| As an entrepreneur or business owner, you know it's | | | | daily tip or something like that. Any less frequently than |
| critical to be in touch with your customers. That's how | | | | once every two weeks or so and you run the risk of |
| you stay top of mind with them, and how you increase | | | | people forgetting about you entirely in this age of |
| your chances to get the best of all kind of sales - that | | | | information and short attention spans! Another helpful |
| is, word of mouth and referrals! In addition, by keeping | | | | tip: don't use ALL CAPS or exclamation points in your |
| your customers updated about new products or | | | | email subject lines, because Spam filters will likely |
| services you are offering, current specials, etc. they | | | | identify these emails and pull them out before your |
| are that much more likely to take advantage of them. | | | | customers can read them. |
| The most effective way to stay in touch with your list | | | | When thinking about content for your emails, keep it |
| of existing customers and prospects is through email | | | | short, to a few paragraphs maximum, and keep your |
| marketing. The way to make it easy and automatic is | | | | content focused on one primary message. You are |
| to use a service called an autoresponder. That's just a | | | | trying to deliver one important message in your email, |
| fancy name for a service that sends emails | | | | not tell them everything about your business. |
| automatically on a certain predetermined timeline to | | | | Remember, you'll be talking to them again soon |
| your list. If you've ever signed up for something online, | | | | enough! And, you want to keep your content |
| it's likely that you've been on the receiving end of an | | | | interesting and useful, so that your customers get in |
| autoresponder. | | | | the habit of opening your emails and not just deleting |
| There are several inexpensive email marketing | | | | them as "useless promotion". |
| services, such as iContact and Constant Contact. | | | | Now that you've written the first email, you can create |
| They are in the range of $10-15 a month and it's | | | | an autoresponder series in your email marketing |
| incredibly easy to set up your account. Then, if you | | | | account, and make this email the first one in the series. |
| have a bunch of existing customer emails, you can | | | | Then, you can draft as many follow up messages as |
| upload your list of existing customer email addresses | | | | you would like, and set them to be sent automatically |
| from an Excel file to your new account, and you're | | | | to this list on, for example, day 4, then day 7, then day |
| ready to go! As you add new names to your list, you | | | | 12, etc. This way you can knock out a month's worth |
| can just enter them in directly into your list in your email | | | | of marketing in one shot, quickly and easily! |
| marketing account online. | | | | You have now enabled your business to communicate |
| Now that you've set up your account, and have | | | | with customers and prospects instantly and continually, |
| uploaded your list, it's time to begin communicating. A | | | | for only a few dollars a month. Email marketing should |
| good pace for email marketing is usually once to three | | | | pay for itself very quickly, as it usually only takes one |
| times per week. Daily is usually too much and gets | | | | new customer or add-on sale to pay for the service |
| annoying, unless people specifically signed up for a | | | | itself. |