How To Build a Basic Email Marketing Capability

by Tim Slavin

This summer past my wife and I drove our kids cross country as part of a move from Connecticut to Arizona. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, my wife dragged me into a sculpture gallery off the main plaza.

After I agreed with my wife the sculpture she had picked out would look fine in our new home, I turned to the store owner and asked whether or not she used the internet to support her business. She responded exactly the way I've heard before from other business owners: she had a website, barely, and did nothing with email.

This is backwards. While websites are useful, and a 1-5 page site is easy enough to set up, it is email that offers the greatest opportunity to convert buyer interest into sales over time. Some large number of people who walk into a store may be interested but not be ready to buy. Email is a relatively cheap way to keep in touch with these folks, as well as provide information that lets them buy when they're ready.

More to the point for local businesses, research studies show people not only open email from local businesses at a higher rate, they also buy at higher rates as a result of receiving these emails. People clearly respond to the connection they have to a business they've walked into and dealt with personally.

This article describes a low-cost way for any business, including the gallery in Santa Fe, to create a basic email newsletter capability rather quickly. It's not hard. It just takes a little diligence over time.

The first step is to take a break from your business, family, and other cares. Take time to think about what you want to accomplish with email marketing. One measurable goal I've already mentioned: generate future sales from customers as well people who walked into your shop but never bought.

Another measurable goal might be referrals from existing customers to potential new business. Or a website that supports itself with advertising might want to drive people to click on an email link and visit your website pages.

Bottomline, your goals should be clear, measurable, and written down on a piece of paper that you can find easily.

Once you have your goals documented, the next step is to collect email addresses. This has at least two aspects to consider: the way you collect the addresses and how you collect addresses. The easiest way to collect email addresses is to use a simple wire-bound notebook that you put near the cash register. A neater way to do it, however, is to print up simple postcards that includes these elements:

• A title that clearly describes what the postcard does and the subscriber benefits (e.g. "Sign Up for Our Emails...Learn About New Products")
• Lines for the person's first name, last name, email address Possibly 2-4 checkboxes for the person to indicate what topics they'd want to hear about in an email
• One line for additional information (e.g. topics not included in your checkboxes, notes from yourself or your staff about the person's interests/needs)
• Copy in bold that states what you will do with their email address (e.g. "We will not sell or trade your email address. It will only be used to tell you about our latest products. We value your privacy.")
• Copy that thanks the person for signing up

How you collect email addresses is more important than the mechanical way you gather the address. Because email can be a powerful way to connect with your prospects and customers, every email address should be collected as part of a conversation. You and your staff should offer the signup card (or notebook, if you go that route) in the context of talking with that person about what they need.

For example, if you see someone can't find what they need, offer the email signup card as a way for you to let them know when what they need arrives. (And be sure to note on their signup card exactly what they needed but could not find.) Or your customer may be at the cash register and you can offer your email signup card as a way to learn when other items of interest to them will arrive.

I also stress that email addresses should be collected only through face to face or phone contact because of spam. You should never buy a list of email addresses. The best list is one collected through human contact, even if it is a much smaller list.

Once you have email addresses in hand, I recommend that you send a welcome email that reminds them they have subscribed to your emails, the reasons they signed up (for example, if you have notes on their signup card, be sure to write something personal that elaborates on your notes), and a link to unsubscribe from your emails. The unsubscribe link will help "train" your reader that they have nothing to fear about getting emails from you. This is covered in more detail in the "Write and Send Email" section below.

One final note about email signup. A person's email address is valuable. Therefore, you should seriously consider offering something valuable and/or fun in return. If you are a grocery store, for example, you might have a little sign that says, "Free Cookie if you Sign Up for Our Emails." Or you could work with a nearby store to offer something of small value that provides free publicity for that retailer. Something small but valuable also helps reinforce to the subscriber that you recognize the value of their email address. It helps build trust.

A successful email marketing capability relies on both a strong signup process, as described above, and a clearly defined process to generate emails that are relevant to your subscribers. You will fail if you simply sit down once a month to write a quick email then send it.

Instead, as part of defining a few measurable goals, you also should consider how and whn you plan to send email. I recommend that you start with email offers that include special codes or products that help you connect a sale with a specific email. I also recommend that you use text emails initially and don't bother with html unless you want to take the extra time.

Why text? For one thing, it is the quickest way to get started sending email. Most business owners I've worked with are time-starved. If that describes you, chances are your email marketing efforts will founder because you lack the time. Sending simple text email offers on a regular basis will generate equal and possibly better results than a more elaborate html email.

