Planning E-mail Marketing Campaigns

October 11, 2010 by Tim
Filed under: Email Lists

1.When planning your email promotions always see things from your customers perspective not yours.

But it’s also important to prepare a marketing plan and set objectives, especially when it comes to email marketing.

When you’re getting started, step back and think through what you’re trying to accomplish.
The best way to do this is to try and see things from the customers perspective

Specifically, ask yourself what type of information would attract attention and get people to open, read and act on your
email campaigns. Do they want coupons, special offers or promotions? Would they respond better to valuable information and
practical tips they can use often? The best e-newsletters include a mix of sales with expert opinions and advice.

2. Construct a yearly email marketing plan. Once you’ve established youremail marketing objectives, build an email
marketing plan for the year ahead. Look at the calendar — again from your customers’ perspective — and map out promotions,
topics and campaigns that will help you reach out to customers and prospects at the right time with the right information.
While this may sound like a challenging task, you know your customers better than anyone else, so roughing out a flexible
plan for the year shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. Use major holidays as good milestones to work with. Investing
planning time up front will dramatically improve the performance of your email marketing campaigns. Your customers will
appreciate getting relevant emails right when they want them.

3. Start building your email list. Now that you’ve put yourself firmly in your customers’ shoes, you’re ready to start
building your opt-in email list. Opt-in means your customers understand that by signing up they’re giving you permission
to send them emails. In addition to name and email address, think about other information that could help you better target
your email campaigns, such as the following:

If your business is a restaurant, retail store (online or brick-and-mortar) or florist, gather birthday information.
If you’re a consultant or run a business services firm, include a check box for consumers to indicate that they’d like to
learn more about your products and services as well as the topics, issues and challenges that interest your customers.
Ask your customers how often they’d like to receive emails from you.

Take every opportunity to gather customers’ email addresses and profile information and segment into age groups or preferences
by using all of the tools at your
disposal, including quick-and-easy sign-up on your homepage, paper form sign-ups at retail store cash registers or a jar
for customers to drop business cards in.
Actively seek out people you want to reach by attending relevant trade shows and conferences, gathering business cards,
asking for permission, and adding them to your list.

4.Don’t just sell in your first campaign; offer valuable information or
tips your audience can use. Also, encourage feedback so you can begin an ongoing dialogue with your customers, allowing you
to continually gather more detailed profile information to improve the targeting of future campaigns.DYMO Label Writer Twin Turbo The perfect printer for any small business! See why people rave about this direct mail marketing printer and why you can’t survive without it!