It is important to note that there are two types of email marketing. One can either send unsolicited email promotions or send out emails only to persons who have requested to receive them. Unsolicited email is, of course, called spam. Sending spam is guaranteed to ruin any legitimate organization’s reputation. Rule number one of becoming an intelligent email marketer is to 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. Let’s take a second to understand the key difference between spam and permission based emails...
The Axiom of Value
For the last 100 years, companies have relied on traditional advertising in the form of catchy jingles, TV commercials, billboards, print ads in newspapers and magazines, direct mail, hot air balloons, and waving mascots. The technique is to interrupt a radio listener, TV viewer, or magazine reader with an attention grabbing ad that compels the consumer to buy the company’s product or at least have the product closer to the forefront of his or her mind next time the individual is making a buying decision.
In most instances, advertising is acceptable to the consumer. Most people don’t mind seeing ads while watching television, listening to the radio, or reading magazines—or at least they understand that these ads are necessary in order to receive the content they are seeing, reading, or hearing. While technologies like TiVo, DVR, and satellite radio are challenging advertisers to come up with new methods of advertising, other technologies such as Internet television require users to watch a 30second advertisement prior to the start of a show. The point is, as long as value is provided, consumers will be willing to be exposed to a few advertisements.
This same axiom holds true online. As long as your web site provides content that people value, visitors will continue returning to the site even if there are a few banner ads or Google AdWords boxes within the page layout. While some web sites, such as The Wall St. Journal (http://www.WSJ.com), have successfully switched to a subscription-based model, many more web sites rely on banner, box, skyscraper, and contextual advertisements to earn the bulk of their income.
The same axiom, that as long as value is provided, consumers will be willing to be exposed to a few advertisements, also holds true with email. As long your message provides value—whether by providing content on a topic a recipient is interested in or a discount off a product related to one purchased previously—people will allow you to continue to contact them. Each and every email you send should contain your logo, information on your products and services, and links to your web sites. These items are the advertising and should be surrounded on all sides by the items which make the communication actually add value to the lives of your readers.
Spam however, by its very nature, breaks the axiom. Unsolicited bulk email very rarely has any value to the recipient. Spam is usually irrelevant, always impersonal, and rarely helpful. Everyone with an email inbox knows how aggravating it is to sort through forty new emails to only find two that are from people you know. While spam may make money for people in promoting fake Cialis, I feel strongly that sending spam will always have a net negative impact on any legitimate organization.
For this reason, we strongly recommend only sending permission-based email, also known as optin email. permission-based email marketing can be an extremely effective way to increase visitortosale conversion rates, build strong relationships with your customers, and turn your onetime 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.
The nature of permission marketing—building a relationship with a prospect or expanding the relationship with an existing customer over time—allows you to concentrate on the prospects and customers who are really interested in what you have to sell and are more than willing to become repeat customers.
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. This process is reviewed below.
- Start using a permission-based email software such as EZMM 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. I 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 signup 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.
- Choose a good email template by using a template provided within the email software, having your inhouse team create one, or using the custom design services of the email software company. EZMM business edition provides over 300 design templates within the software that can be used free of charge and can also develop a custom template for a nominal charge.
- 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.