Email Marketing

[MyPrintUK]

Hi All,

We're looking to start an email marketing campaign, ideally would like to use a professional or company do this for us! We will be targeting existing customers and also trying to find new customers.

If anyone is interested in taking on this project can you please drop me a PM.

Thanks

Lee

 

[Flossypurple]

Hi

I can reccomend a company if you want I will contact you in the morning and send you a PM

 

[faz]

I've sent a pm, hope I can help.

 

[MyBrandedMerchandise]

In my experience cold emails very rarely bring in new customers. Not many people open unsolicited emails these days. A better approach may be to send newsletter style emails to existing customers with rewards offered in exchange for referrals. Use your existing customers to find you new ones.

 

[dan_1985]

In my experience cold emails very rarely bring in new customers. Not many people open unsolicited emails these days. A better approach may be to send newsletter style emails to existing customers with rewards offered in exchange for referrals. Use your existing customers to find you new ones.

Very good point - but that is exactly what he said he was going to do anyway! Email marketing targeted at your existing database of customers is one of the easiest and most effective forms of marketing.

 

[XanderMarketing]

Hi Lee,

I've sent you a PM

Alex

 

[virtuallysorted]

Very good point - but that is exactly what he said he was going to do anyway! Email marketing targeted at your existing database of customers is one of the easiest and most effective forms of marketing.

Actually here's some figures - it's 10 times easier and 16 times cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to recruit a new one.

Lee - good responses from a cold campaign should be getting you around a 10% response rate (i.e. click thrus/other actions stemming from the communication). No one will guarantee you a response but they should be able to produce examples of where they've got more than this.

Amusingly Aweber quote an average *open* rate of 13.4% - I cannot believe that anyone would consider that effective email marketing - I'd be sorely disappointed if we didn't get a response of that!!!

 

[Craig Dewe]

Hey Lee,

Email marketing isn't a campaign... it's part of your business. You need to be in regular contact with your current clients otherwise they're not current clients. By building a relationship with them it becomes a lot easier to get more business when you want it.

So start with your current clients and as for unsolicited email... just don't do it. Instead draw people to your website and give them a reason to join your database.

And for the record 10% click-thru rate is very different from 10% of "other actions" such as buying or becoming a lead etc. It also depends heavily on the list being marketed to and message to market match.

As for Aweber's open rates where did that come from? Aweber provide email services (technical... not writing or creating campaigns) so that could be an average over all accounts including millions of users who know nothing about email marketing.

Open rates also depend on industry, frequency or mailing and lots of other factors. But Aweber doesn't do cold mailings so it really doesn't help us here.

Anyway... hope that cleared some things up.

 

[virtuallysorted]

Hey Lee,

Email marketing isn't a campaign... it's part of your business. You need to be in regular contact with your current clients otherwise they're not current clients. By building a relationship with them it becomes a lot easier to get more business when you want it.

So start with your current clients and as for unsolicited email... just don't do it. Instead draw people to your website and give them a reason to join your database.

And for the record 10% click-thru rate is very different from 10% of "other actions" such as buying or becoming a lead etc. It also depends heavily on the list being marketed to and message to market match.

As for Aweber's open rates where did that come from? Aweber provide email services (technical... not writing or creating campaigns) so that could be an average over all accounts including millions of users who know nothing about email marketing.

Open rates also depend on industry, frequency or mailing and lots of other factors. But Aweber doesn't do cold mailings so it really doesn't help us here.

Anyway... hope that cleared some things up.

As a newbie it's often hard to establish what sort of response you should get from a new form of marketing - it's easy to get baffled by the experts and their perception of "industry standard".

The Aweber stat is probably an amalgamation of all their accounts, and it shows just how widely the responses can vary from email marketing.

Whereas some people would expect only to get a 13% open rate as industry standard, most email marketeers would be looking for responses of at least that level. I'm not saying that you should expect sales of that level, as particularly with a new email campaign it'll take a while for the effects to be seen, but you should be getting people interacting with your brand at that sort of level as a minimum - otherwise why would you do it?

 

[TOMShop]

Hi,

For a cold Business to Business email campaign, the national averages are as follows:

10% of people will open your email, from these 10% of people will click through, so your response rate on a COLD email campaign is 1%.

 

[strikingedge]

We're looking to start an email marketing campaign

If you are starting from scratch then you should select a platform to do the mailout.

I'd recommend Mailchimp.com - it is PAYG or subscription.

, ideally would like to use a professional or company do this for us!

You will need a professional designer who is competent at coding newsletters - inline CSS, not using images for everything so people without can see the copy etc.

However, the brief needs to be spot on at your end.

You need to know what you want to achieve and the way in which you are going to do it.

It isn't enough to just send out a brochure type email. There needs to be a compelling subject line to persuade people to open the email, and a persuasive call to action to get people to click on a link.

