How to make an email campaign work

Email campaigns are becoming more and more popular now and are replacing direct mail as a method of contact with potential customers. But what are they and how can you make them work for you?

WHAT IS AN EMAIL CAMPAIGN?

You know in the old days, (about 3 years ago) one of the methods of contacting potential customers was direct mail – in other words sending out a letter to people or businesses who you thought might be interested in what you do. Well what are replacing direct mail quite rapidly are email campaigns – that is, emails that are sent out to potential customers with information about your products or services.

Emails have several advantages over direct mail. You can tell that someone has opened them; you can tell if that email is no longer valid; the communication is instant and it’s free!

WHAT’S THE LAW ABOUT THIS?

Generally speaking you need to be careful about spamming people – in other words sending them communication that they don’t want or haven’t asked for. That’s easy when they’re already your customers – of course you can communicate with them, but what about people who aren’t your customers? I would say contacting people who aren’t your customers once or twice is fine. Make sure that you have an unsubscribe option at the bottom of the email – you know, "If you no longer want to receive mail from us, click here to unsubscribe".

HOW CAN YOU MAKE EMAIL CAMPAIGNS WORK FOR YOU?

Let’s face it, no one likes purely promotional emails – you’d much rather read something that was of interest to you. Last thing you want is someone deleting your email without even reading it. So, the email you send out should be designed to test out whether someone receiving it is ‘interested’ in your products or services. Ideally, this should be in a series of stages i.e. stage 1 could be requesting a free report (email sent to everyone); stage 2 could be asking them to participate in a free workshop (email sent only to people who have asked for free report); stage 3 could be an offer of a free meeting to discuss your products and services (sent only to people who have attended workshop).

Sending emails in stages as outlined above tests how interested people are at each stage meaning that at stage 3 or 4, you’re only communicating with people who are really interested in what you do.

WHO SHOULD I SEND MY EMAIL CAMPAIGN TO?

Ideally you should send your emails out to a list of your target customers. If you don’t have a list already, you could buy one – there are a number of list providers around. Or you could start to build a list by offering your target customers a free tips sheet if they give you their contact details. For instance, if you’re targeting mothers, you might want to give a free talk at a mothers and toddlers group and offer to send them your free tips if they give you their email address. Once you’ve got their contact details, you’ve started building your list.

Helen Dowling runs Exceptional Thinking(http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) which provides advice, help and support to start-ups and small business owners.