Email marketing: Still very much alive, well

The primary purposes of sending out email is to keep “top of mind” with your customers and prospects, to differentiate yourself by providing more useful information than your competitors and to sell goods or services from time to time.

Email is not going away anytime soon. Despite spam folders and governmental rules preventing its malicious usage, most recipients value information and appreciate when it’s substantive material they are getting for free. It is still one of the best, most-targeted marketing methods – providing a great return on investment and a solid way to build relationships with customers and increase their loyalty. And it’s remarkably measurable, where success and failure is as obvious as who clicked what, when.

You can mail to your list of customers and prospects (also called your “in-house mailing list” or database) or to rented lists or to both. You might segment your in-house list into special groups, such as your A list (repeat customers) or your C list (walk-ins/non-buyers). You might mail to your A list more frequently or send special offers just to them.

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Rented lists are per instance of use only – and typically are not as responsive as an in-house mailing list. That’s because you are talking to people who do not necessarily know your business when you send mail to a rented list; you have to warm them up.

What makes an email campaign work? The success of your emailing is based on these factors:

• Quality of the list.

• Appeal of your subject line.

• Strength of the piece’s visuals, layout and copy (the creative aspect).

• The offer(s) you make in the mailing.

• Timing of the drop (when it is sent out).

There are different types of emailers that work.

Consider these various approaches:

• Newsletter.

• Survey.

• Thank-you card.

• E-zine (a mini magazine).

• Special announcement (also called an “e-blast”).

• Shipping confirmations and other housekeeping messages, like reminders to renew and product updates.

• Promotional postcard.

It’s a good idea to have a content calendar for your email. Let’s say you send out a monthly newsletter. What will each issue contain? What will be the regular table of contents?

A car repair shop would do well to send an email newsletter to its past customers and leave a few printed out in the waiting area as well. The table of contents for this monthly (or quarterly) newsletter might include these regular columns:

• Maintenance tips for seasonal driving.

• A coupon for a tune up.

• A profile of a featured repair person.

• A “What is it?” column where you are asked to guess the name of a car part. All guesses can be posted on social media for a fun lift to the contest.

• Recall advisories.

• Neighborhood news – what other retailers in the area are doing.

You get the idea. Think about what your monthly content calendar could be. Your customers will actually look forward to receiving it if it’s well planned.

So you’re convinced. Email would be a great and welcome way to stay in touch with your target audiences. But you don’t have a writer or a designer on staff to pull this newsletter together.

Don’t worry: There are many low-cost resources to help you be a top-notch email publisher. They provide templates for you to fold short copy snippets into (right from Word) and places to easily upload visuals from your photo files. It comes together beautifully.

Email distribution resources include: Constant Contact (one of its five national offices is based right here in Loveland), Mail Chimp, Emma and IContact. The beauty of such distribution and template services is that not only do they seamlessly send to your provided lists, but they also supply metrics on the vitality of each mailing and the calls to action within it. Furthermore, they maintain the unsubscribed and undeliverable to ensure your list is 100 percent accurate, and then keep record of every mailing that went out – all in a few easy to use dashboards.

Bonus: these distribution services also integrate social media into your email. They include the visual prompts that encourage recipients to tell their friends on Facebook or Twitter about your services and they also suggest recipients pass the newsletter along to their friends.

Publicizing your email outside of your regular circle of recipients will surely help it grow. And who knows – it might even go viral!

Laurie Macomber, owner of Fort Collins-based Blue Skies Marketing, can be reached at [email protected] or 970-689-3000.