Magnetic Websites - Attract Customers Like a Magnet

Untitled

Using the Power of E-Mail to Market Your Business

by Joe Gracia

If you think e-mail is just for keeping in touch with friends, or forwarding pictures and funny stories, think again.

E-mail is probably the biggest advancement I marketing since Johann Guttenberg invented movable type for the printing press.

Every business can use the power of e-mail to significantly increase its marketing results.

Here are just a few of the benefits of e-mail marketing.

Extremely Low Cost

Before we moved our business to the Internet we relied on heavily on direct mail to help market our business. Direct mail is a powerful means of attracting prospects and converting them into customers, but it does cost money.

The cost to mail out a simple, one-page prospecting letter, is about 40-45 cents. (That includes copying the letter, the envelope and the postage.)

Then there is the time to label the envelopes, fold and stuff them and affix postage to them. Again, direct mail can be a very profitable marketing vehicle, but it does require time and money.

With e-mail, you eliminate almost all the costs, as well as most of the time.

With a reliable list-serv, like Topica.com - you can send a message to 100, 10,000, or even 100,000 people on your list with the push of a button. And the service is free!

Time Savings

Once you create your e-mail message, it's just a matter of sending it to the people on your list. You do that with the press of a button, and within minutes most of the people on your list will have received your message.

You don't send one e-mail at a time - you send to everyone on your list at once. That's powerful!

We have literally begun receiving hundreds of dollars in orders for our products within 10 minutes of sending out our e-mail newsletters. No other marketing vehicle can provide you with such instantaneous results.

You Can Test Your Marketing Inexpensively

Rather than investing money in a newspaper ad, flyers, radio, cable TV or direct mail, for a test, you can simply test the idea on your e-mail list of prospects and customers. For little or no cost, you can learn the results in just a few days.

Send a Newsletter

If you sell cosmetics, or Tupperware, you could create a short monthly newsletter of tips related to your product or service. Of course, you would include a promotion for one or two of your products in each issue.

Don't think such an idea applies to your business?? One of our clients is a frozen custard stand - nearly 4,000 of their customers have signed up to receive their monthly newsletter. Every time the newsletter comes out, their sales increase. You can do it too.

Announce a Sale or a Special Promotion

If you are going to have a sale or a special promotion, make sure your prospects and customers know about it. Send them all a simple e-mail announcement telling them the details.

Send an Invitation

Having an open house, or a special presentation? Let your list know about it via…e-mail.

Direct People to Your Web Site or Place of Business

If you have a web site, you can use e-mail to alert your list about new features or new content available on your site, or a reason to visit your business.

Provide Product or Service Information or Answer Questions

Direct your prospects or customers to send their questions to you via e-mail, then send them the answers through e-mail. You can even have standardized information that can be sent to them to save you time.

Remind Your List of Upcoming Holidays and Events

Holidays, celebrations and events have always provided perfect tie-ins for product and service promotions. Remind your e-mail of the upcoming holiday or event and tie it into a special promotion.

We hope these e-mail marketing tips will get you thinking about how you can utilize the power of e-mail marketing to grow you business.

Reprinted with permission from Joe and Maria Gracia's FREE, Give to Get Marketing Newsletter. You can subscribe to their newsletter and receive their complimentary Marketing Idea-Kit by simply visiting their Web site: http://www.givetogetmarketing.com