| All of us like to feel that the businesses we frequent | | | | "Opting-in" is the email marketing term for voluntary |
| understand our deepest desires and dislikes. One way | | | | addition to a campaign or mailing list. An automatic |
| that they do this is by keeping in touch. Since most | | | | response system will automatically generate one of |
| business can not afford to call or send someone to | | | | these confirmation emails and send them to your |
| your home or office, this is accomplished via mail or | | | | customer. Although not absolutely required, opting-in |
| email. | | | | is a good practice as an email marketer, as it almost |
| Doing it Like it's 1999 | | | | assures your customer will not accuse you of |
| For the sake of cost and efficiency, most customer | | | | spamming. Just make sure to unsubscribe them just |
| contact has moved to the Internet. This started by | | | | as easily. |
| identifying leads, contacts or prospects in your CRM | | | | Deliver Your Message While You Sleep |
| system (if you were lucky enough to have one) and | | | | Now back to those automatic response systems or |
| sending out a bulk "targeted" email. The email would | | | | "autoresponders". Autoresponders allow you to write |
| take the form of an invitation to a seminar, or | | | | a multi-stage marketing campaign in advance and |
| perhaps a new product announcement. | | | | deliver this to your customers over a series of days |
| Enter Email Marketing 2007 | | | | or weeks. So by the time your customer reads the |
| Unfortunately, due to abuse of email by unsolicited | | | | final installment of the "Top Five Benefits of |
| marketers or "spammers", our customers now guard | | | | Widgets" campaign, her credit card is already in hand. |
| their inboxes like Castle of Carcassonne. Many of | | | | Keeping Things on Track |
| these policies are set by their personal ISPs, like AOL, | | | | Perhaps the most important part of any marketing |
| or by internal corporate email filters. What are we | | | | campaign is measurement. Even direct mail campaigns |
| legitimate marketers to do to get our legitimate | | | | in the late 1800's used postcards with different |
| messages through? | | | | messages to test effectiveness. Some of the better |
| Make Sure You're in the Address Book | | | | commercial autoresponders support built-in tracking, |
| It is a good idea to contact all of your current | | | | so that you can test slightly different campaigns and |
| customers and ask them to add you to their Outlook | | | | adjust your marketing accordingly for the next |
| (or other) address book. Messages coming from | | | | campaign. |
| these addresses tend to not get rejected. If you use | | | | Summary |
| a special email address for email marketing or | | | | Autoresponders can be a powerful tool in your email |
| "e-blasts", advise them to add this address as well in | | | | marketing tool kit. They are flexible information |
| advance of your next campaign. If you collect email | | | | management and delivery systems that can do a lot |
| address from a web form, place this address book | | | | of the "heavy lifting" in a complex campaign. Bringing |
| message on your "thank you" page, as well as | | | | autoresponders into your business may just bring you |
| instructions to "whitelist" you if their email provider | | | | enough new business that you are ready to party |
| allows this feature. | | | | like it's 1999! |
| Train Your Customers to Opt-In | | | | |