Have You Considered The Power Of Email Marketing
Old vs. New
If we consider that not so many years ago when we were selling products or services it was usual to make the phone call, engage the prospect in conversation then send a brochure. Even today most telesales people will tell you that they make approximately 100 calls per day. It varies form company to company but only a small subset of these people are spoken to. At least when they are an appropriate email can be sent to them and they will be directed to the online brochure vis--vis their website. The immediate communication is amazing and email takes immediate advantage as it can arrive even whilst the conversation is happening. No longer do you have to wait for the snail mail approach which will take on a good day 24hours but in reality up to 36 hours then arrange a follow-up.
Email Marketing
So what are the benefits of email marketing
Email marketing is rapidly becoming the primary leader for contacting prospects and clients.
Here are the main reasons why email marketing is a high priority for many organisations:
1. Its immediate - from idea to delivery can take less than 12 hours. Gone are the days when you had to get your creative agency to prototype a campaign, coming up with visuals that needed amending. These amendments alone took days to prepare. Once the artwork was completed you then had to wait for the finished item to go to the printers to be printed and then the finished mailer would then arrive some days afterwards. Once you had engaged the willing hands of people inside the companies they would then put all of the mailshot together and someone would be nominated to take it to the Post Office for the bulk discount. (I didnt like the taste of the envelopes that had to be stuck down!) Not surprisingly the old way has now become no way.
2. Cost with the noted absence of production and postal costs email campaigns are sought after as they are just so cost effective. It is possible to email up to 2500 emails for a s little as $30 per month. Simply put being this cost effective method available to large and small companies has become a no brainer.
3. Personalisation for every email campaign having a personalised mailshot means that you will get more attention. No longer is the Dear Sir/Madam or Dear Client an acceptable way to carry on. You can easily change and personalize mail shots either using titles or first name if appropriate.
4. Metrics This is possibly the most powerful weapon that todays marketer has. Understanding basics that would be impossible in the old days has proven to be very successful and appealing. Imagine that you can now establish:
a. who opened the mail,
b. what time they opened it,
c. if they clicked through to a web site and if so
d. which links were used.
Given all of these metrics you can now establish the warm clients and where their interests lie. Additionally you could take a view that if a certain email marketing offer was opened up on a regular basis or several times during the day then this would indicate specific interest. Armed with this knowledge you could then easily target those people who were active.
5. Testing Imagine that you can now test new ideas rapidly. Fortunately the feedback and open rate for each campaign can be understood and then adjusted easily before sending out a larger campaign.
6. Remain in touch communication is vital and building brand loyalty is essential. Sending out a email campaign t inform (a newsletter), a press release or an offer will help you to remain in touch with your market.
7. No need to understand HTML HTML is complex for most people, learning how to code before sending a campaign is not really going to grab the attention of most managers or marketers. Fortunately some highly customisable email templates can be used. Although there is a learning curve and it will take time becoming proficient in the technology should not be an inhibitor. Given that most people will pick up new skills quickly it shouldnt be long before you can change the colour, layout and import logos and styles that your recipients will recognise and also look forward to
Given that its not about if you decide that email marketing is for you its about when you decide. The rapid growth that email marketing is enjoying is perfectly understandable dont get caught out and wait forever you could be enjoying a new way to market. We can show you how to create a campaign and maximize results allowing you to benefit from more business and generate happy clients.
Mike Palman
No doubt one of the overriding concerns you have is getting good, targeted traffic to your site. Heck, even the gurus cant get too much good traffic. The key is not just getting traffic, but targeted traffic. You want visitors to your site who are hungry for what you have to offer. Weather it is a product, service, or information you have to offer, you want visitors that need it, folks who are immersed in your particular niche. The question is how to get them.
You have a number of choices. Some work pretty well, but cost money, like PPC advertising. What if you could get targeted traffic, people who lived and breathed your niche and would love to go to your site; and, what if you could get them to really want to go to your website Further more, suppose this huge pool of hungry visitors was free! Thats right, they would rush to your site and you wouldnt have to pay a dime!
Well, this source of targeted traffic exists, for almost every niche. Its in the thousands of internet forum sites. Some niches have dozens of forums. The regular forum visitors tend to be the most involved in the particular niche and the most likely to want more information from you. You can use postings in the forums to drive great traffic to your site. Even better, you can use forums to establish your credibility within a particular niche. You can become an authority, the one who people turn to for answers to their questions, and who gets more traffic than the recognized authority on a subject.
The key to using forums to drive traffic is participation. Thats right. You have to get off your duff, stop standing on the sidelines, just lurking in the forums, and actually post something. This is important for a few reasons. Three of the most important reasons are:
First, many forums will not allow you to post a link until you have a given number of posts on that forum.
Second, you want to be seen as an authority, not someone who is just there posting links to drive traffic to you website. In order to accomplish that, you have to post information that will help people solve their problems.
Third, and a very important reason to post, is that it can provide a link to your site; a link in. Google, Yahoo and many of the other search engines look for links in to determine relevance to a particular subject. The more links in you have, the higher you will place on the search engines. Being highly placed on the search engines practically guarantees targeted traffic.
Problem solving is important. You have to be a problem solver. People are looking to you to be a solution provider. If you are, they will reward you; gladly. Quality posts on the right forums will establish you as someone who has the answers. People love answers. It makes life easier for them. You can be that person who makes life easier for them. If you are that person who makes life easier, people will reward you. When you are, people will follow links to your site for the answers they are looking for and more information on a subject, product or service.
You can use forum postings to get subscribers to your opt-in list as well. You can post a sign-up link straight to your autoresponder. Alternatively, you can send folks to a landing page with your sign up form and some more information. If you use forums to gain list subscribers, make sure you abide by all the rules of the forum. You do not want to get banned from further posting.
You can also post problem solving affiliate links on the forum as well. If someone is looking for a particular product or service, and you are an affiliate for what they seek, help them out! Give them a way to easily solve their problems. You can put your affiliate link right in your post. Those seeking what you are offering will follow the link, buy the product and you will make your commission. It works great and doesnt cost you a cent!
Hopefully this can get you started to making money from forums. I use many of these techniques on a regular basis and they work great. You can too!
Steve Faber has been successfully marketing both on and off line for years. He has been a principal for a bricks n mortar business that grossed almost $2 million a year. He has been involved with several successful websites for both bricks n mortar and online businesses. You can get his free newsletter with great information to really grow your business at: