by James Shaw and Amelia Penner

Newsletters are an extremely common form of communication between companies and their customers.  Email marketing is a great way to advertise special offers, grow your audience, and communicate with your customers.

Key Benefits of Email Marketing

• Maintains top of mind awareness through regular contact
• Drives traffic to your website
• Gives your reader something valuable (promotions, information, communication)
• Continues the relationship that began when they visited your website, store, or social media
• Integrates with social media (promotes your YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts)
• Highly interactive (You can't click play video on a postcard!)
• It’s trackable and measurable

Why Not Direct Mail?
Are you still using direct mail as a form of advertisement?  Direct mail is only as measurable as you want it to be.  For a truly trackable direct mail campaign you need to ensure that every customer brings in their mailout to redeem for the promotion.  This way you can count how many came in.  Plus, on top of that you have the cost of sending out the actual campaign.  Direct Mail has it's place, and can be effective to drive a brand new group of people to a website or to a store.  (After all, you are only supposed to email to list of people that have given you permission first!)

Email marketing requires only your time to type the newsletter and then simply click ‘Send!’.  Then you can monitor how many people opened the email, clicked on links in your newsletter (and which ones!), and if your newsletter was forwarded on to anyone.  Now isn’t that handy?  Email Marketing software either comes with a monthly subscription fee based on list size or pay-per-use payment plan - either way, it's WAY cheaper than direct mail.

Couldn’t I Just Use Outlook?
The problem with using an email program like Outlook or Hotmail is that you have a limited amount of email addresses that you can send to.  This can also be time consuming of ensuring that you have all of your customer’s email addresses in Outlook to send to.  You also cannot automatically personalize your emails to the person.  Finally, the biggest problem is that you cannot track how effective your newsletter was.

And just in case you’re still not convinced:

• Email's ROI index is 55 percent higher than any other direct-response marketing vehicle. - Direct Marketing Association (2008)
• For every dollar spent on email marketing in 2008, marketers can expect an estimated $43.52 ROI. - Direct Marketing Association (2008)

It all starts with your Customer List
Well, you can’t send out a newsletter without a list of email addresses.  Constant Contact allows you to import CSV’s of your customer’s email addresses.  You can also divide up your customer’s email addresses into separate lists.  For example, if you have multiple locations you can divide up your emails based on what location is nearest them.  This way you can better target your promotions to your customers.  For more information on how to build your email list click here: http://www.twincreekmedia.com/blog/2010/06/got-a-store-build-your-email-list/

Remember to only use email addresses that you obtained through your company.  Also, do not spam your customers or email out unsolicited emails.

Newsletter Basics
Help your audience solve a unique issue, find good information, and provide something of real value.  Don't SELL with an overtly spammy message!  Each time you send your customers a newsletter you need to be sure that it’s worth them opening the newsletter.  You want to make sure that your email list will not unsubscribe from receiving your newsletters as that defeats the purpose.

Some basic tips to follow are: use the right tone, you don’t have to always offer a sale, make them want to connect with you, and encourage them to share.

Always remember to proofread and test the newsletter before you send it out to your client list!

The Subject Line
This is one of the most important parts of your email newsletter.  When it comes to the subject line of the email - keep it short and simple!  You have 3 seconds or less for your customer to decide if they want to open your newsletter.  Using 30 - 40 characters including spaces (5 - 8 words) is usually a good guideline to follow.

Don’t use words like: free, guarantee, spam, credit card, etc.  Also, do not write in all capital letters and use excessive punctuation like “!!!” or “???”.  Finally, make sure that it connects with the content inside your newsletter.

Leading Email Marketing Software: Constant Contact
Constant Contact is really easy to use and manage on your own.  There are a variety of templates to choose from to make your newsletters more effective.  Since all of your contacts are imported into Constant Contact you can choose which email list to send out a newsletter to and each email will be personally addressed to that person.  Finally, you can view all the statistics and tracking for each newsletter that you send out!

Want more ideas to expand your audience and increase engagement?  Contact us today to set up an integrated marketing campaign that is the perfect fit for your business!

by Amelia Penner & James Shaw

With a bit of creativity and effort, you can have a list of 1000's of people to stay in touch with via email.  Best of all, it's really cheap!

All companies should have a database of clients and prospective clients that they use for newsletters, promotions, etc.  When using your list to send out announcements or run a promotion, its success is only as good as the people in your database.  This can be a challenge if you are new to collecting customer's information or if you are dragging around a list that you created years ago.

Here are some tips on how to build up your email list:

1.   Customers - a natural place to start
If you are not already collecting your customer's information, start!  People who have previously purchased from you, and have had a positive experience, are likely to come back again.

