Marketing by E-mail??

[collings]

Hello,

I am thinking of advertising my website with a coupon to people by email.

I need advice on who to contact to buy lists. Ideally I want to go to a company to design my email and send my email.

Thanks for the advice.
Chris

 

[Pete Crane]

PM sent if that's okay by you

 

[ADFLB Creative Ltd]

You could learn from other mails from professional companies showing you how to send a perfect e-mail. Trust yourself to do your own personalised mail for your customers.

 

[Pete Crane]

On the surface that may look a good option. However when you start to think about the time you will spend on learning, take into account that this means you're not doing your core work and then consider the risk you taking with your brand then it starts to look a poor option compared to working with someone who does it day in, day out and knows the ropes. It's the same with a lot of business areas in that respect.

A better idea is to try and find someone who will actually help you through a learning process. That's what I try to do with clients; email marketing isn't and shouldn't be difficult but the devil really is in details that get overlooked.

 

[KateCB]

Feel like I'm repeating myself here as I have just posted this in answer to another email marketing query! We use constantcontact.com - thousands of templates, stats on each campaign, auto responders, full opt in/opt out etc. Costs us around £18 a month (its in dollars, so it can fluctuate with the currency!)

 

[Business News]

I'd recommend you ask permission before sending out e-mails otherwise you'll be in the spamming territory.

A little story to share with all. New franchise for Minuteman Press opened in Telford and obtained a mailing list of local chamber members. They e-mailed everyone and it ended up getting stuck in a loop. We and all other businesses spammed received the hello we are here e-mail over 700 times over 4 days. They definately landed with a bang. Funny thing was one company was somehow on a pay per e-mail system - cost them a fortune. Anyway - clogged up everyones mail. Result was lots of pissed off potential customers and a franchise that failed within a year. No one likes unsolicited mail, this company was unfortunate to send it out over 700 times but even one spam e-mail is still usually an very unwelcome intrusion.

 

[oz1982]

i would build your own list as then you are sure to get targeted traffic
if you rely on anouther companys list then you might get no return for your money!!

 

[mr.steve]

Be careful when buying lists, as there can be problems that a couple of the posters here have alluded to.

Your best list is your house list. These people are more likely to buy from you. The house list should also be segmented if possible: one group consisting of those who have bought very recently, another group consisting of those who have bought not-so-recently, a third group those who have never bought... Always target those who have bought recently, then the other groups in that order.

If you do buy lists make sure that the list is extremely well-targeted, and make sure that it consists as much as possible of people who have bought a similar product recently. The list might be targeted, but if the people haven't bought for ages it can be useless.

As for email content, ensure you create a persuasive series of autoresponders. I find that at least 12 emails, each showing a different angle to the product or service, is worth aiming for. Writing great autoresponders is a whole skill set in itself. Hiring someone to do it can be a good idea, though it's good if you know what you're doing too, especially since you know your own business. Check out how some of the best info marketers do it. Those guys (and gals) are top class, and some sell millions worth of products each year.

Hope this helps

Steve