STRATEGY THREE
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3. email follow up & newslettersEmail Follow up is a good way of staying connected with your customer-base. However, emails do not always have a high "open rate" and as a result may not be one of your preferred methods of communication. However, if done right, email follow can be a very effective way of staying connected with former customers, clients or new opt-ins for new business. Here is the trick to winning repeat business through email marketing: Do try to sell our product or services every email instead address the problems people are experience or are asking in your industry and provide solutions. Inform and educate them about topics directly or loosely related to your niche. The general rule is 80% value 20% sales. That being the case only 2 out of every 10 emails should be directly selling your goods or services. Even if you’re acquiring the right sort of customers and activating them rapidly it’s important to continue to monitor customers that become inactive and prompt them to purchase your products or use to your services again. It is imperative that you spend enough time ensuring your customers don’t leave you or forget you if you want to maximize retention, reduce acquisition costs and increase quarterly revenue. |
An easy and effective email campaign to run is a Weekly or Monthly Newsletter. Newsletters may sound like a lot of work but they are not. On the contrary, it is very simple to put together and is less likely to be trashed as junk mail. Newsletter templates are available through all the major Email providers. It doesn't have to be a long Newsletter 2, 3 or 4 columns with 1 featured topic or several topics specific to your business or loosely related to business. The style you choose to use is completely up to you. However, your Newsletter should always contain one ad or promo with a compelling CALL-TO-ACTION preferably positioned at the top half of your Newsletter. Decide if you want to send out your Newsletter weekly or monthly. I do not recommend sending it out daily.
This Newsletter example shows you how simple your Newsletter can be. Of course, you can make your newsletter more colorful and more niche specific than the example shown below. I recommend sending your Newsletters electronically, especially if you do not have a marketing budget. However, you can also mail them, just be mindful of high mailing and printing costs.
This Newsletter example shows you how simple your Newsletter can be. Of course, you can make your newsletter more colorful and more niche specific than the example shown below. I recommend sending your Newsletters electronically, especially if you do not have a marketing budget. However, you can also mail them, just be mindful of high mailing and printing costs.
If your goal is simply to provide a Newsletter containing news and updates for the purpose of keeping your business name in the minds of your customers/clients then a simple professional presentation like this one works very well, especially if you are a provider of professional service or a large corporation. A smart way of keeping this to one page would be to hyperlink each article to your company blog (if you have one) or to the respective page of your website if you are sending out an e-Newsletter, per my recommendation.
If your goal is to connect with your customers daily or on a more personal level a standard email may better serve your needs.
Tip: Always obtain the email address and cell phone number of your customers or clients. Send them a quarterly survey to gather valuable information; to gauge their current needs or to get their feedback & suggestions on your product or services. This lets them know you value their opinion (and their patronage).
RELATED LINKS & RESOURCES
Kalatu Cloud - Complete CRM
GetResponse.com (Email Marketing platform - offers a 30-day trial)
dotmailer.com (Email Marketing platform - offers a 30-day trial)
iContact.com (unsure of their current promotions)
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