|
What is permission-based email marketing?
There are two types of email marketing - unsolicited email promotions or emails sent to persons who have requested to receive them. Unsolicited email is often called spam. Sending spam can ruin a legitimate organization's reputation and brand value. Intelligent email marketers do not send unsolicited email.
Permission-based email marketing, on the other hand, is used effectively everyday by hundreds of thousands of organizations to build the value of their brands, increase sales, and strengthen the relationships they have with their clients and subscribers. The key difference, of course, is that these senders are only sending messages to persons who have requested to receive them.
Why Use Permission-Based Email Marketing?
When done correctly, email marketing can be an extremely powerful and effective marketing technique. It's a medium that allows a buyer and seller to freely communicate with one another and build a relationship based on value and trust. When done incorrectly, however, email marketing can be destructive, erode brand equity, and turn away previously happy clients. It is for this reason that you must ensure you send only permission- based email communications to your subscribers.
What is the difference between spam and permission-based emails?
As long as your web site provides content that people value, visitors will continue returning to the site. The same holds true for email - as long as value is provided, consumers will be willing to be receive email. Providing value - whether by providing content on a topic a recipient is interested in or a discount off a product related to one purchased previously - will allow you to continue to contact your subscribers.
Permission-based email is also known as opt-in email, and can be an extremely effective way to increase visitor-to-sale conversion rates, build strong relationships with your customers, and turn your one-time buyers into lifetime product evangelizers who recommend your organization to everyone they know. Permission-based email marketing allows companies to develop and sustain relationships with their prospects and consumers by creating value. Permission marketing is about "turning strangers into friends and friends into customers".
Unsolicited bulk email (spam) very rarely has any value. Spam is usually irrelevant, always impersonal, and rarely helpful.
The Five-Step Process of Permission Email Marketing:
There is a simple five-step process in putting a successful permission-based email marketing campaign in place.
- Start using a permission-based email marketing service that allows you to easily create newsletters, automatically manage subscribes, unsubscribes, bounces, and view reporting statistics like opens and click-throughs.
- Decide on the type and frequency of email communication you will be sending. We recommend sending at least a monthly newsletter. You can certainly send multiple newsletters if you sell different types of products. You can also send promotional messages offering a discount or coupon for a product or service.
- Add a sign-up form to your web site so you can start collecting subscribers and import any existing lists of subscribers that have already requested your communications. It is generally also safe to import the names of anyone who has done business with you in the past year, provided you will be sending content relevant to what they purchased.
- Create a good email template by having your in-house team create one or using the custom design services of a design company.
- Develop quality relevant content for your newsletter or message and send it out to your list. Continue sending your newsletters, announcements, or promotions with consistent frequency. As your list grows, you will notice increased traffic (and if applicable, increased sales) on the day of and the days following an email send.
By providing quality relevant content you will succeed in keeping your brand mindshare at the front of the mind of your customers and cement strong relationships with your subscribers.
Do's and Don'ts of Opt-In List Building
Marketing to a permission-based email list is a proven, cost-effective way to increase revenue and improve customer loyalty. How do you grow your own opt-in email list? The following are five things to do and five things to avoid. Keep all in mind when building your list from the very beginning.
Do's:
- Leverage Existing Marketing Programs
No one can opt in if they don't know you have valuable information to share. Whenever you purchase or rent an email list, include within your campaign a link to the sign-up page on your Website. Similarly, include a link to your sign-up page wherever your company is listed on a partner or affiliate site. Place a PC displaying your sign-up page in your trade show booth. Radio ads should refer listeners to your Website. The key is to get them to your Website's sign-up page.
- Make it Easy to Opt In
Once people reach your site, make it as easy as possible to opt in. The link to your sign-up page should be very visible on your home page, jump page or other Web page. Evaluate if it can be on every page of your site. Embed input mechanisms directly on those pages. Signing up should take as little time as possible.
- Know Your Target Audience
When someone opts in, request (or force-ask) a limited number of demographic questions, such as company name, industry or physical location. You can also include a survey to gauge interests directly within your emails. Understand where people are coming from so you can make adjustments as needed for future communications or promotions. One of the best resources for helping you expand your opt-in list is your existing opt-in list! Take advantage of it.
- Consider the 4 Cs Clear. Concise. Compelling. Customer-centric.
When you write an email, put yourself in the reader's shoes and think, "Why shouldn't I hit the delete key right now?" Your readers are not opting in because they want to hear a sales pitch. They have a need - to save time, money or effort, and always, to improve productivity and success. Your message must be compelling enough to convince people to sign up, valuable enough to keep them wanting more, and useful enough to pass along.
- Pssst-Pass it On!"Word-of-mouth" works in the online world too, and it's called "viral marketing." A targeted, well-crafted and relevant message will be passed along. Your next job is to make it easy to forward your message to others, who will forward it to others, and so on. If your subscribers' peers like what they see, they will opt in too. Just be sure to include forward or subscribe instructions in every communication. Place a one-click "forward" link in every email you send.
Dont's:
- Offer Fabulous Prizes for Signing Up
While this might seem like a nice gesture, you'll end up with subscribers whose motivation is to win a prize, not to learn about useful information about your company and/or your products - in other words, "contest opportunists" who couldn't be further from your target audience. The prize will be the useful information that you provide!
- Deluge Your Subscribers with Too Many Emails
How much is too much? It just depends on the appropriateness, or timeliness, of your message. Set expectations. Let people know what they're in for before they hit the 'submit' button. After they've had time to digest the information, ask a sample from your list what is the 'right' number of emails; they'll let you know. Otherwise they'll let you know when it's too late-with an unsubscribe request.
- Be Everything To Everyone
Your sign-up messaging, as well as the information contained within every communication, should be focused and hit a nerve. Don't be afraid to address just one of your audience's needs at a time. Hit the crucial ones first, and save the rest for future email communications that will keep them on your list. If you're too generic, in hopes of getting more people to opt in, you'll end up being "nothing to everyone."
- Spend Too Much Money Acquiring Names
An opt-in list is a valuable asset - and that means an investment on your part to build and maintain it. But: budget appropriately and in advance. Find the most cost-effective vehicles for reaching your target audience and know how much it will cost you to acquire each name. Keep in mind potential revenue and lifetime value of each customer, and make recommendations accordingly.
- Live in a VacuumContinually view, read and explore how other companies - from competitors and partners, to businesses in completely different industries - build their opt-in lists. Most will use the same tried-and-true techniques, but you'll spot an occasional guerilla tactic that will inspire you to try something new- and it just might work for you too.
|
