It’s always good practice in marketing to make your customers feel like insiders. One great way to promote that feeling is to use e-mail marketing techniques that target existing customers.
Don’t think that e-mail marketing means bombarding people with spam advertisements that just get filtered to the trash bin; good e-marketing takes time and means sending customers content that they actually want to read and receive.
Thanks to spammers, automated e-mails get met with a huge degree of skepticism when they show up in our e-mail accounts. But with a little work, an effective e-mail marketing campaign can benefit both our customers and our bottom lines.
E-mail marketing can take many forms, such as e-newsletters, promotional announcements, press releases and so on. The important thing to remember is to choose a method that will best fit your customer base and make it engaging enough to spark their interest in continuing business with you.
E-newsletters
One of the best e-marketing methods is sending E-newsletters. These can come in several forms, but one that is especially engaging is to give customers helpful tips or articles about certain topics related to your service.
The important thing to remember about e-newsletters is to make them readable and interesting. That means good design, good links to other content, and good tracking. But above all else, good content is what separates a newsletter that gets read and one that is sent straight to the trash.
People often skim their inboxes when they check their e-mails and don’t have time to invest in a novel, so keep newsletters brief and stick to content that is relevant and timely. For example, a nursery might send a newsletter with tips for preparing rose bushes for autumn or choosing flowers that are well suited to a particular climate.
Like blogs, e-newsletters show your customers that you have authority over your subject and can offer service beyond just selling stuff. Providing useful information will facilitate discussion and breed interest in your subject. Creating useful and engaging content is challenging, but well worth it!
Promotional Announcements
Give your loyal customers an advantage by letting them in on special promotions. Sending them exclusive offers makes people feel like they are on the VIP list—like they are insiders.
You can even offer these promotions from within your e-newsletter. These days, e-mail templates allow for a lot of creative design, so adding promotional boxes is easier than ever.
Press Releases
Press releases can often seem like the most humdrum, formulated methods of communicating with people, but they serve a serious purpose. They make customers feel like they are in the know about what is going on within a company.
If used with restraint, press releases can make exciting product announcements and changes within the company seem monumental. Apple has taken the press release to a new planet by releasing its new products at strategically planned events each year that attract enormous audiences. What they have done so well is making each release seem like a huge event instead of just another mundane press release.
That is the key to any marketing strategy, but with e-mail marketing, people are especially sensitive about feeling bombarded by ads. But with the proper research and some creativity, you can create an e-marketing campaign that works.
