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Market, Do Not Spam!
Therefore it goes without saying that the way we market our business, should also keep up with the times! We cannot simply rely on newspaper advertisements or handing out flyers at busy intersections. First of all that is a very costly exercise, and secondly, it is not really possible to track the effectiveness of the advertisement. Who says your newspaper advert was not used to wrap someone's coffee cups when they moved? Or what guarantee do you have that the man who took your flyer at the robot did not immediately throw it in the dustbin? How do you know that these people were even interested in your product or service in the first place? Email marketing, if used correctly, can be a very effective tool for marketing your business. A travel agent or tour operator can inform clients about their special offers, a chain of grocery stores can let you know about their extended trading hours and the fact that they now also have a fresh fruit and vegetable section. and a music store can send a quick email to let their clients know about the latest CD or DVD that has just hit the shelves! When using email marketing, it is important to supply information that would benefit your readers. Keep in mind that there is a difference between email marketing and flooding peoples' email servers with irrelevant (and very irritating!) junk emails. It is therefore vitally important that your emails are sent to the correct target market. If you are a supplier in the building industry, you would agree that a teenager only interested in nail polish and loud music, will delete your message without looking at it. However, this same teenager would grab a wallet and call a taxi if the email was about a sale at the hippest clothing store in the city! How to you build up your email marketing database? Do you pay for an illegal mailing list with 100 000 subscribers and hope that no one sues you in the process? Please don't follow this route, as it might have serious repercussions for your business. People are getting tired of receiving unwanted emails and are starting to take action against unsolicited emails. The easiest way is by means of a newsletter signup box on your website. If a visitor on your site is interested in what you offer, they would sign up to the newsletter to receive interesting articles, product information, special offers etc. If you're in the retail industry for example, why not ask your clients to complete a short client information form when paying for their merchandise? You can then also keep them up to date with interesting information - just make sure it is relevant to what they signed up for! Email marketing is not only easy to use, it is also very affordable. The last thing to remember is: If you don't have anything to say. don't say it! Don't send out meaningless emails which really does not say anything - your emails must be striking and to the point. otherwise your next messages might just be forwarded to the junk email folder. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Formore information about email marketing, go to www.3waymarketing.co.za |
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