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It's Never too Early: We often talk with companies who aspire to
reach many of the same goals we've achieved with email - regular
communications, and enhanced relationships. Amazingly, many of
these companies are considerably larger than us - but yet object
on the grounds that they 'aren't ready.' Baloney! Email
marketing is incredibly easy to get started - and in our opinion
it is most effective when it is done with a philosophy of
simplicity
Frequent Contact is Key: Email marketing does not work as well
for a one-time quick hit marketing strategy. Email allows you to
build a regular, ongoing dialogue with your best clients and
prospects. And that becomes self-selecting - those who most wish
to do business with you will appreciate the regular
communications. Those who do not can opt-out. It truly is a
win-win.
Be Regular: One of the real keys to success is how frequently
(or not) you communicate. We occasionally provide special
alerts, but generally, for us, once a month is plenty often to
communicate. I firmly believe - and our results have confirmed -
that regular but respectful communication is optimal.
Content is King: Ultimately, for professional service firms like
ours it is ideas that build relationships - and ideas are driven
and supported by content. We strongly recommend the creation of
a regular communications vehicle - whether an e-Newsletter or
other vehicle. It has worked for us and it works for a number of
our clients.
Be Brief: We also have found that it is critical to keep the
content out of the newsletter. While this may seem to be a
contradiction to the previous point, it is not. You should let
people know about your ideas, but not force them down their
throats. Use the newsletter to point to your content (on your
site or elsewhere) but don't try to cram it all in. It shouldn't
take someone 10 minutes to decide if your newsletter is worth a
read. An overly long, dense, hard-to-read newsletter simply
wastes people's time. In addition, by keeping the content
external, you can use click through analytics to see who is
really interested in what content - and tailor your follow-up
appropriately.
Keep it Entertaining. We're shocked by the number of dry, boring
newsletters that clog our inboxes. We subscribe to many
newsletters to keep up on our competitors, but we usually only
read those that keep us entertained. Try adding a bit of humor
if possible.
Don't Hard-Sell. The flip side of the coin is when we see
companies who feel as though they need to close business in
every sentence. Email marketing is about relationship building,
and it is something you're doing for the long- term - not a
quick revenue hit. Even for consumer- oriented retailers, this
fact still holds true- customer relationships are profitable
when they are long-term, so your marketing efforts need to be
oriented that way.
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