Marketing & Client Attraction for the Solopreneur & Small Business Owner
I often get asked how often to send a newsletter.
The short answer is… it depends.
Sending more often means your subscribers get more regular reminders of your existence. You have greater opportunity for them to get to know, like and trust you. There are more frequent opportunities to inform, educate and sell to your subscribers.
Sounds fabulous doesn’t it? But…
All my email newsletter subscriptions go into a folder on my computer automatically. I do this to save myself from distraction, and I look through this folder every couple of days.
I scan, I delete and I read that which pops out at me! I am looking for emails that are interesting, relevant OR that come from a sender who I feel a personal connection with.
Go ahead and take a look at your inbox. Which commercial emails will get your attention? Take note of what gets your attention and why!
In Australia the average open rate for email marketing, across all industries is consistently around 22%. Averages in the US and other countries are likely to be similar. Seems low, but compared to other marketing mediums it’s a good result.
Personally I like to have clients aim for an open rate of 28-35% which is possible with a targeted list and good emails!
The inboxes of our newsletter subscribers (and our own!) are getting fuller every day. Subscribers are getting bored as they see more of the same old content hitting their inboxes, or even worse, irrelevant content!
It’s becoming harder to get and to keep attention.
So, if you produce an email newsletter then today is the day to review what’s working and what you need to change.
Open Rates are the first vital clue to the health of your Email Marketing Campaigns. A high open rate indicates that you are consistently providing your subscriber list with valuable and useful promotions and information. A low open rate tells you that there is work to be done on your strategy and execution.
I often have new clients who are surprised when their email newsletter is not opened by all of the recipients. If you have reacted this way then I assure you that you should not be dissapointed as this is normal. There are many factors involved and believe me, no one gets their emails 100% opened unless they are sending to a very select small list.
Email Marketing is a highly effective and very cost effective way of marketing your products or services. However, as all of our inboxes get fuller and fuller it becomes even more critical to get the formula right so that you are welcomed into your recipients inbox.
You DON’T want to be a quickly deleted pest!
Often it’s just a case of ensuring the content you send is valuable to your recipients and that you have their consent. Think about your own inbox for a moment. If you receive an email from a business or a name that you are not familiar with and have no recollection of having met or subscribed to, what is the first thing you do? Assuming of course that the email did not go straight into your spam filter you would likely delete it or mark it as spam. Right?
So how do we get through the clutter and get results. [Read more...]
In this article I outline some tips (aka secrets!) for ensuring your email marketing is highly effective in 2010…
Email Marketing remains as a highly effective marketing strategy in 2010. In saying that, if you’ve been doing it for awhile you may need to rethink your strategy to ensure you are addressing the demands that are relevant to email marketing right now. And if you are new to email marketing now is the perfect time to get started.
The most effective emails are the ones that your clients and prospects open, read, share and respond to. It is not as simple as writing some words, adding an image and hitting send. It’s a longer term strategy that requires planning and consistent management.
One email done wrong can cause immeasurable damage. In fact, one email done wrong can mean the rest of what you do, even if done really well, can all be wasted. People WILL judge you by your emails. If you send them emails that are not relevant, that they did not consent to and that are not quality you need to be ready for damage control
Here I will share with you 4 factors to address to ensure maximum results.
If you publish (or are thinking about publishing) a regular email newsletter then it’s more than likely important to you that you are able to maximise it’s effectiveness and return on investment (ROI). I’m sure you would like to be consistently receiving positive feedback, enquiries and conversions from your email newsletter. And all of those results are most definately achievable.
Here at Web Chameleon, we often get really positive feedback about the Web Chameleon email newsletter. Recipients generally tell me they enjoy reading it and get great value from my articles, or they comment on something I’ve said in a recent edition. So I’m pretty happy with the results and yes, I have also seen an increase in enquiries and sales that I can directly attribute to my email newsletter marketing!
The truth is that one of the top reasons why an email newsletter works is because most people need to get to know, like and trust you before they’ll be ready to hand over their money and buy from you. A regular email newsletter gives you an easy way of keeping in touch and building the trust and rapport to improve conversion and sales over time.
Email marketing when done well can increase sales, increase your brand recognition and build customer loyalty. One result that you DON’T want with your email marketing is for your emails to be considered SPAM – displeasing your recipients as well as breaking Australian regulations.
This article primarily relates to Australian law and the Australian Spam Act, however similar restrictions are in place with the Can-Spam Act in the USA and other countries throughout the world. Spam regulations are in place to protect people from receiving junk email.
As a business owner using email marketing as an online marketing strategy, you should be following the spam compliance guidelines not only because they are legal requirements but also because they will reap the best results. I promise you that doing the right thing will give you better results with your email marketing activities.
