The Power of Email Marketing

As I conclude my thoughts on email marketing, I will share a longer article/blog from MineThatData. You will enjoy them. It’s a vision on how some businesses are beginning to use email marketing as a powerful tool in their business. Because of the length of this article/blog I will spread it over several blog entries. To learn more about multichannel campaigns, check out the MineThatData blog. Enjoy. http://minethatdata.blogspot.com/

Today, I'd like to suggest a resolution that I think you can keep… because once you get going with it, it gets even easier over time, and it carries a few benefits that can significantly improve your email campaigns' effectiveness and profitability.

Background: What Determines When We Send Email?

In my experience, most small businesses sending email campaigns decide to send based on one or both of these factors:

Whether you have compelling content to send

Whether it's "time to send"

For most people, this translates to the following maxim:

In order to justify sending an email, you need to have something to say and pick a good time to say it.

Is That All There Is To It?

For too many businesses, yes. Their strategy stops there. They don't plan out what they want to say in advance, and when they want to say it.

Instead, they wait until it's "about time to email subscribers" or until something exciting gets dropped in front of them.

The big problem with this is that many of us say, "Oh no! I need to get something out to my email list today!" and rush to put together a campaign.

Our haste shows to our subscribers:

Our writing isn't as engaging as in early messages (such as our autoresponder and follow ups, which we planned out and edited over time)

We mis-type URLs and make formatting errors

Our emails lack continuity or transition — which indicates a lack of attention to their needs/interests

Surely There's a Better Way…

Wouldn't it be easier on you — and better for your subscribers — if you had a plan that laid out, in advance, when you were going to email your subscribers and an idea of what you were going to say?

I sure think so.

In my next posts, I'll show you how with a little planning and an easy-to-use (and free!) tool, you can create better email campaigns, stress-free.

We need a plan.

To be continued...