The one downside to text email is that you cannot track how many people opened your email. However, if you are getting started with email marketing, including an email only offer lets you track how many people expressed an interest based upon your email as well as sales from that email.

Another part of setting up your email marketing process involves setting up email accounts at different services. Look at your list of email addresses from prospects and customers. If some of them are at Yahoo! or Hotmail, you probably should set up email accounts at those services. Then send your emails to those addresses to test your email before you send it to your list. You probably cannot set up test email accounts at every source in your email address list, but you should for the top three to five.

So your email process should include a list of email offers you plan to send over the next 3-6 months, when you plan to write the offers, what additional information you'll need for each email you send, if appropriate, and smiliar information. Basically write down all the little details you can think of that you'll need. That way, when you sit down to send email, you can dig out this information and be more efficient.

Perhaps the easiest step in creating an email marketing capability for your business is finding someone to send your emails. There are a number of good email service providers who offer a range of services beyond sending email, for example, tracking clicks within your emails, providing html email templates, and articles about email marketing. Even better, moving from one email service provider to another is fairly straightforward. You're not locked in.

Here are the basic capabilities that I would recommend you look for in an email service provider that offer the ability to:

• Cut and paste your email into a web page form and create from scratch using their publishing tools
• Track open rates, click throughs, and email forwarded to friends
• Use professional email templates that have simple designs that are provided
• Customize all the housekeeping emails used to subscribe and unsubscribe
• Export and import email addresses from .CSV files, as well as manually type in email addresses
• Send test emails
• Evaluate the spamminess of your emails

While there are many low-cost email service providers, the ones I recommend you look at are Intellicontact, EzineDirector, CoolerEmail, ConstantContact. As a side note, I do not make money recommending these services. I've simply used them enough to believe they might work for your needs, too.

Why not send email yourself, from your own computer? There are a number of good reasons not to do so. For one thing, letting someone else send your email means they handle the unsubscriptions (and subscriptions, if you also use your website to sign people up). They also track open rates and clickthroughs, if you send html email. They also handle any spam complaints. And it's possible that your internet provider will shut off your service and label you a spammer if you send an email with some unspecified number of recipients.

But mostly I recommend smaller businesses use email service provider because it is a small price to pay for peace of mind. I personally do not want to worry about handling unsubscribes, or being labelled a spammer, and assume you don't either.

If you're like me, writing can be scary. So let's start with the easiest part of writing email: the From line and the Subject line.

The From line is what you see in your email software. To start, I would recommend that you use your first name with your business name in parenthesis, Jane Doe (Wilton Flower Shop). This allows your From line to be personal and remind the reader where they know you from. However, every rule is made to be broken. Perhaps you want your from line to include only your business name. That's perfectly fine.

The only hard and fast rule is to be consistent. Why? Using the same From line helps people scan their email looking for email to delete. If they recognize your email, they're less likely to delete it thinking it's someone they do not know. People also might sort their email and it helps your readers if all your email shows up together; if you use multiple From lines, your emails could wind up in different groupings.

Writing your Subject line is fairly straightforward. Most email software truncates the email subject line after 5-8 words. So having all your email subject lines begin with "Read this great email from the Wilton Flower Shop" won't work. It is better to put your business name in the From line and to use the subject line to entice readers to open your email. So you might write "Yellow roses, Potted ferns, ..." instead. Beyond being relevant and interesting with your Subject line writing, and making them different from email to email, you also should avoid spam words such as "Free."

Having loosened up by writing your From and Subject lines, let's get to writing emails.

There are two types of emails that you will need to write. Housekeeping emails are emails that subscribers will get when the unsubscribe, change their email address, and so on. These emails are often ignored, or treated lightly, but they are a critical part of your email marketing program. Highly personal housekeeping email messages that state the benefits of your emails will do more to build goodwill and retain customer interest than barely written emails.

For example, for the email sent when someone unsubscribes, you could send a message that says, "You are unsubscribed." Or you could send a message like this one I actually received from Bright Kids:

Thank you for being a subscriber to the "Bright-Kids" Email Newsletter.
Your request to be removed from our mailing list has been processed.
Feel free to re-join us at anytime -- you're always welcome here with Bright-Kids! :-)

To Resubscribe
mailto:[...email address...]

Simply Yours,

Debi

Deborah Taylor-Hough
mailto:[...email address...]
Editor, Bright-Kids Email Newsletter
Author, "A Simple Choice: A Practical Guide to Saving Your Time, Money and Sanity" and the bestselling "Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month" (Champion Press).

