Getting Results with E-mail Marketing

... From Biz2Biz NWA January 2009

Part One: 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: last year, according to Forrester Research, e-mail messages outnumbered all other forms of business communication combined. No wonder. E-mail is the fastest and most economical method of direct communication. At the same time, “e-mail fatigue” caused by stuffed electronic in-boxes and increasing spam can lead to quick use of the delete button before messages are even read.

The same Forrester report found that today’s computer users are 47% less likely to read all the e-mail they receive than those surveyed in the year 2000.

What does this mean for e-mail marketing?

Quite simply, your e-mail marketing has to reach a higher standard now than in the past. It has to embody the three E’s: Ethical, Effective, Economical.

Ethical.
You may not be thinking in terms of ethics when you plan your marketing campaign, but you are certainly concerned that your prospects–or their e-mail service providers–will banish your mass e-mailing to their junk mail folders. Ethical e-mail practices are the best defense.

Buying an e-mail address list or harvesting e-mail addresses from third-party sources seems like a quick and easy way to generate leads, but it is ineffective. When recipients don’t recognize your name, they are likely to identify your communication as spam before they even read it. If enough people identify your mailing as spam, you can face consequences: suspension of your account, for example, or identification of your e-mail address as a source of spam, making it useless for future contacts.

Instead, restrict your e-mail campaigns to those who would actually like to hear from you: your current customers – people who have signed up for your mailing list at your website, in your office, or at your vendor’s table – people who shook your hand and gave you their cards.

Then make sure your mailings include an opt-out sentence: something like “To unsubscribe from this newsletter, click here” or “If you’d rather not be included in future mailings, click this link.” Don’t worry that making it easy will lead people to unsubscribe. Research has shown that being given a clear choice actually encourages people to stick with you, since they know that you will respect their wishes.

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.