Tweet

Effective Email Marketing Requires Planning

Guest post by: GT Bulmer

Article Overview: One key element of a successful Internet business is email marketing, and like other important aspects of an online business, effective email marketing requires planning. Experienced marketers know the value of marketing with email, but not every online marketer is doing it, or doing it effectively. If you have an email campaign in place, then you are way ahead of the unfortunate businesses that do not.

Effective Email Marketing Requires Planning

One key element of a successful Internet business is email marketing, and like other important aspects of an online business, effective email marketing requires planning.

Experienced marketers know the value of marketing with email, but not every online marketer is doing it, or doing it effectively. If you have an email campaign in place, then you are way ahead of the unfortunate businesses that do not.

Email is one of the main attractions that draws people to the Internet. Even if they do little else online, they will check their email. And even if they know little else about computers or about using the Internet, they know how to collect, read and reply to email. It stands to reason, then, that people with email are a huge market to tap into.

To set up an email campaign, you will need:

- A website

- An autoresponder service, like GetResponse or AWeber

- An email opt-in form (can be created using one of the above services)

The first step in effective email marketing is collecting the email addresses of targeted prospects, people who are most likely interested in the products and services you are selling. These could be visitors who have been drawn to your website through various methods of marketing and promotion, or prospects that have landed on a 'lead capture page' that you have set up specifically to collect email addresses. This article will focus on the website model.

A point to note when collecting email addresses is that it is vitally important to collect this information only with the permission of the individual. It is inappropriate to send unsolicited emails; it may be illegal in some areas. If you do send a marketing email to someone without their permission, you risk getting blocked from their email and forever losing the opportunity to market to them.

The best way to get permission is by providing an opt-in form where it is the prospect’s choice to sign up to be on your list. Create a suitable opt-in form and post it on every page of your website. Always work on the principle that willing recipients are the best buyers.

Once they sign up or opt in to your list, you can then begin sending messages to them as often as you choose. However, since this is a privileged relationship, you should treat it with due respect. Do not overwhelm your prospects with a steady flood of sales offers. Spread your marketing messages out so they don’t arrive too frequently and become annoying to the recipient.

Which leads to the next step in your email campaign: creating value for your subscribers so they are happy to receive your emails.

One popular way to get people to opt in to your list is to provide a sign-up incentive such as a free eBook or report or series of informative newsletter articles. Some marketers offer free software. Whatever the incentive is, it is best if it is related to your marketing theme or niche.

A newsletter article series also works well to keep people interested in staying as subscribers, as long as the articles offer true value and are not just thinly disguised product promos or advertisements. Informative, niche-related articles are a good idea because they help to balance the marketing messages and sales offers that you will be sending.

Finally, always be alert to the needs and interests of your subscribers. Promptly answer any questions or concerns they may express, and acknowledge them with sincere appreciation when they do purchase something from you. Show them that you are personable and approachable.

Running an effective email marketing campaign can be a 'trial and error' process where you test different styles of opt-in forms, different types of sign-up incentives and newsletter articles, and different intervals of sending email messages to your subscribers. If you plan well and monitor it regularly, you will eventually come up with a winning mix that creates value for everybody involved.

Related Articles
  Strategic Email Actions For Effective Marketing, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  E is for Email Marketing
  Killer Emails For Your "Home Based Online Business Opportunity"
  Business Growth Through Strategic Email Marketing, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Email Marketing Avoid Becoming Spam
  Some Advanced Internet Affiliate Marketing Strategies That Equal Success
  Small Business Email Marketing - Finding Gold in a Down Economy
  Why email marketing is the right answer for your business
  “The Top Ten Reasons Strategic Planning Meetings Fail, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  Succession planning myths and realities
  Crafting Your Email Marketing Campaign
  An Advanced Look at Affiliate Marketing Strategies
  The Guide to Successful Email Marketing
  12 Strategic Questions To Ask Before Starting New Marketing Activity, From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  “Eight Key Characteristics For A Strategic Planning Facilitator, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  Enrich Your Customer Information With Data Appending
  5 Secrets To Gain Insight To Successful Email Marketing Trends
  “Six Strategic Steps To Improve Your Emails, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  Seven Benefits Of Strategic Thinking And Planning For A New Year According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Business Email Marketing Ideas

Article Tags: autoresponder, effective email marketing, email campaign, home business, internet marketing



Related Forum Posts
Different Hats - CEO Sales & Marketing & Leadership Development Company Strategic Vision 10 Alliances & Growth Strategies 10 Hiring & Managing People 8 Mentoring 8-9 Strategic Planning for Clients 10 Execution of Marketing Campaigns 9-10 (i have great people who do the nitty gritty) Financial Management 9 Bookkeeping 3 (outsourced as I really hate the fine details like GST0 Administrative Follow Up 6-7 (again have great staff) Writing & Publishing 9 (getting better all the time!) Speaking 10 (so I have been told) Self Promotion 9-10 Web development & Promotion 6-7 (learning more and have brought on players who are 10+) Babysitting Employees (1 - wont do it, that's why I work so hard to hire and motivate the people I have) Great topic Kevin!! Jude
Re: My 3 best business books - 1. Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill 2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey 3. Permission Marketing - Seth Godin Think and Grow Rich seems more powerful each time I read it or dip into it. The 7 Habits not only offers some very effective ways to organize your life (which I have yet to master!), but also some great quotations and thought provoking statements including this by Nazi concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl: [i:2naxzsom]Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.[/i:2naxzsom] Seth Godin's Permission Marketing is a good read for anybody seeking to understand how to approach doing business on the Internet in the right way with regard to winning people's trust.
Re: Email marketing strategy - Email Marketing is successful only when you get a good list of targeted people. However, some people consider it as spam. It can work wonders for you if you have selected the appropriate list of people.
Why should I hire a virtual assistant for SEO purposes? - Do you find it hard to find time for rest because of promoting your business or your website all by yourself? Well, perhaps it is the right time for you to hire the services of an SEO virtual assistant. Virtual assistants for SEO services will help you on the process of improving your rankings within search engine results to achieve an increase in natural traffic. The higher your site in the search engine results page, the more traffic and sales conversions you will obtain. Using the services of virtual assistants (VAs) certainly is the best method to move in order immediate results and in reduced operational charges. This provides a great answer especially for a small business owner whoever company is actually considerably expanding, and the jobs have normally doubled. Here are some of the services that a virtual assistant can do for you: • Traffic Geyser • Main Street Marketing • Data Entry • Web Research • Market Samurai • Managing Facebook • Managing Twitter • SEO • Local Business Listing Robot • Traffic Revolution • Infusionsoft • Senuke • Angela’s Banklink • Linkjuicer • Blogging • SMM • Virtual Assistant • Personal Assistant • Article Writing • Spinning Article • Press release • Email Response Handling • Online Order Processing • Word Processing • Forum/Comment Posting • Social Bookmarking • Video Editor • Internet Marketing • Email Marketing • Link Building • Powerpoint Presentations • Web Development • Other Administrative Support
Web magazine publisher - My duties 1) Research the articles that goes into each of my webzines - science fiction in all media, various sports (Yay, Lady Vols, 8th championship in 2008, by the way!) 2) Write the articles 3) Format and upload them to the web 4) Email and network various contacts to get out the word that new articles are available. 5) Email authors, actors, etc. etc. to see if they want to do interviews. 6) Advertise for more contributors - and then edit and upload their material!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Leading from Authenticity is a Beautiful Thing

Rumor Has It

Are You Reaching Out?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.