaigns, newsletters, company news, or special offers, your message must be compelling and reflect the professional image that gives your clients confidence. You need a plan to manage your lists and keep track of your results. Some¬times the best answer is a design template that ensures your brand will be recognizable in each message.

Another factor in the effectiveness of your email is how it looks to recipients using different computers or browsers. You may have had the experience of sending a document to a colleague who uses a Mac when you use a PC, and finding that the document looks quite different. This difference can show up even when it’s just a matter of using Firefox or Internet Explorer. A professional service can make certain that your mailing will look the way you want it to on your clients’ screens, no matter what computer, e-mail program, or browser they use.

With the amount of competition you have for your clients’ attention, the most effective e-mail campaign will involve the best quality e-mail. Make sure your communication is useful and enjoyable for your clients, and they will be glad to hear from you.

Economical
This is the first criterion for many businesspeople. E-mail marketing is quite simply the least expensive form of direct marketing available. Printing and mailing a black and white newsletter to a list of 5,000 prospective customers, assuming you get it print-ready your¬self, will cost you in the neighborhood of $3,000. An e-mail newsletter to the same size list can cost as little as $600 for design and $100 for delivery, using a professional service—the difference in the size of your investment is significant.

Even when you choose to go for direct mail, QED Market Research reports that following up with an e-mail push has been shown to increase conversion rates by as much as 50%, providing a significantly higher return on your investment.

Sharp Hue custom designed e-mail templates, for instance, allow you to send your own e-mail campaigns for $5.00 per campaign and two cents per e-mail address, with no monthly fees. The intrinsic savings of e-mail marketing can allow you to choose the full-service template design option without straining your budget. Additionally, campaign reporting capabilities like opens, clicks, and bounces give you instant insight into the overall effectiveness and ROI of each e-mail campaign you send.

Watching the three E’s will ensure that your e-mail marketing is fruitful, not a victim of e-mail fatigue.

Author/ expert Shan Pesaru has more than 12 years of web development experience. He is founder of Sharp Hue, a web design, web hosting, web marketing company working to stay ahead of the industry curve, and to continuously revolutionize the industry.