Email marketing is a tried and tested form of promotion that can win your company new clients and solidify the bond with existing customers. It is a cheap and effective way to build brand loyalty and generate business while at the same time, improving the relationship with your clients.
Customers are the lifeblood of any company. In very real terms, they are the reason you exist. Without customers, you would have no commerce – and without commerce, you will make no profit.
The importance of valuing your clients
Valuing your clients is an essential part of running any business, and one of the best ways to make a customer feel special is by maintaining regular, personalized contact.
Email marketing could be considered one very small part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – the art of managing the bond between client and company. If performed correctly, it can bring huge dividends and open your company up to a world of new opportunities.
Email campaigns also have possibly the highest Return on Investment (ROI) of any corporate promotions and marketing strategy since the associated costs are minimal – and, in smaller-scale campaigns, can often be free.
Managing your first email marketing campaign
The first and most important step in any email marketing campaign is to build a mailing list. Without a list of email addresses, you’re not going to get far with an email campaign!
Firstly, go through your company contacts and dig out all the email addresses you have on file. You could put these into a spreadsheet or, to save time, it’s possibly easier to add them directly into your email newsletter software of choice.
Next, you need to decide on your message. As this is your first mailer, you should keep things light – but informative – possibly some form of overview or introduction to your company and the fact you have started an email newsletter service.
Implied and express permissions
It’s also crucially important you highlight the option for users to be removed from your mailing list. This applies equally to any form of email campaign you go on to produce – you must allow users the ability to opt-out.
It’s generally accepted there are two forms of permission when it comes to emailers: implied permission and express permission. If you already have a client’s email address on record and you have an established relationship with them, then permission to email is implied. Otherwise, you will need to seek express permission from the userto add them to your mailing list. Express consent is typically granted when a customer signs up to your newsletter service and opts-in to receiving emails from you (normally on your website).
Must Read: The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing
Building momentum with your mailing list
The point of any marketing is to inform as many potential or existing clients as possible about your company and the range of products/services you supply – and this applies equally to email campaigns.
To this end, you should actively promote your email subscription service on your website and social media. The more users sign up, the bigger audience you’ll have and the greater the chances will be that your emails couldturn into qualified leads.
As you build your mailing list, you’ll be able to add greater personalization to your emails, addressing your clients’ particular needs or interests based on previous sales or interactions and offering a fully tailored service. You likely already have a wealth of client information on file but adding an email sign-up facility to your business will allow you to amalgamate this data to provide better customer service.
