Sunday, July 06, 2008

How to improve your e-mail marketing


OnlineItools.com offers these suggestions to make your e-mail blasts work harder for you:

Motivate Your Customers

When you send out an e-mail newsletter you want them to buy a product, pay for a service, come to a special event, or volunteer for your organization. Whatever your goal may be, you are looking for a "direct response" from them. E-mail marketing can motivate your customers if it's done right.

How do you engage your customers? When you e-mail the people on your list, you engage in some level of "direct response" marketing-marketing that requests an action on the part of the recipient. One element of good direct marketing is an offer that engages the reader to take action.

Why is the offer so important? The 40/40/20 rule of direct marketing says that the success of an email marketing campaign is based 40 percent on targeting the right audience (your email list), 40 percent on the offer you make, and 20 percent on your creative execution (including copy-writing and design).

Once you've decided on your offer, run it through this checklist to make sure it is as effective as it can be.

1. Does your offer have a high perceived value? Perceived is the key word here. The good news is that an effective offer doesn't have to cost much at all. It just has to be something of value to your audience.

2. Is your offer easy to understand and take action on? Have you gotten an e-mail that had an offer that was so involved, that you just said, "forget it!"? You don't want people to be overwhelmed and forget your offer. Make it simple. Don't add a lot of conditions or steps. If you can, stick with one step: call this number, click here to buy, type in this discount code, or register here.

3. Is your offer relevant to the product, service, or event you are promoting? A great offer isn't just good for the person who receives it; it's good for your business or organization too! You want your offer to tie into the product you're selling, event you're promoting, or service you're providing. That way, it will help advance the sale, or-better yet-inspire your audience to take immediate action.


Remember, 40 percent of your direct response success depends on your offer, so it's well worth giving some careful thought to what you want that offer to be. Also, have some fun testing different offers to see which ones get better responses. This will help you understand what your audience values.
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Try it -- it's FREE! Click here to learn more: http://www.onlineitools.com