Everyone is talking about Social Media these days… so is email marketing a thing of the dead. NO!
Email marketing on average generated $43.62 for every dollar spent on it during 2009 (Source: Direct Marketing Association). This probably makes it one of the most cost effective forms of marketing you can use.
But you need to use it properly… inform and educate and (sometimes) market/sell to your list… don’t spam them.
A few simple guidelines…
- Make sure that you are only emailing people who have given you their email addresses.
- If possible, segment your list into logical groups
- Send out emails to each group based on its interests.
- Personalize each users email with their own email addresses and possibly names. (Don’t stuff a lot of names in the CC and BCC fields)
There are online email marketing services that you can use but these generally incur monthly fees and are more applicable if you have larger lists.
If you have a small list and you would like to do your email marketing directly from Outlook, then you may want to look at Email Merge PRO for Outlook.
EmailMerge Pro lets you send out your emails directly from Outlook, it can personalise each email and it can even maintain different marketing lists for you (making it easy to segment your list).
But remember… whatever tool you use… only email people who have given you permission to email them!
