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If you're stuck for ways of developing your email maketing list, you may want to consider a technique that a leading UK department store uses. The other day I went on the John Lewis (UK department store) to purchase some wedding gifts for a friend's wedding. On 'checking out' I was presented with the following invitation:
It is quite a simple technique to use, though I would suggest that John Lewis invite people to sign up for a newsletter instead of asking them to 'opt-out' if they don't want to receive any email correspondence. This is a wonderfully cheap way of acquiring new customers: let people put their wedding lists online, invite their guests to order online and then try and convert the wedding guests to customers!
The Long Walk To Justice is the symbolic journey of millions of people across the world to show the G8 leaders that the world is watching and waiting.
Read more about Live 8 and the Long Walk to Justice on the Live site. Make sure to sign the Live 8 List - an email list which "may be used to petition word leaders."
I've just downloaded an interesting pdf from the Right Now website, entitled E-Mail Marketing as a Relationship Strategy (you need to sign up to receive it). Written by the Peppers and Rogers Group, the management consulting firm, it offers a guide to High Impact E-mail Marketing and according to the marketing blurb offers the following:
E-mail Marketing as a Relationship Strategy is a guide for combining leading customer relationship strategies with the best practices within e-mail marketing. It begins with a look at the modern e-mail marketing landscape and an examination of its sharpest challenges. This is followed by "Four Steps to High Impact E-mail Marketing," designed to help decision makers surpass the challenges and achieve success. Throughout the report are examples of best-in-class e-mail marketing approaches, including a case study from Skechers USA, Inc.
The Resource Centre of this site also offers some other interesting White Papers.
For another year running Marketing Sherpa has compiled a list of real-life marketing stories in a FREE downloadble PDF, called Marketing Wisdom 2005. As the marketing blurb says, "[Marketing Wisdom 2005] Includes 105 real-life marketing lessons learned from MarketingSherpa readers including the folks at Timberland, Pacific Shaving, and ING Direct:
Haven't read it yet but if it's like last year's, it will make very good reading.
Just came across an interesting article from Wonderbranding. In it Michele Miller discusses some of the findings from eMarketing.com about targeting mothers through eMail. Here are some of the findings:
I remember when my wife was pregnant (around 3 years ago) she signed up to a few mother and toddler Web sites. Some of them were able to develop on-line relationships by sending us meaningful information, such as how our baby was developing on a given week and what changes my wife might expect. In addition, she signed up for coupons for a wide range of products, both for herself and the baby - I recall Huggies Club being one. I think that it is all about developing meaningful, valued relationships where women perceive and experience tangible benefits. The period before birth through to maternity offer companies a great opportunity to put the building blocks in place for the establishment of a long-lasting relationship. Not sure how many of them can build on this, though.
Michelle ends with some interesting questions: “Are you utilizing your online relationship with female consumers? Are you speaking to their needs... offering real value other than just an announcement of your latest sale? When they look at your email, do they envision a friend on the other end... or just another sales pitch?”
Interesting Links
Mother Bliss
iVillage
Heidi Cohen in an article entitled Found Money: Eight "Quick Hits" offers 8 quick fix tips for generating untapped revenue for you business. I like tip number 4 - putting links at the bottom of all your employees' outgoing e-mail. Given the number of employees who send emails to friends and families, outgoing email messages offer an ideal opportunity to place links to a company's products.
See also:
Setting up Email Signatures
In a previous article I mentioned how important email signatures were as a means of driving traffic to your website. In this article I will explain how to go about setting one up. Let's take the following example:
Alun John
Internet Marketing Consultant
Marketing Tom
http://www.marketingtom.com
02920 0000000
alun@marketingtom.com
Using Outlook Express this is the way that you go about it.
Here's a definition from David Chaffey, of the Chartered Insitute of Marketing:
"Like most buzz words ‘viral marketing’ means different things to different people. A viral marketing execution certainly needs to create a buzz to be successful. The two main forms of viral marketing are best known as ‘word-of-mouth’ and ‘word-of-mouse’. Both rely on networks of people to spread the word."
This quote comes from an article by Mr Chaffey, Is there life in viral marketing?, in which he discusses what viral marketing is, how it works and the legal implications of the new EU Privacy Directive. It is worth reading for the brief overview of the implications of the Act on on-line marketing within Europe.
Email signatures are an incredibly powerful, yet under-utilised, tool for driving traffic to your website. For those unfamiliar with the term, this is what one looks like:
Alun John
Internet Marketing Consultant
Marketing Tom
02920 0000000
email: alun@marketingtom.com
Email signatures are your way of signing off an email message and automatically appear when you hit the 'new' or 'create' message from programmes such as Outlook Express. Email signatures have the following benefits:
1. They are free
2. They are easy to set up
3. They can be modified to suit your audience
4. They can convey as much or as little information as you want
It is suprising how many companies fail to place even the most basic contact information at the end of their emails. Just think about these questions:
▪ Have you ever clicked on a web address in an email signature?
▪ Have you ever clicked on a promotional message from a client/potential client?
▪ Do you ever use emails to quickly identify someone's contact details - be it phone or email address?
Most people will answer 'YES' to the above and if you're not using email signatures, then you should look to start using them now.