You can easily get their information from them as they make their purchase by asking for their name, number, and email address.  Let them know that you will be using their email to sign them up for a newsletter filled with information and promotions that they may enjoy.

In a retail store, you can also have a newsletter sign up as part of a comment form.  One local retail that we worked with built a list from 0 to 3000 subscribers using a simple in-store comment box/prize draw incentive.

2.   Connections - extend into your business network
Everyone has connections, whether family, friends, or suppliers.  Next time you are in contact with these people ask if they would be interested in receiving information about your business along with lots of exciting deals.

When using these contacts to fill up your email list realize that they may not be as likely to respond to a campaign as a previous customer.  You can ensure a greater response by having great content and deals that bring them into your store.

3.   Prospects - not customers yet, but hopefully they will be!
People love contests because they love to get free stuff.  Next time you have a giveaway or promotion advertise it on your website and tell people about it on Facebook and Twitter.  As people sign up for the contest, have an option to opt into your newsletter.

Not only does this allow you to see the success of your promotion, but you just gained a list of people who are interested in your company.  Now it is your job to turn them from a prospect into a customer.

4.   No Store?  No problem.
If you are in the B2B sector (business to business) and don't have a physical storefront, there are other tactics you can use to build your email list:

Social Media: use network sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and industry blogs to create teasers that draw people back to a capture page.  Use the capture page to offer a free download (whitepaper, report, tool, widget) in exchange for their contact info.

Host webinars or live chat opportunities that require people to register beforehand.  Now you'll have their contact info for follow-up later.

Enter people that you meet at trade shows and networking events into your email database.  Send them a personal message letting them know it was great talking with them.  Later when you send your newsletter they'll recognize you and your company.

5.   List Management - it will manage you if you're not careful!
As your email database grows you'll want to manage it properly using software. Segmenting your list into different groups for more targeted email blasts will become important. Managing unsubscribers is critical as well. Gathering statistics on how your emails are performing is really useful for tweaking and improving future communications. All of these features are available with email marketing software.

Note: if people can not easily unsubscribe from your newsletter they will get angry!  Use email marketing software like Constant Contact, Vertical Response, or NEDmail and list management will be a cinch.

6.   Spamming - a fine line
In Canada, the SPAM laws are actually pretty relaxed.  You don't technically need consent to send someone an email, but be aware that many people will consider it SPAM and it will hurt your reputation if you continually send irrelevant junk.  Word will get around even faster if your market is local!  Be careful.  Be transparent, identify who you are, give a relevant subject line, allow people to opt-out or unsubscribe, and try to be decent person in general.  Check here for more info: http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/canspam/canada/

Happy emailing!

Comments or Questions?  We'd love to hear them!
EAVB_VCDZHOUGBF

Since 2004, Twin Creek Media has been a strategic and creative marketing agency located in Kelowna, British Columbia. The firm has carved a place in the marketing world by becoming known for integrated marketing: combining the best of internet and digital with the traditional mediums of print, radio, and TV.

We've structured our company a little differently than other marketing agencies.  We have 4 people on our executive team, and 12 part-time specialists on our creative team.   Clients get consistent leadership and project management, while scoring the specialized resources that make up our "dream teams".

Normally, clients get "A" there, "B" the other place, "C" somewhere else, and run around between various companies fitting things all together.  The result: lack of clarity, lack of continuity, lack of harmony in the marketing message.  Instead, at Twin Creek Media clients get a well-rounded range of marketing services... from assessing the need, creating the materials, and choosing the right tool(s) for the job.  We fit in very nicely with SMBs (small/mid sized businesses) - companies with 10 to 50 employees.

Twin Creek Media aims to be the gold standard in integrated marketing.  Roughly half our staff are Gen X and Y - we understand the digital world.  We live the internet.  We breathe Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, digital video, SEM, SEO, mobile apps... we know how to integrate the best of what today's technology has to offer with what is tried and true in the advertising universe - the big 3: print, radio, TV. 

"We love integrated marketing. Assessing your market and understanding your target audience is critical.  Creating the concept, designing the visuals, and crafting the words are undeniably important.  But the correct delivery of the message is crucial for successfully engaging your audience.  Marketing channels are all different and each have there own strengths and weaknesses.  We want to use the right marketing mix for each client." - Cara Reed, Account Director

We will not limit our services to one industry or one marketing tool.  Imagine marketing channels were colours of the rainbow... (oh boy, here comes the metaphor!) We will not limit our offerings to one colour.  If you want an just an expert in the colours of black & white, there are a million of them these days... just Google it.  We want to use any and all colours appropriate to tell your marketing story!