Email marketing - does it work?

[dave_webb]

Does anyone know if emailing business (from a purchased list) is worthwhile or just a waste of time? I'm selling website design services btw.

[K2012]

Personally E-Marketing comes into it's own when they have subscribed on your website, which does not happen much in the real world.

With your product it could be worthwhile, but I have had poor results from email marketing mainly becuase I am in Recruitment. For me picking up the phone and being a pest works better.

I use email marketing rarely now as it also gets clogged in most companies spam filters.

It is worth a go though, just don't waste loads.

Kev

[RJS]

I've just finished setting up my business ready for marketing in Jan. During setup I've considered all avenues such as SEO, email and cold calling. To be honest, it's my opinion that email marketing works for the most part when you're not trying to sell a service or product - so for example a seminar which enables prospects to learn more about a solution, service etc. SEO is something I don't have much experience of but there's no doubt it's an integral part of marketing.

I've got to say though that cold calling will still be at the top of my list. Doing it properly really is a skill - it's not as easy as picking up the phone and selling - in fact, selling is the last thing to do on the first call. I'm no expert but I've certainly done my best to learn the art and will be hitting the phones in Jan. In a nutshell, it's all about building trust and the start of a relationship with the prospect (the cold call recipient) in the first instance with the objective of building a database and selling as trust is gained.

[MASSEY]

if they subscribe to you then it will have some sucess, but emailing people out of the blue for most people is irritating.

[dave_webb]

Unfortunately they will not have subscribed to me so may irritate a few people. My plan is to send them an email and follow it up with a phone call. I did recently send out 200 letters to local business with no success. I thought I'll just give this a go.

[RJS]

You'll not receive much success by sending an email and then following up with a call.. You only get a few seconds to secure enough time on a call to be able to add a value statement - the goal is a second call to build some trust. The chances are the prospect wont have read the email so already there's negativity.. Or if they have the prospect may view as SPAM and then you're really screwed..

All in my opinion, happy to be wrong!

Rob.

[dave_webb]

You'll not receive much success by sending an email and then following up with a call.. You only get a few seconds to secure enough time on a call to be able to add a value statement - the goal is a second call to build some trust. The chances are the prospect wont have read the email so already there's negativity.. Or if they have the prospect may view as SPAM and then you're really screwed..

All in my opinion, happy to be wrong!

Rob.

I did think that and sadly you're probably right. I just can't think of a way to market my business. Maybe banner advertising.

[MASSEY]

maybe buying data off people with good quality leads is worth a go? at least if the people you are contacting have recently enquired about web design you might acheive some success.

[An Oasis]

emailing people out of the blue for most people is irritating.

No no no emailing people out of the blue just gets deleted!

[NextPoint]

There is a big difference between sales and marketing, even though they are about the same result. Sales is all about communicating with people to make the sale, whereas marketing is all about getting noticed by people so that a sale can be made in the future.

Marketing is about using longer term strategies to build your brand and trust with the prospect, as well as to make repeated business. E-mail marketing works when done correctly and not promoted as e-mail sales like the Viagra spam everyone gets annoyed about.

Successful e-mail marketing provides:

* Useful information that engages the reader
* Makes the reader value your services and products
* Gets you associated with the topic fields you are promoting
* Prompts the reader to respond via strategically incorporated calls to action - hence the opportunity to make a sale
* Prompts the reader share your newsletter content via social media such as Twitter and Facebook

Successful e-mail marketing is not about:

* Telling the reader to buy from you (putting the idea in there mind is a different tactic)
* Providing information that is of benefit to you - it has to be of benefit to the reader for them to take an interest

It takes time to build the brand for your e-mail marketing. Don't just rely on getting people signed up from your website, but go out in the real world and do networking to get people signed up. This is a much better way to establish your subscriber list as you will have established a real world relationship - once they have your trust, they will take notice of your e-mail newsletter and forward it onto people they know too.

E-mail marketing is only one aspect of the marketing mix. Don't just rely on your e-mail marketing - use other forms too. Together they will form a strategy that delivers success - but only when you have all of the parts of the marketing mix you need.

[Colin Parker]

Personally E-Marketing comes into it's own when they have subscribed on your website, which does not happen much in the real world.



which does not happen much in the real world.??

Sorry - but that is just plain wrong.

One of the best online business models is to build a subscription list and market to it - but like everything else you have to do it professionally and continually split test your site to optimise subscription sign ups.

In the 'real world' the amatuers fail and the professionals succeed.

Colin Parker