Archive for March, 2010

ATTN: SMALL BIZ OWNERS. Email Marketing

Is Low Cost, Targeted, Measurable, Effective.

E-Marketing blog: http://helpamericaspeople.com/EWP/

 

The mission of this blog, started by the Founders of www.helpamericaspeople.com, is to raise awareness of the most cost-effective marketing tool for Small Business owners like you   >>>  EMAIL MARKETING

 

What are Tactics?  Think of tactics as your daily To Do list or daily Production Schedule.  Tactics are the day-to-day activities associated with executing a Strategy.  To be an effective tactician you need to be detail-oriented and a multi-tasker because there are several “moving parts” to implementing an email marketing campaign — whether you’re sending a simple, promotional email postcard or a monthly email newsletter.

Fictional Scenario:  Let’s say you’re a self-employed Financial Consultant.  One of your primary strategies for finding new clients is to offer a two-hour breakfast  seminar — on a quarterly basis.  You charge a small fee — $75.00 — to cover your expenses of renting a meeting room at a local hotel and providing a continental breakfast to attendees.  (Free seminars have a high no-show rate.)

We’ll also assume you already have a good list of clients and prospects in an Excel spreadsheet; your list is segmented into clients and prospects and includes contact information, i.e., name, business name, mailing address and email address. Important:  You also have permission from each of your contacts to send them e-mails!!

For each seminar, you’ve decided to send a total of six emails to your clients and prospects to get them to sign-up for your seminar.  You’ll be sending an email postcard on the following schedule: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 week prior to your  seminar.  If you have a total of 500 clients and prospects on your list, you’ll be sending out a total of 3,000 emails during the six-week period.

The tactics to implement this strategy include:

1) List Management – be certain the list is “clean” – no duplicates, no incomplete email addresses.  And, don’t forget to segment your list by clients and prospects.

2)  Copy – your message to your clients will be different from your message to prospects (you have a personal relationship with your clients).  Be sure your copy has one or more benefits that each attendee will receive by attending your seminar.  

3) Email Design – there are virtually thousands of free HTML, 4-color email templates available on the internet that you can use.  No need to have any programming knowledge.

4) Deployment – this is the actual sending of the email.  Just like you write and send personal and business emails everyday, you can send 10, 100, 1000 and more in bulk.  How do you go about sending out hundreds or thousands of emails?  Watch the video at  http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jspo for a good overview of the tasks involved in implementing an email campaign.  (Click on the button on the left side of the page — labeled Email Marketing – See How It Works.)  You may want to sign up for the 60-day Free Trial to determine if you have the time and computer skills to work with a company like Constant Contact.  They make the process user-friendly and they offer customer support– but the details will take up your time because it’s essentially a Do It Yourself service. 

Also, consider their pricing model.  They advertise as low as $15 per month, but you can only send out 500 emails a month!!

Another alternative is to work with a small email marketing services company that will handle all the details for a monthly fee – with no restrictions on monthly deployment volume.  All you need to do is be available for approvals of the strategy and schedule, copy and design.  Check out a full-service email marketing services option available by visiting http://www.helpamericaspeople.com/E/default.html.*

Deployment is not the final step in an email marketing campaign.  You won’t come full circle without Tracking and Analysis.  This is the invaluable benefit of email marketing.  Within 48 hours, you’ll know what worked and what didn’t work.  You’ll be a much smarter marketer the next time out.  Email tracking and analysis will be covered in our April 9 blog.

*Full disclosure:  this blogger is a co-founder of the email marketing service located at http://www.helpamericaspeople.com/E/default.html.

 

Next post:  Creating an Email Marketing Calendar

 

ATTN: SMALL BIZ OWNERS. Email Marketing

Is Low Cost, Targeted, Measurable, Effective.

E-Marketing blog: http://helpamericaspeople.com/EWP/

 

The mission of this blog, started by the Founders of www.helpamericaspeople.com, is to raise awareness of the most cost-effective marketing tool for Small Business owners like you   >>>  EMAIL MARKETING

 

If you’ve found this posting without reading our previous postings, please visit http://helpamericaspeople.com/EWP/.  In order to develop effective strategies to meet your business goals and objectives, you MUST spend considerable time on the following tasks, which are addressed in our previous blogs: 

 

1) Identify qualitative and quantitative goals for your business – at a minimum for the next 12 months

2) Analyze the current situation - what is the status of your industry –  growing, declining, flat?  what are the economic, regulatory and technological trends?

3) Identify your major competitors and learn everything you can about them – check their websites, join their mailing list (under a fictitious name); what are their strengths and weaknesses?

4) Identify your target customer(s) and divide them into segments possessing similar characteristics (buzzword alert: segment your audience), such as demographics like gender, household income, zip code and psychographics such as purchasing patterns, purchasing behavior, etc. 

 

You should put in a minimum of 40 hours

gathering this vital information.

