- Published on
Nowadays, with Internet spreading its wings all over the globe, more and more people are switching from physical mediums of business promotion to online marketing. Email marketing is one of the best means of promoting your products and services online. It is also one of the oldest sources of business-to-business marketing used by virtually everyone.
A well planned effective email marketing campaign can help your business products and services gain maximum visibility and recognition, not only locally but all over the world. With this direct marketing procedure you start getting quick response once your email reaches your targeted customers.
The Importance
In today’s world of cut-throat business competition, companies and enterprises are making use of only the most effective means of business promotion, and email marketing is one of these mediums. Businesses find email marketing beneficial because of its ability to be highly adaptable to today’s constantly changing business world.
Other factor that adds to the inevitable importance of email marketing is its aspect of being highly inexpensive and affordable. It can also easily be built into existing marketing systems of any organization seeking promotion at international level. Moreover, online marketing can make business promotion more efficiently, short, and real time in terms of delivering something to your clients and customers.
Benefit Of Email Marketing
Rightly executed email marketing can compliment all other marketing initiatives and reap you many benefits, some of which are as follows:
Cost-Effectiveness
No matter how inexpensive the conventional mediums of marketing and business promotion can get, they can never be compared to the cost-effectiveness of email marketing. Marketing collateral, like press advertisements, brochures, flyers and posters require a significant financial outlay. On the other hand, email marketing is live, constantly changing and is easy to implement, along with being inexpensive.
Global Approach
A good advantage of email marketing comes with the globalism of the Internet. No matter where you are or whom you need to reach, email marketing paves the way to a global approach of business promotion. Borders are no obstacles in email marketing.
A Personalized Medium
Email marketing is a personalized medium of advertising and business promotion. It enables you to create a special bond with the prospects. Unlike other mediums of marketing and promotions, email marketing can be segmented in terms of its target audience, meaning that you can split people off into smaller, more focused lists. This too gives a more personalized approach to your marketing messages.
Gauge Results
Any marketing campaign needs to be gauged in terms of its results and feedback from the target market. With email marketing as a tool of business promotion, you can easily carry out litmus tests on your target audience regarding different campaigns.
You can accurately measure click-through rate, conversion rate, how a person arrived at your website, and more, through readily available tools on the Internet, and assess the success of different email campaigns.
Quicker Response
Time Another advantage of email marketing over the conventional means of business promotion is that it has a quicker response time. The average response time of email marketing is one to three days at max and you get the most responses on the first day itself, while a direct mail campaign would take minimum two weeks to generate any responses.
Ease of UseEmail marketing comes with an ease of use for both the sender and the receiver. Executing an email marketing campaign is simple and anyone can do it without any extensive resources.
6 Tips To Do It Well
For every effective marketing campaign, doing it right matters a lot. Following are certain tips which will help you execute better and more effective email marketing campaigns.
1. Pre-determine Your Campaign’s Objectives
Before executing any campaign, its objectives and targets need to be pre-determined in order to get the maximum out of it. A general email marketing campaign can have two basic objectives i.e. to strengthen customer loyalty and ongoing relationships and to drive direct response of the customers. Whichever of these two are your campaign objectives, it is important that you plan it out and then set it for execution.
2. Avoid Spamming
No matter how easy, affordable and responsive it gets, the biggest hurdle in the way of a successful email marketing campaign is the spam filters. When more and more people started misusing email marketing, email service providers all over the world introduced spam filters, which were a great setback for this mode of business promotion. Therefore, when the successful marketing practitioners realized that people’s dislike to spam destroyed the customer loyalty they worked so hard to address the problem with best practices that revolved around the aspect of ‘permission’.
Permission is best and the only authentic way to avoid spamming in the process of email marketing. This may sound a tedious process to you, however, in actual getting permission is not much difficult. Offer something useful to your customers (a coupon or special discounts, a research related to your product or perhaps an informational newsletter) in return as if the person agrees on receive your messages and, often, to provide valuable personal information.
