01_01-Using Email
PREVIOUS PAGE: Welcome to effective email marketing strategies.
You don't have to be in business for very long to realize that you need to communicate with lots of people to attract customers.
Of course, your business also needs to make sure that your marketing communications bring in revenue over and above the cost of those communications.
Email is a great solution for building customer relationships affordably because it's a
•familiar communication standard and because it's so
•cost effective, the fact that email is a cheap way to communicate isn't the main reason to use email.
However, email also has a very high
•Return On Investment or (ROI). In other words, an effective email marketing strategy can generate a lot of sales for a relatively small investment of time and money.
In order to get the highest possible return on your email marketing investments, you first need to understand where to use email in your overall marketing plans.
The first thing to understand is the fact that sending email to total strangers does not work. You're more likely to get spam complaints than interest from prospective customers unless you Send to a permission based email list.
Now I show you how to build a permission based email list in another section of this course. Instead of spamming people, use email to help convert current prospects into customers and current customers into loyal customers.
Use email to educate people about the features and benefits of your products or services, differentiate your business from your competition, and to ask for the sale.
You can also use email to help increase customer loyalty and referrals by sending emails that strengthen your customer relationships. Send them thank you emails, holiday greetings , and offer special privileges to make your customers feel like they're appreciated.
As you'll read the rest of this course, remember that all the tips and ideas I share can be adapted to your specific type of business or organisation. Because no matter what kind of business or organisation you have, keeping your customer relationships at the center of your strategy will put you on the road to email marketing success.