 

I know what you’re thinking: “I don’t have time for this.  I’m running my business!!  BE FORWARNED:  This research exercise is CRITICAL to the ongoing viability of your business.  Why not hire a college student majoring in marketing.  Pay them a fair hourly wage.  This “real-world” project will be a valuable addition to their resume! Give him or her direction and review their work frequently to keep them focused.  Just don’t rationalize that you’ve been in business for __ years without writing a marketing plan.  Given the discouraging rate of failure among U.S. small businesses, you need to write a marketing plan to ensure you won’t be a statistic in the U.S. government’s small business failures data!!

OK, I’ve either convinced you or you’re just about ready to click on the “X” in the top right corner (or top left if you’re using a MAC).

If you’re still with me, once you’ve completed the information-gathering stage, based on the knowledge and insight you’ve gained plus your already wealth of knowledge about the business you’re in, it’s now time to develop your strategies.  And, since this blog is focused on email marketing, you’ll need to consider the frequency, format and content when developing your email strategies:

 

1) Since permission-based email is the most cost-effective marketing strategy for your small business: to build awareness, to begin and nurture a relationship between your business and your customers (current and past) and prospects, to generate leads and to make sales — Use it, but Don’t Overuse it!!

If you have relevant and interesting content, plus offers of interest to your audience, you can send your permission-based email list a weekly email (at minimum you’ll have two messaging versions — one to customers and one to prospects).  A good frequency is twice a month, but again the content must be of value to your email recipients.  Even once a month is better than nothing. 

IMPORTANT: Maintain the Frequency; there’s nothing worse on the internet than a website or blog left idle. Or even worse, getting your customers and prospects to sign up for your free enewsletter, then not meeting your promise to deliver valuable content and offers every month.  This could actually damage your reputation, so honor your commitments.  Contract the writing to a freelancer.  Pay them per newsletter and you can be certain they’ll meet the deadline each and every month.

Ultimately, you’ll know the desired email frequency by carefully monitoring email performance data, i.e., clicks, click throughs, leads, sales, unsubscribes, etc.

 

2)  Determine the Type (s) of emails to send

Short Form, often called an E-blast or Email postcard

In many cases, all the content in these emails appear “above the fold,” i.e., recipients do not have to cursor down to read the entire email.  This type of email usually includes some editorial, however, this format is generally promotional.  Potential offers: print out the attached coupon, attend a special event or conference, enter a contest, take a course.  This type of email can achieve several objetives:  drive traffic to your website, generate qualified leads, build a relationship with readers by keeping your business name “top of mind.” 

Another good use of the short form is to send a survey to your customers and prospects on a quarterly basis.  You’ll gain invaluable insight into how these audiences perceive your product or service, your customer service, preferred content and frequency.  Offer an incentive for them to fill out the survey and email it back to you, i.e., special price discount, free e-book on a relevant topic, eligibility to enter a contest or drawing, etc. 

Less is more in the short form.  Keep the copy at a minimum and be sure to include a Call to Action.  Every customer needs to be told what action to take after reading an email, i.e., fill out the contact form, purchase your product online, visit your store and receive a 20% discount, etc.

 

Long Form -Enewsletter

CONTENT — informational and relevant — is King in this format.  Remember, in this format you want to maintain the readers’ interest and address their needs and concerns.  What information can you provide in your enewsletter to solve the readers’ problems.  In this bloggers opinion, the minimum ratio of informational content to promotional content in an enewsletter should be 75-25.

Enewsletters should be sent at least on a monthly basis.  Providing valuable information to your readers will build credibility and trust in your business.  If you build a relationship through an ongoing dialogue, when the customer or prospect is in need of your product or service, the likelihood they will do business with you is high.

 

 Next post:  Developing Email Marketing Tactics 

  

 

ATTN: SMALL BIZ OWNERS. Email Marketing

Is Low Cost, Targeted, Measurable, Effective.

E-Marketing blog: http://helpamericaspeople.com/EWP/

 

The mission of this blog, started by the Founders of www.helpamericaspeople.com, is to raise awareness of the most cost-effective marketing tool for Small Business owners like you   >>>  EMAIL MARKETING

 

Writing an Email Marketing Plan:  Situation Analysis

Once you’ve set your email marketing objectives for the next year (click here to read March 2 post) http://helpamericaspeople.com/EWP/, you’ll need to take a step back in order to conduct vital and invaluable research. Only when you’ve done due diligence in three significant areas can you develop relevant, effective and actionable email marketing strategies that will achieve your objectives — both qualitative and quantitiative.

Analyzing the Current Situation

1.  What is the state of your industry?  Is it growing, declining or are sales flat?  Are companies in your industry using email marketing techniques?

2.  Learn as much as you can about what your 3 or 4 major competitors are doing to generate awareness and sell their products and services using online marketing techniques (web site, enewsletters, etc).  If they have a website, review it carefully and frequently.  Get on their mailing lists for promotional emails and/or an email newsletters.  Use a unique email address to ensure your anonymity.

