Email marketing with

Why use Email Marketing?

Many companies and clients wonder what benefits an external email service provider can offer them, and whether they could just do it in-house themselves.

In this presentation I will cover the major benefits of using an email marketing tool to send and manage email campaigns.

I will give a quick overview of what it is, demo how easy the tool is to use, and show you what it will tell you about your customers and their behaviours.

Anyone who wants a free trial of this software should talk to me after the presentation…

Who can I send email to?

Guidelines for permission based email marketingWhy do I need permission?Sending people unsolicited email, commercial or otherwise, is against the law in many countries worldwide. Besides that, wouldn't you rather be talking to people who you know are interested in what you have to say?

People who have specifically signed up through your websiteFor example, by ticking a checkbox (not checked by default) on your signup or sales form

People who completed offline forms & indicated they wanted to be emailedEg: By filling in a competition or survey form where they specifically agree to receive email

People who gave you their business card and asked to receive emailIf someone gives you their business card and you have also explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them.

They purchased something off you in the last 2 yearsBy making a purchase from you they have provided their permission implicitly, although it is much better to explicitly ask them.

Anybody that is not covered by the previous list ! Here are some examples:

Lists or email addresses received from a third partyIncludes any list you bought or rented, got from a partner or membership organization. No matter the claims of the source of this list, you cannot send email to them.

Addresses you collected or "copy & pasted" from the InternetEven if they look like ideal customers for you, you can't email someone just because you found their address.

Addresses you haven't emailed in the last 2 yearsPermission doesn't age well. Even if you got their permission legitimately, they won't remember giving it to you. If you haven't sent something to that address in the last 2 years, you can't start now.

Identify Yourself – properly!

-Make sure that you use a consistent email address

-Make sure that the name is correct. Use a personal name or your business name – you decide

-Make sure that your name appears at the top of the email message – in PLAIN TEXT not just a logo

-Get yourself a Gravatar (www.gravatar.com)

-Ask your readers to add you to their Whitelist / Safe list

Get the title right – The Four U’s

When you’re writing your next subject line, run it through this checklist, based on the Four “U” Approach to headline writing:

Useful: Is the promised message valuable to the reader?

Ultra-specific: Does the reader know what’s being promised?

Unique: Is the promised message compelling and remarkable?

Urgent: Does the reader feel the need to read now?

Write for Skimmers

Steve Krug’s words of wisdom for website usability in his book Don’t Make Me Think ring true for all elements of copywriting."We don’t read pages. We scan them.”-Steve Krug

Krug advocates for a billboard style of design to your web pages and emails. This means using language, images, layout and colour to make your material stand out and shine.

Prettying up mediocre content won’t make it any better.

Does your best work look like it belongs in an encyclopedia? Unless you are Wikipedia, don’t look like Wikipedia.

Use Effective Headlines and Introductions

Headlines organize your content by making a promise to the reader. The body of your content delivers on that promise.

Using the “who-what-why” formula isn’t the only way to format your headlines, but it works. Another technique I like is to ask a question, e.g., “Have You Been Secretly Penalized by Google?”

Don't be scared of headline formulas. Instead of "gimmicky," think of them as a framework for the promise you make. When I’m stuck for headline inspiration, I surf the fantastic resources over at Copyblogger.There are literally dozens of effective headline formulas out there, so you need never worry about repeating yourself.

How to build your email list

• Add a signup form to your website

• Add a signup to your email signatures

• Collect Business cards

• Import your (active) customer database

• Give people a real reason to signup – enter a competition, receive a product discount, download a report or whitepaper

• Promote your sign-up form using your social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on

• Always as your readers to “forward to a friend or colleague”

When to send your emails

• Avoid the start and end of the day

• Mid-week is best (for most businesses)

• After Lunch is best (I send my emails as close to 2pm as possible)

• Try different combinations and test the results using the reporting tools

Most Popular Email Clients used

A walkthrough of the product…

What does the reporting tell you?

Easily measure the success of your campaigns

If you know who opened your emails, what they clicked on, who bounced and who unsubscribed, you can start to understand who your audience really is, and what they are interested in.

For every campaign you send, effective [email] automatically creates reports that are:

- Easy to understand- Automatically updated- Simple to share with other people

- Campaign Summary- Opens over time- Recipient activity- Link activity- Bounce summary- Compare campaigns

Campaign Snapshot

See how your email campaign has performed at a glance.

Find out how many recipients opened your email, clicked a link, unsubscribed, forwarded your email to a friend and loads more.

Our simple “Opens Over Time” Report shows exactly who is checking out your email, how many times they’re doing it, and when they did it.

You can get an overview for the life of the campaign or drill down all the way to minute by minute detail.

Opens Over Time

Our recipient activity report lets you get down to some serious detail on your campaign.

Easily see who opened, who clicked, who bounced and who unsubscribed.

You can even search for a specific subscriber to see exactly what they did with your email.

Recipient Activity

The Link Activity Report makes it very easy to see what your subscribers found most interesting, as well as who clicked and who did not.

Link Activity

As well as automatically processing any bounced emails for you, we also tell you exactly why that subscriber bounced out of your list.

Maybe we got an out of office reply, or perhaps their mailbox was full - whatever the reason, they didn’t get your email and we’ll tell you why.

Bounce Activity

Easily compare any of your email campaign with each other.

Is your open rate improving?

Are you seeing less bounces over time?

Compare Campaigns

• Email “credits” are in the region of 1p to 2p each, depending on volume.

• Some systems charge a “delivery fee” regardless of how many email messages are sent.

• SPAM and Deliverability tests are usually an extra charge – in the region of approx £5 per test.

• The cost to design and setup your own email template is anything between £50 and £350

• Some systems provide a Pay-As-You-Go plan, some a Pay-Monthly, some both.

• Generally, Email marketing is a very cost effective method or marketing that will show you the ROI within the reporting.

What does it Cost?

Useful Links:

Email Marketing Products:www.effectiveemail.co.ukwww.mailchimp.comwww.aweber.comwww.dotmailer.com

Email Marketing Resources:www.eseyo.comwww.copyblogger.com/email-marketingwww.email-marketing-reports.comwww.gravatar.comwww.mailchimp.com