Improve web marketing ROI using email marketing

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Successful email marketing

Powerful email marketing can convert prospects to valuable customers and grow customer lifetime value. To be successful, email marketing is about consistently delivering relevant and compelling content to target prospects / customer segments with the intention of achieving specific marketing objectives. I use email marketing in over 20 different marketing strategies. These include:-

• acquisition strategies such as prospect list opt-ins & prospect surveys
• conversion strategies such as seminar invitations & prospect nurturing
• growth strategies such as first order follow up & cross selling
• retention strategies such as customer satisfaction surveys
• win back strategies for lapsed customers

How can email marketing cost effectively deliver more sales?

For most companies, email marketing is the most cost effective way of communicating with prospects and customers. One of my Wiltshire email marketing clients recently reduced mail costs by 80%.

Importantly, it is possible to deliver highly tailored content which can:

• be personalised for each individual such as incorporating first name, town etc
• be dynamic i.e. different segments can receive different content based on specific criteria e.g. high value clients get message x and low value clients get message y
• maintain a regular cost-effective regular dialogue with prospects / customers so you are top of mind when they are ready to make a purchase decision
• effectively communicate information about new products / services / price changes
• make seasonal offers / promotions to encourage purchase
• attract visits to your website with just one clickcollect valuable data and insight on prospects / customers

There are numerous email broadcast systems available. There are very low cost systems that do a great job like 1ShoppingCart which I have used for many years. I also have a more advanced email system which I use for clients who require very high delivery performance, superior tracking and reporting and also want to create bespoke landing pages and surveys.

Does it work?

If you have ever bought a product from Amazon or Apple you will undoubtedly have seen how they use email marketing as a major web marketing strategy. Five years ago, sophisticated email marketing was limited to a handful of big corporates with big budgets and extensive technical resources. This is no longer the case and it is brilliant that much of the email marketing that the big brands do can now also be carried out by smaller companies with more modest budgets.

When done well, it delivers a great web marketing ROI.

How do you develop successful email marketing campaigns?

You need to commit time and some budget (but not a lot). Similar to PPC advertising, for most smaller companies, time is the biggest issue. It is possible to get campaigns delivered relatively quickly.

To get great results takes time and expertise to make sure:-

• prospect / customer data lists are maintained to a high standard
• the email (& system) is designed to achieve high delivery rates
• the email is designed to achieve high open rates and high click through rates
• the content is tailored to the various segments
• compliance with high standards of privacy and various regulations such as unsubscribes
• regular reviews of campaign performance and continual implementation of improvements to web marketing ROI are carried out

Many companies (big and small) find they don't have the time or expertise to do this themselves to a high enough standard and use a email marketing specialist.

Email marketing is a great way to convert prospects to valuable customers, grow customer lifetime value and significantly improve your marketing ROI.

Take a look at some of my other email marketing blogs:-

• James Villa email marketing
• Email marketing that delivers a high ROI - a case study
• Interflora email stands out

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Published 10th December, 2008

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