- Category: January - February 2009
E-mail as a medium is used every day by millions of people all over the world. No other Internet service is more successful and it’s simply impossible to imagine both private and business communication without e-mail as it has become an integral part of our daily life.
Recently, I read in a smart marketing book: “Web sites may have been the first wonder of the Internet, banner advertising may have astonished marketing mavens around the world, streaming media might someday give us the video phones we were promised at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, but e-mail marketing will bring people to your site and keep them coming back for more.” Jim Sterne, the author of the book “World Wide Web Marketing” seems to know the business perfectly and even has the right arguments to convince us of his point of views. In his book, he used the compiled list by IDG of the “10 Benefits of Emailing” which is comprehensive and so well structured that I thought it would be of interest to you as well. It points out the characteristic traits of a highly qualified e-mail list as the following:
- Quick lead generation – Email has quick output and quick response for lead generation.
- Selectivity – Email offers the same list selectivity as traditional list rental.
- Media reinforcement – Email can be an adjunct to any media to quickly reinforce a message, product announcement, seminar date, or trade show.
- Cost effectiveness – Email is extremely cost effective on a cost-per-contact basis for customer acquisition.
- Higher response – Overall responses may be higher, as only relevant materials will be sent, which assure a more receptive audience for the offer.
- Lower costs – There are no production, paper, or postage costs – only the cost of the email server companies.
- Privacy issues – Subscribers choose to receive email solicitation through a negative option given upon subscribing. Subscribers are also aware of the source of their name and are always given the choice to opt out. This addresses the privacy issue directly and again assures a responsive audience.
- Customer dialogue – As an interactive medium, email establishes a dialogue with new and present customers. Repeated messages can create effective brand awareness or a continued response from and conversation with the customer.
- Trackability – Email is also a traceable medium, as you can direct responders to answer through many types of response vehicles.
No postal undeliverables. Undeliverables are quickly identified and an effort is made to correct them and resend.
Finally, Sterne emphasizes that there is only one crucial principle to e-mail that we have to respect - avoiding spam.
By Daniela La Marca
Quick Tips on the Making of an E-Mail Masterpiece
- The subject line is critical: It’s like getting them to open the envelope.
- Grab their attention in your opening sentences and then keep them reading.
- Deliver value or they’ll stop wanting to hear from you.
- Take care with layout and design to make it readable and professional.
- Personalize to whatever degree you can afford.
- Provide a click-through as the response mechanism.
- Carefully tailor the landing page (the page they hit after clicking).
- Test and measure, test and measure, test and measure as a life style.
Direct response e-mail marketing (if you are very careful to avoid looking like anything that could be construed as spam) is a powerful way to get people to your site. E-mail, however, is even better at getting them back to your site. (Source: Jim Sterne’s book World Wide Web Marketing