Never underestimate the power of "free" and use the same in taking customer’s permission for email marketing. When you will give them something free, build the relationship and then recommend products or services, they are likely to buy from you and will stay loyal to your brand.
3. Opt-in Option
An opt-in option is a perfect way of taking permission and carrying out an effective email marketing campaign. Adding an opt-in form to your email marketing message is the best practice in terms of marketing ethics and effectiveness.
Considering the importance of an opt-in option, larger organizations even go for a ‘double opt-in’ option i.e. after the receiver of their marketing message firstly enters his/her email address to subscribe to their list, they send them a confirmation email which contains a special link back to their email marketing campaign, which verifies that this visitor did indeed sign up to their mailing list. This way they easily avoid spamming and their customers develop a sense of respect for them.
4. Creating the Message
Once you plan out your campaign objectives and also get permissions of your customers, the next step is to create the actual message that needs to be sent out. There are some points to be remembered while creating your email marketing message:
Before sending out the actual campaign in execution, it is better to test its different aspects with trial and error method. Try out different fonts for both content and links, re-positioning images such as logos and buttons and experiment with different emailing patterns (including the greeting and sign off).
Send three different patterns of your email, compare their click-thru stats and see which one works best. This way you will be sending the right mix of content and images that will attract more visitors, and ultimately more sales.
6. Develop and Maintain the Email List
As mentioned earlier, in order for your email marketing campaign to be successful, it is important to be focused in every aspect of execution. Similar is the case with email list. You need to develop a proper and well-searched email list for your campaign (probably of the people who are interested or have opted-in for your marketing initiatives).
Also, email list is not a one-time thing. It needs to be trimmed and maintained according to the circumstances. Longer lists should be broken down into smaller segments, targeting the consumer and personalizing the message. Also, after every three months, shed off the people in your list who do not rear or respond to your messages.
The Conclusion
Email marketing is a fully grown and well-used tactic for business promotion via emails. It is cost-effective, easily executed and gives a good impact to your campaigns. Email marketing does not replace your other marketing activities but compliments them extremely well. A well run and good email marketing campaign can grow your customer pool and add to customer’s loyalty.
Hearing from your brand repeatedly, with good content reminds readers of your business’ value, especially if they take your advice and find it works for them. Although email marketing comes with lower risks and higher profitability, however, this can only be achieved through proper planning and execution tuning into higher success rates for your business.
By Arfa Mirza
A well planned effective email marketing campaign can help your business products and services gain maximum visibility and recognition, not only locally but all over the world. With this direct marketing procedure you start getting quick response once your email reaches your targeted customers.
The Importance
In today’s world of cut-throat business competition, companies and enterprises are making use of only the most effective means of business promotion, and email marketing is one of these mediums. Businesses find email marketing beneficial because of its ability to be highly adaptable to today’s constantly changing business world.
Other factor that adds to the inevitable importance of email marketing is its aspect of being highly inexpensive and affordable. It can also easily be built into existing marketing systems of any organization seeking promotion at international level. Moreover, online marketing can make business promotion more efficiently, short, and real time in terms of delivering something to your clients and customers.
Benefit Of Email Marketing
Rightly executed email marketing can compliment all other marketing initiatives and reap you many benefits, some of which are as follows:
Cost-Effectiveness
No matter how inexpensive the conventional mediums of marketing and business promotion can get, they can never be compared to the cost-effectiveness of email marketing. Marketing collateral, like press advertisements, brochures, flyers and posters require a significant financial outlay. On the other hand, email marketing is live, constantly changing and is easy to implement, along with being inexpensive.
Global Approach
A good advantage of email marketing comes with the globalism of the Internet. No matter where you are or whom you need to reach, email marketing paves the way to a global approach of business promotion. Borders are no obstacles in email marketing.
