Frequently Asked Questions – Email Marketing
What are a couple of tips or advice for someone who is planning to offer email marketing to their clients?
1. Simplify: Graphics and Design
2. Strive to enhance and not overpower the central message that you or your client needs to convey.
3. Keep it beautiful!
Considering the internet marketing channels available to clients today, does email marketing have a growing, or diminishing importance alongside tactics such as social media, or word of mouth? Does email marketing compliment other marketing tactics? We’re in the business of helping our clients clearly communicate with their audience(s). Whether a service or a product, it is important for them to get the word out.
With technology changing so fast and opinions changing even faster, what is cool now, will likely be passe not too long from now. The one thing you can count on being the same, is the need for companies to reach out and stay connected with their customers. One of the best ways for a company to increase sales is to keep an open dialogue with people who bought from them before. Email marketing gives them a quick and inexpensive option of doing just that.
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating specific messages to your customer or potential customers.
How often should I send an email newsletter to my customers?
Sending a newsletter to your customer is based on what your customers expect and what you can realistically do. Monthly, bi-monthly or weekly, works just as long as you can “keep up the pace.”
What about content development?
Customers are thirsty for communications that are relevant. Content is king. Because email can be the most frequent and often the only touch point customers have with your business, it is critical to execute email using proven best practices. This is a rich tool for the entire organization to learn from customers and engage them in a much more relevant way.
What is permission based marketing?
Permission marketing is a method of advertising via e-mail whereby the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. The system is intended to result in a high degree of satisfaction between consumers and marketers. If opt-in e-mail advertising is used, the material that is e-mailed to consumers will be "anticipated". It is also assumed that the consumer wants to receive it, which makes it unlike unsolicited advertisements sent to the consumer. Ideally, opt-in e-mail advertisements will be more personal and relevant to the consumer than untargeted advertisements.
A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to an advertising firm’s customers. Such newsletters inform customers of upcoming events or promotions, or new products. In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive the newsletter.
What is RSS?
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. What it means to you is that when you subscribe to a site that has an RSS feed, you can keep up-to-date without having to check the site every day or week.
It can be used to get news feeds from a specific website. It is like having the favorite parts of the web to come to you. No need to go out and check for updates.
It allows users to skim new headlines from all of their favorite Web site and blogs, using a single web browser window. To do so, users must access a downloadable RSS reader that works within the web browser: RSS is a panacea for those afflicted with information overload. It is being likened to Tivo for the web.
Besides convenience, RSS readers allow users to avoid the spam they encounter when reading newsletters in their email inboxes as well as annoying pop-up and banner ads.
