 |
October, 2009 Effective Websites NewsletterHi [FirstName], This month I'm continuing my series about email marketing which began last month. If you missed the first part, click the link to the September issue in the Previous Newsletters box in the right column. There's also an article this month about keeping your image consistent online across your website, your blog and your Twitter page. Dave Salahi Effective Email MarketingLast month I discussed some of the advantages of email marketing, chief among them being its low cost and high ROI. This month we're going to look at how to get started with email marketing. Don't Send Your Newsletter from Outlook, Gmail, etc.One of the first things you need to know when starting an email campaign is that you generally shouldn't send your email newsletter from your regular email program. This can work if your mailing list is very small, say, fewer than 50 recipients. But once it gets larger than that you'll generally run into problems with your internet service provider. Most ISPs and email websites limit the number of recipients on an email in order to reduce spam. So once you reach that limit you'll be forced to divide your recipient list into smaller groups and send a copy of your newsletter to each group. Another problem with this technique is that the names of other recipients can be obtained from the email header. You can make it harder to do this by using the undisclosed recipients technique but it's still possible for a tech-savvy person to access the email addresses. As a responsible business, you want to be proactive in protecting your customers' privacy. When you use a business email solution a separate email is sent to each recipient. Finally, once your email list gets bigger than about 50 people you'll spend too much time manually managing membership subscriptions. You'll need an automated solution instead. Use an Email ServiceSo, instead of sending your email newsletter from your normal email client you should use an email service. Numerous low-cost paid services exist, such as Constant Contact, iContact, and Vertical Response among others. Services such as these provide numerous benefits including:
These services are generally easy to use and, with their low monthly cost, they're a good choice for many businesses. However, your mailing list is stored on the service's web servers and some people may not feel comfortable having their customer data stored on a server that's not under their direct control. If you do go with a hosted service it is important to make sure you get regular downloads of all your customer information. This is a good backup practice and it will be necessary for you to have your own copy of your data if you ever wish to move to a different email solution. Host Your Own Email ServiceThe main disadvantage of a hosted service is that there is a monthly charge and, over time, the cost can add up. You can instead run your own email service on your web server. The software is free and there are no monthly charges. This approach also allows you to keep closer control of your vital customer and prospect data. Finally, I think that running your own service presents a more professional image in your emails. The hosted solutions attach an advertisement for their service to each of your outgoing emails. But when you run your own service, the only ads are yours. Next MonthOnce you're ready to send your first email newsletter you'll want to make sure it's attractive and easily readable by all your recipients. Unfortunately, the numerous email programs (Outlook/Outlook Express, Gmail, Windows Live Mail, Yahoo, Apple's Mac Mail, etc.) all display HTML email differently. If you don't take care in the creation of your email design your message could appear badly garbled for some readers. Next month, we'll discuss this problem and some solutions. In the meantime, if you have questions about any of the topics discussed above, please contact Dave at 949-362-0842 or dave@artistic-webdesign.com. |
|