A Personalized Medium
Email marketing is a personalized medium of advertising and business promotion. It enables you to create a special bond with the prospects. Unlike other mediums of marketing and promotions, email marketing can be segmented in terms of its target audience, meaning that you can split people off into smaller, more focused lists. This too gives a more personalized approach to your marketing messages.
Gauge Results
Any marketing campaign needs to be gauged in terms of its results and feedback from the target market. With email marketing as a tool of business promotion, you can easily carry out litmus tests on your target audience regarding different campaigns.
You can accurately measure click-through rate, conversion rate, how a person arrived at your website, and more, through readily available tools on the Internet, and assess the success of different email campaigns.
Quicker Response
Time Another advantage of email marketing over the conventional means of business promotion is that it has a quicker response time. The average response time of email marketing is one to three days at max and you get the most responses on the first day itself, while a direct mail campaign would take minimum two weeks to generate any responses.
Ease of UseEmail marketing comes with an ease of use for both the sender and the receiver. Executing an email marketing campaign is simple and anyone can do it without any extensive resources.
6 Tips To Do It Well
For every effective marketing campaign, doing it right matters a lot. Following are certain tips which will help you execute better and more effective email marketing campaigns.
1. Pre-determine Your Campaign’s Objectives
Before executing any campaign, its objectives and targets need to be pre-determined in order to get the maximum out of it. A general email marketing campaign can have two basic objectives i.e. to strengthen customer loyalty and ongoing relationships and to drive direct response of the customers. Whichever of these two are your campaign objectives, it is important that you plan it out and then set it for execution.
2. Avoid Spamming
No matter how easy, affordable and responsive it gets, the biggest hurdle in the way of a successful email marketing campaign is the spam filters. When more and more people started misusing email marketing, email service providers all over the world introduced spam filters, which were a great setback for this mode of business promotion. Therefore, when the successful marketing practitioners realized that people’s dislike to spam destroyed the customer loyalty they worked so hard to address the problem with best practices that revolved around the aspect of ‘permission’.
Permission is best and the only authentic way to avoid spamming in the process of email marketing. This may sound a tedious process to you, however, in actual getting permission is not much difficult. Offer something useful to your customers (a coupon or special discounts, a research related to your product or perhaps an informational newsletter) in return as if the person agrees on receive your messages and, often, to provide valuable personal information.
Never underestimate the power of "free" and use the same in taking customer’s permission for email marketing. When you will give them something free, build the relationship and then recommend products or services, they are likely to buy from you and will stay loyal to your brand.
3. Opt-in Option
An opt-in option is a perfect way of taking permission and carrying out an effective email marketing campaign. Adding an opt-in form to your email marketing message is the best practice in terms of marketing ethics and effectiveness.
Considering the importance of an opt-in option, larger organizations even go for a ‘double opt-in’ option i.e. after the receiver of their marketing message firstly enters his/her email address to subscribe to their list, they send them a confirmation email which contains a special link back to their email marketing campaign, which verifies that this visitor did indeed sign up to their mailing list. This way they easily avoid spamming and their customers develop a sense of respect for them.
4. Creating the Message
Once you plan out your campaign objectives and also get permissions of your customers, the next step is to create the actual message that needs to be sent out. There are some points to be remembered while creating your email marketing message:
- The subject line is the most essential element of email message content. The subject line should always make sense and should standout.
- Create the content of your message absolutely clear and easily readable.
- Go for the ‘inverted pyramid model of message construction i.e. start from ‘most important’ information to ‘less important’ one
- Web readers have very less time and are always in a hurry so keep your message short, to-the-point and ensure its relevance.
- There are certain essential elements of an email message content i.e. the ‘to’ line and ‘from’ line, the subject line, the offer, the format, the body copy, the message category, message personalization and targeting.
- Like the subject line, signature has a crucial importance in an email message. Always include a signature at the bottom of your emails, as it is a good way to attract more traffic to your website. This signature should include your personal details, your company details, and an opt-out link.