We will be targeting existing customers and also trying to find new customers.

Targeting existing customers is the easy bit - but how do you plan to recruit new ones through the email?

Is there going to be a viral element - getting existing customers to forward it on to contacts or friends? Why would they do that? What's the benefit?

If you want to recruit new customers from the website, then a competition incentive to signup to the newsletter works well.

The entire sign-up process should be very carefully thought out and implemented - it needs to be opt in and people should receive a welcome email....and if you want to turn them from subscribers to customers, the welcome email could include an incentive.

Again, Mailchimp would allow you to implement this.

If you aren't inundated with designers already, then I know a good one - just pm/email me.

 

[Beau Rivvie Ltd]

Just wanted to see if you've found someone yet?

 

[Mailing Manager]

Hi,

We, at Mailing Manager, would be happy to help or offer advice to anyone who is considering email marketing. We are a UK-based company and would be happy to assist in any way we can. We have local, national and international customers and have been around for a long time so we can offer some good, sound advice.

Our contact telephone number is on the website and I would be happy to answer anyones questions.

Regards

Tim

 

[D1TPT]

Cold Email Capaigns arent Very Appetising for people who open their inbox and see one in their junk folder ( Wich is were your emails will most likely go....). The only thing i'd use them for is to keep contact with current customers.

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

I would recommend organic SEO or/and PPC. Then on the landing page have an enticing mailing list signup. Then send emails based upon whatever frequency you have stated.

An alternative would be a quick targeted phone call followed by an email to the decision maker.

If you are going to do cold email campaigns then it's a numbers game and 1% enquiry rate is probably about right. The general rule is to send them first thing in the morning but avoid Mondays and Fridays.

 

[Chunkford]

Email marketing should be for existing customers only, to maximise your customer spending habits.
Yes you can send email/spam out to potential customers that you think will need your product/service but the downsides out weigh the upsides. Once your I.P. address is blacklisted your hosting/ISP will ban you and it's a royal pain the arse to sort out.
If you want to do 'cold marketing' do direct mail or phone them. And with this type of marketing it needs to be none selling. Remember, people hate be sold to! So when you do 'cold marketing' trying to offer some form of free information or something else thats not getting them to buy. Gain their trust, get there email or contact details. Then when you do email marketing at least its not classed as spam and classed as a follow up. It's all to easy to click that spam button in web based email clients

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

Email marketing should be for existing customers only, to maximise your customer spending habits.
Yes you can send email/spam out to potential customers that you think will need your product/service but the downsides out weigh the upsides. Once your I.P. address is blacklisted your hosting/ISP will ban you and it's a royal pain the arse to sort out.

If you follow the Can Spam Act then how can you be banned for spamming? Your ISP surely looks for frequency of emails (no more than 1 per month unless they respond) as well as an unsubscribe.

It is a shame that the spammers who send sometimes 2 or 3 emails per day
from the same account are ruining an otherwise fantastic marketing medium.

Can you provide any instances of cold email marketers who have operated email marketing campaigns properly and still been penalised?

 

[Connections_Media]

Just a word of advice when you are receiving quotes off these data companies remember that there are only about 6 actual data owners the rest are brokers so be careful to make sure that their data is screened carefully.

Also when you have received a couple of quotes go back to companies and play them off against each other, I went from a quote of £180 single use down to £55 Multi Use from one of the data owners.

 

[Mailing Manager]

Firstly you will struggle to find an email marketing company that will be prepared to accept a purchased or even 'cold list' of email addresses. Unless you have been granted permission to send these people an email or the list has been self-generated, most companies, like ourselves, will not allow you to upload the list. These poor quality lists will cause the IP address, from which they are sent, to be blacklisted by people reporting the email as spam. This affects the rest of the companies, with genuine lists, using the same IP address. Similarly, if you try to send out campaigns from your own IP address, you run the risk of damaging the reuptation of your own IP beyond repair.

When buying data lists of emails, BUYER BEWARE !

If you would like any more info on email marketing, please feel free to visit our website Mailing Manager or email me

 

[MartCactus]

Firstly you will struggle to find an email marketing company that will be prepared to accept a purchased or even 'cold list' of email addresses. Unless you have been granted permission to send these people an email or the list has been self-generated, most companies, like ourselves, will not allow you to upload the list. These poor quality lists will cause the IP address, from which they are sent, to be blacklisted by people reporting the email as spam. This affects the rest of the companies, with genuine lists, using the same IP address. Similarly, if you try to send out campaigns from your own IP address, you run the risk of damaging the reuptation of your own IP beyond repair.

Excellent advice, that so few people seem to take on board. Scraping emails off the web or buying a list from someone else who did that is a great way to get your IPs blocked and cause problems with other non-mass mail you're trying to send. In a worse case it'll get you booted by your ISP.