This unsubscribe message is a terrific example of the potential boring housekeeping emails possess. Not only does the email come from a human being, with her contact information, but I also get my confirmation, instructions on how to subscribe (in case I want to later, or made a mistake by unsubscribing), and a reminder of what makes this person and their email newsletter special (she writes great stuff about parenting kids). Unlike the simple "You've been unsubscribed" message, I've been given positive and well-rounded human contact.

Once you have writen your housekeeping emails, the next step is to focus on your offer emails. My experience is that most people are terrified about writing, myself included. My solution is to keep my writing simple and to the point. So here is my advice for writing emails.

Write as if they were in front of you. Think about what they are wearing, the color and cut of their hair, their facial expression, what made you first notice them when they walked into your store, their name. With this person vividly in front of you, what would you say to them? What do they need today? For what reasons? How can your business help?

Writing your email is your chance to connect as if they had walked into your store again. Don't forget their time is valuable. You could tell them all about your sick dog as part of meeting their needs. Certainly the human touch does help people bond. However, it is more effective to respond to their needs by describing how your business can meet their needs.

Once you have a simple message that is based on their needs, then add personality. Notice with the unsubscribe email I quoted above, from Bright Kids, how she has added not only a smiley face but also starts one key sentence with a verb: "Feel free to re-join us..." These are simple ways to add personality and humanity to your offer emails. It helps to be direct. But it also helps to be human.

I recommend that your offer emails focus on one main offer and possibly 2-3 additional offers. The extra offers can help you attract interest from readers who are interested in your business but not your main offer. Adding extra offers also adds interest to your email. The main offer should be a paragraph, possibly two, with 3-5 sentences per paragraph. The additional offers, if any, should be only a sentence or two. If it works, be sure to include urgency in one or more of your offers. "Stop by today to ..." always works better than "Hey come in any time to ..."

I also recommend that your offer emails include something that can be tracked to that email. For example, a restaurant might send an email mid-afternoon that includes a message, "Hungry? Don't want to cook? Our chef just found some succulent mushrooms from Oregon. They're brown, firm, and taste nutty. Come in tonight, mention this email, and she'll cook it up exactly the way you want." Remember, you don't have to offer a discount in order to track a response from an email. It helps but there are many ways to generate interest.

The most important thing to include in your email offers is a call to action. In addition to encouraging subscribers to mention your email, you also need to encourage them to call, come in, and maybe even email you with follow-up questions. Think of your email as communication. You want to encourage people to contact you when they receive your email. And don't forget the adding a little personality also can help people pick up the phone. You don't have to be all business 100% of the time.

Remember the measurable goals you created at the start of your email marketing efforts? The ones you wrote down? Every few months, be sure to dig them out. Also be sure to write down how many email responses, phone calls, and on site mentions you get as the result of each email you send. You might want to track how many sales, as well, and their dollar value.

If you are not getting the results you wanted, or you want to improve, there are a number of elements to tweak and consider:

• Are your emails relevant? Do they include information that ties back to any notes you jotted down when you collected email addresses? Going back to your subscription cards can generate ideas about what to write in your email offers.
• Are your emails personal? Or too personal? It is tough to strike a balance between making your email copy personal enough to foster a human connection and too much personality that drives people away. Show your email copy to people you trust. Ask for subscriber feedback. And when you write your copy, write your words and sentences as if a specific reader sat in front of you.
• Are your subject lines relevant and interesting? While experts say 5-8 words is ideal, I recommend that you simply make sure your first 5-8 words are relevant and capture attention. But using 10 words or more is not a sin if it conveys useful information.

In addition, if you have more than fifty subscribers, try dividing your list in two equal lists of email addresses then sending two versions of your email offer. The versions should differ only in 1 possibly 2 ways. For example, you might send two versions of your email offer where the only difference is the subject line. Or the emails might have the same subject line but different calls to action. While splitting your email list this way is not completely scientific, it can yield useful information over time.

My experience is that there is little difference between twenty email marketing campaigns that generate dozens of data points that can be measured and compared and two email marketing campaigns that generate phone calls and store visits. In either case, success hinges on setting up your email marketing in a way that lets you know when you've made a sale. It certainly is useful to know twenty subscribers opened an email but never called. But a sale is the gold standard, especially if you are starting out with email marketing.

Our credits to the source/author of this article: Author: Tim Slavin Tim Slavin is the Publisher of ReachCustomersOnline.com, an online magazine that offers free how-to internet knowledge for budget-minded businesses and the designers, programmers, and others who support them. Tim and his wife run Red Horse Communications, a writing and internet consultancy. Online since 1988, Tim has done websites, email marketing, SEO, programming, and other internet projects since 1995. This article is taken from the ReachCustomersOnline.com website. Further reprinting prohibited

Source: http://www.reachcustomersonline.com