Before sending out the actual campaign in execution, it is better to test its different aspects with trial and error method. Try out different fonts for both content and links, re-positioning images such as logos and buttons and experiment with different emailing patterns (including the greeting and sign off).
Send three different patterns of your email, compare their click-thru stats and see which one works best. This way you will be sending the right mix of content and images that will attract more visitors, and ultimately more sales.
6. Develop and Maintain the Email List
As mentioned earlier, in order for your email marketing campaign to be successful, it is important to be focused in every aspect of execution. Similar is the case with email list. You need to develop a proper and well-searched email list for your campaign (probably of the people who are interested or have opted-in for your marketing initiatives).
Also, email list is not a one-time thing. It needs to be trimmed and maintained according to the circumstances. Longer lists should be broken down into smaller segments, targeting the consumer and personalizing the message. Also, after every three months, shed off the people in your list who do not rear or respond to your messages.
The Conclusion
Email marketing is a fully grown and well-used tactic for business promotion via emails. It is cost-effective, easily executed and gives a good impact to your campaigns. Email marketing does not replace your other marketing activities but compliments them extremely well. A well run and good email marketing campaign can grow your customer pool and add to customer’s loyalty.
Hearing from your brand repeatedly, with good content reminds readers of your business’ value, especially if they take your advice and find it works for them. Although email marketing comes with lower risks and higher profitability, however, this can only be achieved through proper planning and execution tuning into higher success rates for your business.
By Arfa Mirza
- Published on
1. Keep in mind that networking is about being genuine and authentic, building trust and relationships, and seeing how you can help others.
2. Ask yourself what your goals are in participating in networking meetings so that you will pick groups that will help you get what you are looking for. Some meetings are based more on learning, making contacts, and/or volunteering rather than on strictly making business connections.
3. Visit as many groups / chapter as possible that spark your interest. Notice the tone and attitude of the group. Do the people sound supportive of one another? Does the leadership appear competent? Many groups will allow you to visit two times before joining.
4.Hold volunteer positions in organizations. This is a great way to stay visible and give back to groups that have helped you.
5. Ask open-ended questions in networking conversations. This means questions that ask who, what, where, when, and how as opposed to those that can be answered with a simple yes or no. This form of questioning opens up the discussion and shows listeners that you are interested in them.
6. Become known as a powerful resource (A Living & Moving Dictionary) for others. When you are known as a strong resource, people remember to turn to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc. This keeps you visible to them.
7. Have a clear understanding of what you do and why, for whom, and what makes your doing it special or different from others doing the same thing. In order to get referrals, you must first have a clear understanding of what you do that you can easily articulate to others.
8. Be able to articulate what you are looking for and how others may help you. Too often people in conversations ask, "How may I help you?" and no immediate answer comes to mind.
9. Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you are given. When people give you referrals, your actions are a reflection on them. Respect and honor that and your referrals will grow.
10. Call those you meet who may benefit from what you do and vice verse. Express that you enjoyed meeting them, and ask if you could get together and share ideas or opinion how to improve each business value.
2. Ask yourself what your goals are in participating in networking meetings so that you will pick groups that will help you get what you are looking for. Some meetings are based more on learning, making contacts, and/or volunteering rather than on strictly making business connections.
3. Visit as many groups / chapter as possible that spark your interest. Notice the tone and attitude of the group. Do the people sound supportive of one another? Does the leadership appear competent? Many groups will allow you to visit two times before joining.
4.Hold volunteer positions in organizations. This is a great way to stay visible and give back to groups that have helped you.
5. Ask open-ended questions in networking conversations. This means questions that ask who, what, where, when, and how as opposed to those that can be answered with a simple yes or no. This form of questioning opens up the discussion and shows listeners that you are interested in them.
6. Become known as a powerful resource (A Living & Moving Dictionary) for others. When you are known as a strong resource, people remember to turn to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc. This keeps you visible to them.
