While thinking of today’s blog topic, I came to realize that over the last 5 years, even though we had many web related projects, we hardly ever had a client performing email marketing activities. I’ve seen people underestimating the power of this fantastic tool. Or simply they never took time to understand how it really works as they did with the other tools and techniques they are currently using (i.e. print campaigns, newspaper classifieds, press releases). You could compare it to the offline direct mail, only far less expensive and with greater and faster response rates.

But I would place it in the Customer Relationship Management aspect of your business. Mainly because it is a clear 24/7 channel of communication to your prospects and customers. It helps profiling your target base by allowing the gathering of as much information as needed about them. It provides instant feedback, it helps creating a bond with your products and services and it shows results in real time.

This won’t be a post about 25 Email Marketing Terms You Should Know, but rather a first introduction towards a larger subject we are planning to discuss with our clients.

If time permits, you can start your knowledge quest searching the internet for email marketing terms or case studies, and if you don’t know where to begin, a good starting point would be Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing book. I’ve seen many experts recommending Seth’s book as an Email Marketing For Dummies kind of approach.

And permission is all it takes to get you started. It is offered by your prospects and clients that raise their hand and say “Yes, I am trusting you with my email address”. From this moment, you start to cultivate and grow a relationship between your company and your client base over the Internet, being ethical, clear and precise and following the guidelines and best practices of email marketing communication.

Do some research, it is actually easier than you think, and then follow three simple steps:

First, you need to realize that on the internet the money is in the email list. Follow the best practices, and start gathering email addresses from your prospects and customers. Segment them in categories for a better communication (i.e. males vs females, Product A customers vs Product B customers, and so forth). You will not want to send the New Spring Catalog for women to the males in your list if you are a fashion company that caters to both.

Second, start building a relationship with your email list. Don’t let it turn cold, start communicating. You need to recognize there are many occasions within a year time frame when you can touch base with your clients. For example up-selling after each new purchase, announcing the new models catalog or a new product launch, the 10 days summer sales period, coupons and discounts, gathering feedback regarding a product or the company, invitations to company events or announcing company news, why not sending your best wishes for the client’s birthday. I am sure you can think of even more. Craft your message and send it.

Third, test your communication and track your results. See who opened the message, who responded to the offer, how many sales it generated and many other important aspects that reflect the reaction you are triggering on your customer base. See what you are doing the best and what needs improvement.

You really have to care about your image on the internet and make sure you are constant in both your online and offline communication, this pertains to your email marketing strategy as well.