Email Marketing Methods

Daily correspondence - One of the great uses of email is something we all take for granted. I remember the first time I used email, how incredibly cool it was to be able to send a message to a friend on the other side of the world and get a response in moments. Often when we think about using the internet for business we think about the world wide web. While the web is an awesome tool for communicating information, email can be just as useful and effective (even more effective for lead generation and sales). One way to take advantage of the daily use of email is to simply correspond with clients and customers, checking in on them and reminding them that you are there when they need you.

General announcements to your personal contacts and clients - It doesn't take long to build up a collection of email addresses in Outlook or whatever email client you use for your personal and business contacts. Grouping these contacts into email lists and sending out general announcements to appropriate groups about happenings at your company is a great practice. There is no reason not to; it's free; and it's a pretty good bet that anyone in your personal email list will at least be happy to hear from you.

Email newsletters - Email newsletters (like this one!) are a great way of keeping your company in the minds of the people with whom you do business. Hopefully the newsletters are also interesting and helpful to subscribers. The only cost to offering email newsletters is that of producing them. The time investment for producing a newsletter (which I am very aware of as I sit here typing on a Saturday afternoon) is considerable. Newsletters can be valuable resources for your clients and customers, and it's a great way to utilize email. If your client already produces a newsletter it's a no-brainer to offer it via email.

Using email for active lead generation and sales - The uses of email already mentioned fall into the category of customer service and retention. While most companies have failed to recognize and utilize the internet in the area of customer service, these uses do not create leads or generate sales. Email however can be an active, lead generating tool that finds and directs new customers and clients to your company. In my opinion, before a company should think about how to use email aggressively to generate leads and sales, it should first become familiar with using email as a customer service and relationship tool. The experience of using email regularly will help to form good practices and perspectives in email marketing. Once there is a general comfort level in using email, using it as a lead generation and sales tool can be powerful.