7. Have a clear understanding of what you do and why, for whom, and what makes your doing it special or different from others doing the same thing. In order to get referrals, you must first have a clear understanding of what you do that you can easily articulate to others.
8. Be able to articulate what you are looking for and how others may help you. Too often people in conversations ask, "How may I help you?" and no immediate answer comes to mind.
9. Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you are given. When people give you referrals, your actions are a reflection on them. Respect and honor that and your referrals will grow.
10. Call those you meet who may benefit from what you do and vice verse. Express that you enjoyed meeting them, and ask if you could get together and share ideas or opinion how to improve each business value.
- Published on
When was the last time you got up in front of an audience to showcase your expertise? If you don’t think you’ll ever be a presenter, you may be surprised. Whether you’re pitching a new client, teaching a class or speaking at a conference, there may come a time when you need to prepare for and deliver a Awesome presentation.
+ 1st Impression make lasting Impression +
If you’re a bit rusty with your presentation skills, or just feel out of your element in front of a group, this can be an intimidating prospect. Here are some tips to help you deliver a winning and memorable presentation, one that you actually enjoy giving!
Preparing for the Presentation:
1. Chill...Give yourself a little bit of time, don’t wait until the last minute to start thinking about your presentation. As soon as you know you will be presenting, start making notes about all of the elements you want to cover.
2. Research your audience: Your audience should drive not only the content you present, but your approach as well. Find out who will be in the audience and tailor your presentation directly to them.
3. Identify your purposes & goals: Why are you doing this presentation? Are you trying to win business? Are you sharing your expertise or informative source? Take time to identify your goal and keep it in mind as you develop your presentation.
4. Know your time limit: Make sure you ask how long you will have to present. Knowing if you have 30 minutes, an hour or longer is vital before you start preparing your content.
5. Start with an outline: To make sure your presentation flows and covers all of the points you want to hit on, draft an outline. Break it down into sections to make it manageable in the development stage as well as the delivery.
6. Write it down: Once you have your outline, write down everything you want to say for each point. Think about the content from your audience’s point of view so you can balance the content with engagement.
7. Create visual aids: You’ll want some kind of visual aid to add to your presentation, but fight the temptation of including everything you wrote down on your slides. Keep it short and simple.
8. Memorize it: Don’t worry, you’re not going to memorize and rehash your presentation. BUT, start by memorizing it anyway. Knowing the content inside and out will make you more comfortable and confident during the delivery.
9. Practice, practice and practice : Run through your presentation in full several times before the big day. You may even consider video taping yourself so you can self-critique and fine-tune. (Talk to yourself or do in front of your friend or someone the wont laugh at you :)
10. Get help: Sometimes an outside perspective can help you make sure you’re hitting the mark. Ask a family member, mentor, colleague or even a public speaking coach for help.
11. Get there early: Not only do you want to be on time, but if you get there early, you can scope out the room where you will be presenting and start to familiarize yourself with the environment. You can also meet some of the people in the audience, which can help add a conversational tone.
12. Breathe: Take a deep breath before you start and remember to breathe during the presentation. You should pause frequently to give your words a chance to sink in and to give yourself a break.
13. Be a storyteller: People love stories, so the more anecdotal you are, the more memorable your presentation will be., tell by example of an event not by unrelated topic and goes no where.
14. Show your Energy & Passion: Hopefully you’re passionate about the subject matter. Let your enthusiasm come through in your delivery. It can be contagious and the perfect way to engage your audience.
15. Make it interactive: To prevent boredom for your audience, plan group activities, ask questions and work in a break, if appropriate.
16. Use humor: Humor can be powerful in a presentation setting. Not only can it put the audience at ease, but it can make you more relaxed as well.... not to mention, don go "too far", make it just nice.
