Email marketing
A week in the life of a Marketing Consultant
People often ask me what I actually ‘do’ as a marketing consultant, and although I can tell you that I help people promote their businesses, it still leaves the question … “but how?”
It does vary, depending on the business so I thought I’d give you an insight into what I’ve been up to in the last week or so.
Is a mailing list a good investment?
I am often asked whether I know of any good mailing list suppliers. And sometimes, an opportunity arrives in your email inbox from a company offering you the chance to buy a list. Although we all have to get business from somewhere, the problem with lists is that even if they are of good quality, they are unqualified and potentially the recipients have never heard of you.
Do they REALLY need to know?
I regularly work on customers’ newsletters and the brief is often: “we need to tell our customers about our new website” or “we need to let people know about our new service”. The problem with that approach is that your customer’s aren’t necessarily that interested. They might even say “so what?”
So how do you tell them about what you’re up to without simply shouting at them and hoping they’ll listen?
How far will your marketing messages travel?
I am on the mailing list of a printing company, but I’m signed up with my hotmail account, and I don’t check that account very often.
However, every now and again, I catch up on the various newsletters that come in, and last time I checked I found a newsletter from these printers, promoting the idea of “twitter cards” – little business cards that feature your twitter username and say “you’re now face to face with (username)”
I thought this was a cute idea, so posted a link to the article on twitter. Evidently several other people also thought it was a good idea as they re-tweeted the post to their followers. And who knows if their followers forwarded it again! So what can we learn from this?
Top tips for professional email campaigns
Considering how much effort it takes to put together an email newsletter (thinking about it, scratching your head, considering content, putting the right words together, gathering contacts etc.) it would be a real shame if it wasn’t as successful as it could be because of a few mistakes. Use this checklist before you send out your next email campaign.
Permission for email marketing
Nobody likes spam, and we all get too many emails. But how can you communicate with your genuine customers and followers who ARE interested in what you have to offer?
The answer is permission. Once you have someone’s permission to contact them, you can email with confidence. However, for your own sake (and theirs) use this opportunity wisely and send only interesting and relevant information… otherwise, you will soon see your mailing list dwindling.
5 tips to avoid the spam filter
The Internet Service Providers are battling an incoming tide of spam. It clogs up their systems, frustrates users and is generally a huge drain on resources. It’s an ongoing struggle, and currently they can only try to filter it out based on what they “guess” to be spam.
For genuine businesses, this means we can inadvertently get caught in spam filters, meaning that our messages never reach their intended recipients. Avoid the following, all of which can increase the likelihood of being caught in the content-based spam filters:
