Yesterday, the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, sent tweets predicting a longer winter and updated his Facebook status. Even our furry-friend Phil is an effective marketer in 2010! However, as the marketing world becomes more social, we shouldn't forget about those communication channels that still work effectively – email marketing for example. Do you intend on going social in 2010? Don't forget about the power of email marketing. Email marketing is still a solid, cost-effective method to communicate with your customers and prospects. In fact, marketers are sharpening their email marketing skills in order to enhance and bring about even better responses to their campaigns.
What can you do in 2010 to enhance the power of your email marketing program? Here are a few tips:
1. Segment & target. Reward your most loyal customers with exclusive offers, such as special shopping hours or rebates based on their level of spending. Give your prospects a reason to communicate with you by inviting them to a special event, seminar or webinar. You can keep customers loyal with new product announcements and special coupons targeted toward your most valued customers. For prospects, create additional touch points and promotions so the are engaged and have a higher propensity to convert into revenue.
2. Be relevant. Your email competes with other social media and loads of other promotional emails (especially on Tuesday) so your content needs to stand out. Highly relevant email sent to in-house email lists and segmented lists are proven to be effective, and need not be complicated. Send out a survey and ask your customers what they'd like to read. Then, follow up and deliver the enhanced content by customer segments or by interest. For example, if you manage a sporting goods store, you can segment emails targeted by sport. It's almost baseball season, so dust off the promotions for the balls and gloves. Or, make a YouTube video and post a review of the newest bats. Your customers will thank you by reading your email, staying on your list, and purchasing in their category.
3. Scrub well. Manage your email database, continually update your list with new customers and make sure to have a process in place to update changes in current customer's email addresses. Keep track of customer preferences, and give them options to select what types of communications they'd like to receive from you.
With a little extra focus on email for 2010, you can find renewed rewards from your email campaigns. Like Bill Murray in the movie version of Groundhog Day, you'll be rewarded when you've learned the right lessons.