17. Plan time for questions: Make sure you leave time at the end of your presentation for a Q&A session. And it’s always a good idea to build in a little buffer time in case you go over during the actual presentation.
18. Leave something behind: Handouts are a great way to drive home your message and give attendees something to refer to after they leave. Be sure to include your contact information for example name card and invite the audience to contact you again with questions.
SOMETHING EXTRA: Like many aspects of business, confidence is important in public speaking situations. Be sure to include these confidence-inspiring tips in your preparation. Remember, when people gets to like, your chances to do business with them is nearer.
+ 1st Impression make lasting Impression +
If you’re a bit rusty with your presentation skills, or just feel out of your element in front of a group, this can be an intimidating prospect. Here are some tips to help you deliver a winning and memorable presentation, one that you actually enjoy giving!
Preparing for the Presentation:
1. Chill...Give yourself a little bit of time, don’t wait until the last minute to start thinking about your presentation. As soon as you know you will be presenting, start making notes about all of the elements you want to cover.
2. Research your audience: Your audience should drive not only the content you present, but your approach as well. Find out who will be in the audience and tailor your presentation directly to them.
3. Identify your purposes & goals: Why are you doing this presentation? Are you trying to win business? Are you sharing your expertise or informative source? Take time to identify your goal and keep it in mind as you develop your presentation.
4. Know your time limit: Make sure you ask how long you will have to present. Knowing if you have 30 minutes, an hour or longer is vital before you start preparing your content.
5. Start with an outline: To make sure your presentation flows and covers all of the points you want to hit on, draft an outline. Break it down into sections to make it manageable in the development stage as well as the delivery.
6. Write it down: Once you have your outline, write down everything you want to say for each point. Think about the content from your audience’s point of view so you can balance the content with engagement.
7. Create visual aids: You’ll want some kind of visual aid to add to your presentation, but fight the temptation of including everything you wrote down on your slides. Keep it short and simple.
8. Memorize it: Don’t worry, you’re not going to memorize and rehash your presentation. BUT, start by memorizing it anyway. Knowing the content inside and out will make you more comfortable and confident during the delivery.
9. Practice, practice and practice : Run through your presentation in full several times before the big day. You may even consider video taping yourself so you can self-critique and fine-tune. (Talk to yourself or do in front of your friend or someone the wont laugh at you :)
10. Get help: Sometimes an outside perspective can help you make sure you’re hitting the mark. Ask a family member, mentor, colleague or even a public speaking coach for help.
11. Get there early: Not only do you want to be on time, but if you get there early, you can scope out the room where you will be presenting and start to familiarize yourself with the environment. You can also meet some of the people in the audience, which can help add a conversational tone.
12. Breathe: Take a deep breath before you start and remember to breathe during the presentation. You should pause frequently to give your words a chance to sink in and to give yourself a break.
13. Be a storyteller: People love stories, so the more anecdotal you are, the more memorable your presentation will be., tell by example of an event not by unrelated topic and goes no where.
14. Show your Energy & Passion: Hopefully you’re passionate about the subject matter. Let your enthusiasm come through in your delivery. It can be contagious and the perfect way to engage your audience.
15. Make it interactive: To prevent boredom for your audience, plan group activities, ask questions and work in a break, if appropriate.
16. Use humor: Humor can be powerful in a presentation setting. Not only can it put the audience at ease, but it can make you more relaxed as well.... not to mention, don go "too far", make it just nice.
17. Plan time for questions: Make sure you leave time at the end of your presentation for a Q&A session. And it’s always a good idea to build in a little buffer time in case you go over during the actual presentation.
18. Leave something behind: Handouts are a great way to drive home your message and give attendees something to refer to after they leave. Be sure to include your contact information for example name card and invite the audience to contact you again with questions.
SOMETHING EXTRA: Like many aspects of business, confidence is important in public speaking situations. Be sure to include these confidence-inspiring tips in your preparation. Remember, when people gets to like, your chances to do business with them is nearer.