 

[Call Tracker]

Excellent advice - we send out newsletter style emails to existing customers or those who have enquired in the past. Cold emails can be fine if used in the right way. Send highly targeted well put together emails with a genuinely good offer and you should be fine. Also, b2b emails are less likely to complain about you than consumers.

Open rates are about 10-12% for highly targeted cold lists and 20-25% for existing customers in our experience. Collect some examples of emails you receive that you wouldn't bin and use them when briefing a designer.

 

[quikshop]

Hi,

We, at Mailing Manager, would be happy to help or offer advice to anyone who is considering email marketing.

Hi Tim,

We are on the verge signing up with one of your US competitors, iContact to be precise. I did have a quick play with your system using a trial sign-up but if you want to do your sales thang and convince me of my US-centric folly then now's your chance

Or, you can PM if you prefer

 

[emailblaster]

If you are still looking check out Mail Manager UK:

www.mailmanageruk.co.uk

Online professional email marketing system, free trial available via the site.

 

[David Morson]

You can better search on internet for such companies in India, Pakistan etc. because companies there provide such services at a relatively very low cost.

 

[virtuallysorted]

You can better search on internet for such companies in India, Pakistan etc. because companies there provide such services at a relatively very low cost.

I'm sure they are very cheap - I'm not sure if they are economical... There's a difference!

 

[garyk]

In my experience cold emails very rarely bring in new customers. Not many people open unsolicited emails these days. A better approach may be to send newsletter style emails to existing customers with rewards offered in exchange for referrals. Use your existing customers to find you new ones.

I'd disagree, I did an email shot last autumn, very small to only 25 respondents, completely cold (yep I know spam - shoot me!) but these were highly targetted from time I had spent and I knew my offering would be of interest and I actually made 4 sales of a £500 product from it, I wouldnt call that bad!

 

In my experience this kind of marketing is the biggest waste of money - it is costly considering the return that is probable.
PM me if you would like more info

 

[quikshop]

In my experience this kind of marketing is the biggest waste of money

You've obviously not been doing it right. Each month our newsletter results in a significant spike in revenue and pays for itself dozens of times over. I've known a distance seller send out a seasonal newsletter to a membership of many tens of thousands, no other marketing required, and his was a multi-million pound business.

Its the quality and relevance of the target audience that is the important thing. If its a paid for random list you're targeting then it will be a big waste of money.

 

[telemax]

However to put another spin on it

Every time I make a cold call and I don't get hold of the contact I always get the name of the person who answers and the email address of the actual decision maker.

I then send an email with the subject line

"conversation with xyx", for some reason it makes it much more likely for it to be opened and read.

Last night I sent 32 emails and received 3 replies. One person potentialy interested, another keep in contact and one not interested. Not bad I think!! It shows that perhaps a combination of 2 methods can be more effective.

Jonathan

 

You've obviously not been doing it right. Each month our newsletter results in a significant spike in revenue and pays for itself dozens of times over. I've known a distance seller send out a seasonal newsletter to a membership of many tens of thousands, no other marketing required, and his was a multi-million pound business.

Its the quality and relevance of the target audience that is the important thing. If its a paid for random list you're targeting then it will be a big waste of money.

We will have to beg to differ. Personally Permission marketing is the way to go - a much higher ROI - and not spamming in any way, I personally hate the fact that some one some where is selling my contact details on - and I very very rarely open any email that is sent to me with out my permission or invitation - I think that you will find that the majority are the same.
Of course it is the quality and relevance of the target audience that is important - but if you have their permission to email them then they are more likely to want to read what you have to say as the trust is already sewn. You know that your mail will be opened so half way there!
Of course you trial to a target audience - but with out the permission piece of the puzzle sorry - you ARE throwing your money away.

Build strategies to capture contact details and generate a relationship with you sign ups - then market to them. Its not rocket science - it does put some rogues out of a job that is true!
If it is your living then of course you are going to defend your corner. I suggest to you to read Seth Godins "permission marketing" as this qualifies further what I am saying

 

[quikshop]

I personally hate the fact that some one some where is selling my contact details on - and I very very rarely open any email that is sent to me with out my permission or invitation - I think that you will find that the majority are the same.

I completely agree with you, our newsletter recipients are customers of our business stretching back over 8 years and the un-subscribe rate each month is very low.

I wouldn't advocate buying a list of potential customers because like you I find it highly objectionable.

 

ahh we are mates after all then
cheers Dave, you get my big thumbs up

 

[quikshop]

ahh we are mates after all then
cheers Dave, you get my big thumbs up

Steady on, you'll ruin my reputation as a belligerent wotsit :redface:

 

ahh I like a good debate - but some times you just have to call a truce when you discover that you are both fighting from the same corner - disappointing though it can be
It is valentines on Sunday so stop being such a grump and go make some one happy ;-)