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Writing Effective Marketing E-mails |
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According to Forrester Research, “The total spending for e-mail marketing services in the United States will reach $2 billion by the end of 2002.” What’s Good About E-Mail Marketing?Why is e-mail marketing becoming so popular? The most important reason is cost. When compared to the cost of direct marketing, e-mail is quite cost effective. You don’t have to pay for postage or paper and you can replace your paper newsletter with electronic versions. It is easy to target your audience according to their preferences. Different mailings can be set up to address the needs of different target groups. Your main message can be easily changed to incorporate whatever details you want to include. Unlike a direct mailing that is the same to all customers, e-mails are much more flexible and targeted. An e-mail marketing campaign is fast and easy to use. Most mass e-mail programs work just like a word processing program and link with a simple spreadsheet like Excel or database like Access. You simply create the message and tell the software where to find your customer e-mail addresses. With the push of one button you can send out thousands of messages to your targeted audience. Organize Your MessageWhen putting together a marketing e-mail, use the same care as you would with any other marketing technique. Decide who your audience is and carefully plan out your message. Keep it short and to the point. No one wants to read a long, wordy e-mail. Start with your most important point and end with a request for action. Dottie Edwards, of First Team Realty in Irvine feels confident in her writing, but still has her concerns when putting a message together. “I don’t really have a problem (writing e-mails), but I suppose it would be making sure my message is clear.” Her colleague, Sybil Miller, shares her sentiments about writing a clear message. When asked what her biggest challenge was when writing an e-mail, she stated “Making sure the message is clear. As you can see I waffle around a lot. And probably organizing it, getting started sometimes; stuff gets in the way.” Use Reader’s ViewpointYour message needs to be what people want to know, not just what you want to sell. Position your message from the reader’s viewpoint. Ask yourself, what is important to your target audience? Include the benefits to the reader. Everyone wants to know what’s in it for me? A persuasive message is more successful if it appeals directly to the wants and needs of the reader. Subject LineMake sure your subject line is easy to understand. Make it short and specific to your message. The subject line is the first thing your audience will read, so try to make it catchy. If the subject line sounds interesting, they will probably open up the e-mail. Decide On An IncentiveAs with any direct marketing plan, you need to decide what incentive you will give your potential customers when they respond to your e-mail. Take a moment to again look at your target audience and decide what might have the most appeal to this audience. Depending on your audience you could: offer something for free, offer something extra, or offer a discounted rate. Always remember to include a deadline with these offers. It helps motivate people to make a decision quickly and not put things off. Include An Action StatementAt the end of your e-mail you want to conclude with what I call the action statement. What specifically, do you want your potential customer to do as a result of reading your e-mail? Do you want them to reply electronically to your e-mail, to phone you, or go to your website? You decide what would work best for your target audience, but just make sure it is easy for them to respond. Edit Your MessageHave someone else edit and proofread your message before you send it out. No matter how careful you are, it is easy to miss your own mistakes. It takes a fresh pair of eyes looking at a message to find errors you overlooked. For three months I was editing and proofing my website with my web designer before it went online. We both carefully checked it over and couldn’t find anything wrong. An hour after I sent out announcements about my website going live, I received e-mails from three people who found minor errors that we had missed. I couldn’t believe it; I had been so careful to check for errors. Travis Barron of Re/Max in Irvine, knows the difficulty of putting together a concise e-mail and he takes his time to make sure the message goes out error-free. “Sometimes its hard when you are talking about real estate related matters. Its not like you are writing a letter, you really have to convey a lot of information in a short amount of space. I usually write it and I go back through and read it a couple of times and even sit on it and then send it out. Limit Your E-MailsLimit the number of e-mails you send out to a client. Try to send no more than two e-mails a month and put at least two weeks between e-mails. If you start sending too many e-mails, you will be an annoyance even if you have their permission to send e-mails to them. Also try to make your e-mails a source of information rather than just a push for sales. Sybil Miller of First Team Realty in Irvine tries to vary the type of e-mails she sends her clients. “I’ll e-mail them listings or I’ll email them telling them about the new trends. Like now, when I e-mail them, I’ll tell them that our inventory is low.” Unsubscribe OptionAlways include an unsubscribe option. Situations change and people may want to opt out from receiving your e-mails. It is better to let them leave on good terms with you rather than you continuing to send them unwanted e-mails. It is always possible that they will contact you again at a later time to start receiving your e-mails. What’s most important is to maintain customer goodwill.
This article appeared on 2/6/2003 at www.brokeragentnews.com |
