I received this article by email today from Gail Geronimos, the co-founder of Achaeus. It is an excellent summary of how email can assist businesses to make sales. Well worth the 4 minute read as it’s not your standard advice that I’ve read elsewhere.

---

Most business people I speak to don’t understand that using emails is one of the most cost-effect tools for generating leads. The key to a successful email campaign is recognizing that the format of the email and the messages included must be optimised to get the email recipients to open the email and motivate them to click on the intended links.

The power of email as a marketing tool depends on whether or not you use it correctly from the start. Whether you are emailing to 100 people or a 100,000 people, developing a solid strategy for success in email marketing is a necessity.

So how does one use the email advantage to their business advantage successfully?

There are four basic tactics that can help you implement the major points of your business in an email marketing campaign.

1. Calculate the Purchasing Cycle of Your Customers
Every business operates differently and when it comes to purchasing, especially large ticket items, each company will follow certain protocol. If you can get a clear picture of how your customers operate between the period of browsing to the period of buying, you will have the upperhand for developing your email strategies.

2. Do Not Group the Old and the New
Many businesses make the mistake of simply adding new contact emails into an already-established prospect list. This can be a big mistake because the new potential customers have not had the benefit of receiving your previous welcoming emails which typically contain introductory information about your product or services.

If you are adding new emails into your list, these people may not be able to follow recent emails without a background on your product. By creating a standard set of emails that all new people receive your prospective customers will have access to all of the information about your product.

Providing customers with informational emails is a great reinforcement of what you have to offer. Invite customers to free webinars or podcasts or send out a white paper that is of benefit to your prospects. Don’t just promote your business.

The more proof you can supply of your expertise the better chance you stand at keeping the attention of your customers.

3  Regain Interested Customers
It is likely that a large percentage of your email contacts will be non-responsive to your email marketing campaigns but it is a big mistake to ignore that list completely. Regardless of whether or not they click through on your emails or not, it is wise to work instead on trying to reenergize their interest.

By continuing to let them remain inactive without some special attention, you will eventually start to devalue your email marketing campaigns and will find you will have a large amount of undeliverable mail.

When working to win back these customers, it may take several attempts to find out which works best for your business. One such tactic may be to offer exclusive deals only for email list recipients. By providing extra services to your list and not just offering them the standard services, your customers may be more inclined to take action.

You can also put together a simple survey to find out what they are interested in. Also you could ask for feedback on your services or products and what it is you can do better. Go back to the original reason your customers are on your list and use that information to create your win ‘em back strategies.

4. Maintain an Email Calendar
One thing you don’t want to do is become a nuisance. There is the possibility that you can send emails too often and turn off a lot of potential customers. By creating a calendar for your marketing campaigns, you will have an outline to follow to ensure you are moving forward.

Creating a list of seasonal promotions, you will have the opportunity to keep customers in the know about what is happening now and what is coming up. Sending monthly newsletters is a great way to give your customers free information while still promoting your business as effectively as possible. The calendar can serve as a simple visual for planning fresh ideas for each new month.

CALL TO ACTION
Develop a draft email marketing campaign. Talk to an internet marketing expert, get some feedback and start your emails. 

Gail Geronimos
Co-Founder
Achaeus

We take over lots of websites owned by small businesess that need a reliable web developer to manage their website, and unfortunately the process if often hampered by the lack of essential details held by the business owner. Here’s a list of things you should keep tucked away in a file somewhere just in case something bad happens to you.

Geeky warning: Some of the concepts here are technical – if you have any questions just post a comment!

Domain Password

This is sometimes a single password, or a username and password depending on who your domain was registered through.

These details would have been given to whomever registered your domain name for you.

If something happens to your web host and you need to quickly move your website to a new one, you will need this to make the switch.

FTP Details

The File Transfer Protocol allows your web developer to transfer your website from their development platform up to your web host. Your web host will have provided these when you first signed up for a hosting account.

If you’re unhappy with your web developer, you’ll need to give your new developer the FTP details so they can backup the website, and continue to make changes.

Hosting Account Access

Most web hosts have an interface which allows you to make changes to basic account details like setup new email addresses, create a new database and check your statistics.

To move to a new web host, it will be easier if you are able to access your hosting account so your new host can set up the same email accounts and move over your account fully.

Email Accounts

It is a good idea to have a list of email accounts for all your domain names, and the current password. Also include on the list if you have any forwarders or aliases.

If your computer crashes and you are unable to access your email, with your username and password you will still be able to access your email using a webmail interface until your computer is repaired.

I can’t be the only person out there who sighs at the size of her inbox every morning!

Being efficient on email is tricky for me because I get such a large volume of email email day, and I spend a large chunk of most days in meetings. It’s especially tricky if I’ve had a day off.

Here’s some tricks of the trade I’ve employed over the years to help reduce my email stress, and improve my customer service.

Leave only unattended emails in your inbox.

As soon as you’ve replied to an email, forwarded it to a colleague for action or talked about the contents in a phone call, move it out of your inbox. Either file it, or put it in a quick To Be Filed folder for processing later.

Don’t use your inbox as a task list.

As soon as you check your email, check for the ones which require you to do something which will take time, and put these on your task list.

Upgrade to Outlook 2007.

If you’re still on Outlook 2003, upgrade as soon as possible. Outlook 2007 has outstanding and superior search capability which is far quicker than it’s predecessors. This means if you need to find an email pronto, you can, no hassles. I’ve run Outlook 2007 since June 2007 and am very happy with it.

BCC follow ups.

If you know you want to follow up an email you sent, BCC yourself a copy as you send it. Leave this in your inbox until you receive a reply, and then file the reply and the BCC when you’re done.

24h turnaround.

We all inevitably get phone calls and follow up emails if we don’t get back to people quickly. I aim for a 24h turnaround with all emails to avoid the time wasting follow ups and embarrassing apologies. I am in the technology business after all, if anyone can reply to an email quickly, you’d hope it’s be me!

In the world of case sensitivity, it’s always refreshing when I tell people their domains and email address are not case sensitive. The major benefit of this is course, is that you can use capital letters at the beginning of words in multi-word domain names and alleviates the temptation to buy a domain with a hyphen.

So here’s some examples, see how the capitalisation makes them easier to read:

getwebservices.com.au > GetWebServices.com.au

evolveenergy.com.au > EvolveEnergy.com.au

tourstogo.com > ToursToGo.com

goodsexporter.com > GoodsExporter.com

Did you get caught on the last one? *shakes finger at you* You have naturally naughty thoughts!

The examples show how much easier it is to read a business name in the domain or separate the words with a capital letter. Have you seen any domains that have tricked you up when all written in lowercase?

I am eternally frustrated with the number of ISP email addresses like businessname@bigpond.com I see in advertising. In newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages and even on business cards it seems many small businesses are unaware this is so naughty. Using an email address at your own domain is very important for these reasons.

What happens when you change of ISP?

Inevitably, you will also need to change your email address. Having your primary business email address at your ISP means if you find a great deal on internet access there is a large cost associated with changing the email address over across all sources of advertising.

Owning a domain name and operating email addresses on your domain means your email is independent of your ISP, and you’re free to move as you please.

Brand Awareness

Strengthen your brand at every opportunity. This includes your email address. By having your own email address shows you’re operating a serious business.

Which is better in your mind?

nickycitycairns@bigpond.com or nicky@cityofcairns.com?