3.  Who are your target customers?  Whether your target audience is consumers or businesses, or both, your success depends on how well you know your customers’ needs (problems).  Then you can convince them that your business has the solution. 

But, knowing your customers’ needs is only half the journey.  You need to build and maintain an ongoing relationship (dialogue) with them. Your company’s visibility with your customer base, as well as your prospects, is paramount.  They need to hear from you at least twice a month to keep your business name at a high level of awareness. And there’s no more cost-effective method for staying in touch than ongoing email marketing campaigns.

Where do you start?  First, a lot of information is in your head.  Put it down on paper using the 7- step outline from this blog. Click here to view March 2 post:  http://helpamericaspeople.com/EWP  Then complete the outline using primary and secondary research.

Talking to your customers and prospects is called primary research.  Send them a short survey via email and give them a gift for completing the survey (discount on their next purchase, white paper, etc.) Find out what they like and dislike about your product or service and how you can make improvements.  Knowing your customers’ needs and opinions is the single most vital marketing information you’ll ever have. 

Secondary research consists of learning from other published sources.  We’re all fortunate to have a major library’s wealth of information and resources at the click of a mouse.  Begin by typing ”Email Marketing for Small Businesses” at www.google.com.

Next post: Developing Email Marketing Strategies 

 

ATTN: SMALL BIZ OWNERS. Email Marketing

Is Low Cost, Targeted, Measurable, Effective.

E-Marketing blog: http://helpamericaspeople.com/EWP/

 

The mission of this blog, started by the Founders of www.helpamericaspeople.com, is to raise awareness of the most cost-effective marketing tool for Small Business owners like you >>> EMAIL MARKETING

Why Email Marketing?

Few will disagree that the internet has taken its place among the greatest communications inventions in the history of the world:  the printing press, the telegraph, the telephone and television. The internet has leveled the business playing field.  Building a communications network in your home or small business office is now very affordable.  User-friendly, low-cost hardware and software are abundant.  With a well-thought out marketing strategy and nearly flawless execution, you can compete with the big guys.

There are many types of online marketing — search engine marketing, link building, banner advertising, search engine optimization, social media marketing and affiliate marketing.  This blog is dedicated to what we believe is the most cost-effective type of online marketing:  Email Marketing. As a marketing communications tool, email marketing gives you the most bang for your marketing buck.

With email marketing, you can stay in touch with your customers and prospects at a very low cost — providing them with relevant and interesting articles, white papers, how-to advice, tips, informational newsletters, along with special offers/coupons.  Since your customers and prospects have either already done business with you or inquired about your product or service, they’re highly likely to open emails from you.

Job#1:  Creating Your Email Marketing Plan

As an entrepreneur, you’re spending two of your most valuable assets: your time and money. You don’t want to squander them.  The best chance you have to be successful is to be rigorous about creating a written document that lays out your plan for success and continued growth — your business plan.  If you need help developing your business plan, visit the Small Business Association at www.sba.gov for free business plan templates.

One of the single most important sections in a Business Plan is the Marketing Plan.  In the Marketing Plan you will set objectives, strategies and tactics for each media vehicle you will use to build awareness of your business and ultimately sell your product (s) and service (s).  Media vehicles may include newspapers, magazines, trade publications, television, radio, billboards, signage, direct mail, public relations…and more.

This blog will stay narrowly focused on using Email Marketing to achieve your business ojectives.

Components of Your E-Mail Marketing Plan:

1.  Set Your Objectives

2.  Analyze the Situation

-Industry trends

-Competition

-Target Audience

3.  Develop Strategies to Achieve Objectives

>>>Remember, CONTENT is king on the internet!!!

4.  Create & Maintain an Email Marketing Calendar

5.  Execute the Plan (Tactics)

6.  Track & Measure Everything You Do

7.  Analyze Results, Make Adjustments to the Strategy

Setting Your Business Objectives

Your business objectives should cover a minimum of one year.  Don’t go through the exercise of writing your plan then put it in your desk drawer.  Review it every month and tweak it, if necessary.

Email marketing can help you achieve any or all of the following types of business goals:

• Increase your offline (storefront) sales
• Generate more qualified leads
• Gain registrants for your online seminars
• Generate subscribers to your enewsletter
• Increase direct sales from your website
• Drive more traffic to your website
• Keep your business on the mind of your customers and prospects
• Sell more to existing customers
• Turn prospects into customers

Some of these objectives may be relevant to your business, others may not.  No one knows your business objectives better than you.  Instead of storing them in your head, write them down in your plan.  Be sure to make your goals both qualitative and quantitative, i.e., generate an additional 10 qualified leads each week; increase newsletter subscribers by 25% this year, add a part-time Marketing Assistant on staff by July 1, etc.

Next Post:  Analyzing the Situation