Dana asked:


I do email marketing and I wanted some opinions on what are the best programs to use for design and structure. What programs provide more clear images? What is the best design? What is easiest?

Thanks!!

Email Marketing For Brick and Mortar Businesses

Bonita L Richter asked:


nt to market your business for fractions of a penny per message?

Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to your small business. You can achieve outstanding results with email marketing, while investing only a small amount of time and money. Combine that with the potential to target more precisely than direct mailings, that’s a real win for the small business owner.

In tough economic times, it is crucial to continue marketing your business, and maximize the marketing dollars you’re spending. Email marketing is a perfect way to keep your business in front of your customers’ and prospects eyes!

Sometimes, people unfamiliar with email marketing get nervous about it because the first thing they think about is spam, or they’ve heard that most people don’t open their email, right?

Wrong.

Targeted mailings that pique interest result in high email open rates, and an opportunity to build relationships with your customers and make some sales. As for the spam issue, mailing only to people who have given you permission to do so minimizes the risk of being labeled a “spammer”. Using myself as an example, I have mailed thousands of emails to my clients, and prospective clients, and have not had one spam complaint.

Following is a list of five reasons you must start email marketing now!

1. Email marketing is inexpensive.

Email marketing is an affordable way to stretch a tight marketing budget. Unlike direct mail, there is virtually no production, materials or postage expense. Email marketing can cost as little as fractions of a penny per email.

The expenses involved in email marketing involve having a hosted website with email capacity. You may also want to consider subscribing to a list management service, such as Constant Contact or aWeber, to help manage your email campaigns. The fees for this service range from about $15 to $20 per month, which includes unlimited emails.

2. Email marketing is highly targeted.

You can easily segment your email database into different groups, so that your promotions go to individuals most likely to respond to your offer. For example, you may send one offer to existing clients, and send a different one to prospects who’ve expressed interest in your products or services.

3. Email marketing is proactive.

Email marketing enables you to proactively communicate with your existing customers and prospects, instead of passively waiting for them to return to your website or storefront.

It is a highly effective way to communicate promotional offers, news, seminars, which may result in an increase in sales, drive traffic to your website or store, and develop customer trust and loyalty through relationship building.

Sending out a monthly email campaign will keep your business in front of your customers’ and prospects eyes.

4. Email marketing generates an immediate response.

Promotional emails include a call to action that can result in immediate responses. Initial campaign responses generally occur within 48 hours of the time the email campaign is sent; testing and refining your campaigns is immediate. If you use a list management service, you can gauge the open rates of your email campaigns, which provides useful and immediate information you can use to tweak your campaign messages.

5. Email marketing is easy.

The Web-based email marketing products available to small businesses are easy to use. The services available through Constant Contact and aWeber, as well as others, include professional HTML templates, list segmentation and targeting capabilities, as well as automatic tracking and reporting of your email campaign effectiveness, such as for open rates, bounces, and spam reports.

If you’re not a “techie”, have no fear. You don’t need a Webmaster or technical person on staff to handle the development and distribution of your email campaigns.

Email marketing works because it allows precise targeting of your marketing message, it builds loyalty and trust with your customers, it is inexpensive, and best of all, it drives sales. Include email marketing in your arsenal of marketing tools!

Copyright 2008, Bonita L. Richter



Email Marketing For Brick and Mortar Businesses

Gene Higginbotham asked:


Email marketing guidelines and strategies are crucial to make a mark in the business world. Anyone who thought that sending out mass emails on a regular basis translates to email marketing, needs to think again. Strategies have to be worked out in order to be successful in an email marketing venture. And we are here to tell you about you some email marketing tips and strategies. In a world of severe spam laws, it can be quite complicated to begin an email marketing venture. But our email marketing guidelines and strategies will direct and help you set up your business as one of substance.

Email Marketing Tips And Strategies To Start You Off

• Double Opt-In: A customer must be given two chances to verify their subscription to your mailing list. A double-opt in usually works in the following method. The customer gives his email address on your website. He then has to click on a verification link sent in the first email by your company. This is an excellent email marketing tip or tactic.

• Unsubscribe Option: All customers to an email marketing list must be given a choice to unsubscribe at a future point in time. This unsubscribe choice is usually given at the bottom of every email sent by the company.

• Acquiring email addresses: A great way to gather email addresses is to gather them on a high traffic webpage on your website. Adding a subscription link to such a page works marvel. Offering free incentives to visitors to join your mailing list also works. Add to the email marketing package by creating free software, or an e-book or any other related gift to suggest to the customers as soon as they sign up on your email marketing venture. Another way to accumulate email addresses is to buy an email list. But do take into consideration the following email marketing guidelines and strategies while doing this. First- purchase these lists from distributors who enjoy an esteemed reputation. Second, try and purchase a list that includes customers in the market section that you want to target.

• Format: Your emails must be sent in both HTML and plain text format. This email marketing tips and tactic allows an greater number of people to read your emails.

• Regularity: The trick to email marketing is getting the timing right. Keep in mind to send email newsletters frequently. Once a month on a predetermined date, or once every two weeks is an excellent option. Sending too many mails might irritate the subscriber who then just might unsubscribe. So once you get the timing of your emails right, you stay in the subscriber’s memory and will be able to sell your ideas and products frequently. Following the above email marketing guidelines and tactics will improve your product value while adding to your business insight. No one wants his business newsletter to be cluttered as spam. Customer reliability has to be won and retained.



Email Marketing For Brick and Mortar Businesses

Mark Galloway asked:


I’m needing an email marketing application and am most familiar with aWeber. However, it seems like Constant Contact is more popular and I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who has a strong opinion on these, or any other email marketing apps. What do you like best and why? Thanks!

Email Marketing For Brick and Mortar Businesses

Yup asked:


How can I make a make a forward button on my email marketing forward a copy of the message in the email I send to a client. The message will be made in “Dreamweaver” and the code is put into windows mail. What would be the best way to do this.

Email Marketing For Brick and Mortar Businesses