.: Direct Email Marketing Made Easy
By:Rob Burko
Category:Home / Internet Marketing / Email
Forget direct email marketing for a second, and tell me if this has ever happened to you. You go outside and open your mailbox. You get the usual: bills, bank statements, maybe a phoney million-dollar offer. But then, in the middle of it all, you see an envelope from your favourite restaurant. “Thanks for being a loyal customer,” it says. “Next time you come by, let us treat you to a free dessert.”
Now I’m not exactly the coupon-clipping kind of guy, but when I run into an offer that’s so relevant to me, I simply can’t resist it. Millions of you are like that too. And guess what? Millions of you check your email more often than your actual mailboxes.
That’s where direct email marketing comes in. Forget spam. Spam’s just the phoney million-dollar offer, and direct email marketing is miles away from that. Direct email marketing is reaching the right customers, with the right offers.
Let’s go back to that coupon you received from your favourite restaurant, and let’s think about it from the restaurant’s point of view. If you clip that coupon and come into the restaurant, their direct marketing efforts were successful.
However, to get that coupon into your hands, the restaurant had to pay for printing, buy and stuff envelopes, address them to you and then pay for postage. And chances are the restaurant hired someone to do the printing, maybe someone else to the design, the envelope stuffing, etc. If you’ve ever sent flyers or coupons in the mail, you’ll know it’s both expensive and time-consuming.
Here’s the beauty of direct email marketing. First of all, direct email marketing programs are packaged so you can do it yourself. The emails are all pre-designed, and the backend is already taken care of for you. All you have to do is sit on your computer for about 10 minutes and click a few buttons. There’s no postage, no stuffing, no expensive printing fees.
And as small business owners have begun to discover the power of email, many direct email marketing programs are now built for non-technical folk. So even if all you can do on your computer is check your email and browse the web, you can still be an expert in these programs right away.
What’s more is you’ll still get access to the most advanced functionality. Let’s get back into the restaurant owner’s shoes. We’ve just sent a Free Dessert email coupon to all the customers who filled out our customer satisfaction survey and gave us their email addresses. We also included a “Forward to a Friend” link, so our customers can email the Free Dessert coupon to their friends.
Now (and here comes my favorite part about direct email marketing), we can go into the Reports and Stats section of our direct email marketing program and get deep into our campaign. We can see exactly who opened our messages, and when they did it. We can even see who forwarded their coupons to their friends.
And we don’t have to stop there. We can group all our readers who forwarded their coupons to a friend and offer them an extra incentive (We know they like to tell their friends about us, so why not offer them 25% Off when they bring in two or more friends?).
Information is power, and direct email marketing is one of the most effective ways to gather that information and put it to good use. So next time you get that flyer for your favorite restaurant, think about how much unnecessary money and time that restaurant owner is spending. Think about how much information he’s missing out on, and think about how much better things would be if he sent that flyer through direct email marketing.
Article keywords: Direct email marketing, email marketing, promotion, advertising, online marketing, direct marketing, Eliteweb, increase traffic, email promotions, email newsletter, mailing list, online coupons, email
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Robert Burko is president and CEO of direct email marketing service provider Elite Email Marketing. Join the thousands of businesses around the globe that create, send and track their email marketing campaigns with Elite’s powerful, self-service direct email marketing program, part of the Elite Business network. Visit us for a free trial.
.: New Email Articles
1). Hot Subscribers For Your Opt In Email Marketing
Opt in email marketing is one of the most powerful affiliates internet programs promotion strategy. Email is still the easiest way to communicate globally. It is extremely cost-effective, because it is 100 % free. This makes the starting point of the opt in email marketing very promising.
2). Are You Keeping Your Online Business Profitable?
With spamming, email marketing becomes a disgraceful activity in the Internet. But with opt in list, online businesses can continue to boost their businesses through email marketing without having to worry about being accused of spamming
3). Got A Website? Leran How To Build And Manage An Opt List
Building and managing an opt in list is the ideal and simplest option to increase website traffic
4). 5 Benefits Of Making a Hyper Responsive Opt Work
Any business big or small must maximize marketing to get the message across
5). Five Top Methods To Leverage Channels Without Overspending!
Before revealing the secrets of the trades, here are myths and fallacies that need to be cleared before one indulges into building an opt-in list
6). Looking For The Ideal Business Partnership?
Opt in lists are not just ordinary mailing lists. It is the very core of an online business existence and survival
7). Do You Want To Utilize Uhe Secrets Of Opt In Lists?
Acquire an opt-in list now or generate one. Either way, you are reaching to people that can be your one of your treasured customers for a long period time.
.: Top Email Articles
1). Email Miscommunication is Too Easy!
We misinterpret, filter, or change 70% to 90% of what we hear. Communicating messages clearly, and in a format that the receiver will understand, is difficult. It’s easy to miscommunicate. By watching which words you choose, your message will be more clearly communicated.
Cause
Why does all this confusion occur? One of the many reasons is that people suffer from information overload.
2). Selling Yourself with Your Article Promotion
Selling Yourself with Your Article Promotion
3). How to Make a CSV file for your mailing list.
First lets look at WHAT it is, and Why would we want to make one?
CSV means Comma Separated Value, so that means; a ‘value’ that is separated by commas. It is usually made in XL or a txt file.
A ‘value’ is explained, in context below.
CSV files are the most common kind of format used by most software programs for importing data. This means that if we want to put several hundred names and addresses (values) into a “bulk mailing program” we can usually use a CSV file.
4). Navigate More Website Activity Through Email Newsletters To Visitors
When you own a business website, you may find if helpful to have a weekly or monthly newsletter full of useful information about your products. Newsletters can be a great way to navigate more website activity your way. Emailing weekly or monthly newsletters can be the best way to update or remind past visitors of your services or products. Extending special offers in those newsletters can generate more website traffic, purchases of services or products and possible referrals from the visitor’s friends and family.
5). Name Squeeze Pages – What Are They and Why Do You Need Them?
There are many terms that are used in the Internet marketing world. Some are confusing, and some are simple. Some are simple but made to sound confusing. Name squeeze is a relatively new term, but it’s a technique that has been around for quite some time.
6). Email Marketing: Affordable Internet Marketing Technique
Email marketing is labeled as a killer method when it comes to effective low-cost Internet marketing endeavors. This is because it is the most widely-used and has the best reputation in bringing targeted traffic to websites. It is used to stay in touch with your customers or prospective customers, send out invitations, or make special offers.
It's as easy as writing an e-mail that may be in a form of a newsletter or a plain announcement, and sending that to as many targeted recipients as possible.
7). A Good Letter Can Make You a Fortune in Direct Mail
Copyright 2006 Peter Woodhead
This is the seventh article in a series of ten.
Now we go back to Maxwell Sackheim. Sackheim is also well known for originating the "Book-of-the Month" club. So what can you learn from Sackheim's Book-of-the-Month club? More than you think. People are lazy. Getting people to take any sort of action is not easy. That's why much of advertising uses deadlines and limited time offers.