The ABCs fo E-mail Marketing. Tasty Tips For Maximizing Your E-Marketing (While Preserving Your Reputation!)

By Peter Bowerman

Confession: I haven’t done a lot of e-mail marketing. I haven’t had to do much marketing, period, for several years. That should be encouraging news. I’ve said this many times: Do a massive enough initial marketing push to kick start your business and you’ll only have to go through a campaign of that scope once. Sure, you’ll be marketing for years, but by then, it’ll be the equivalent of punching the gas a little on an already moving car vs. starting the car from a dead stop. Always less effort.

So, e-mail marketing. Between the limited amount I have done, along with input from some of your fellow FLCWs and plain old common sense, here are a few basic pointers:

1) Don’t Spam – Translation: mass, impersonal, unsolicited e-mails. Sure, the law of averages could work in your favor in one sense, but I promise it’ll work against you in another: getting X % of your recipients P.O.’d. Don’t blow your reputation.

2) Personalize – Sending unsolicited e-mail is fine, as long as you send it to a specific person. Sure, you may be sending the same e-mail to many people (make the “cut and paste” feature your new best friend), but it doesn’t have to look that way to them. And I’m talking about intelligent personalization like “Peter” or “Mr. Bowerman,” NOT “bowerman,” as in, “hello, bowerman!” I swear I do not know what these idiots are smoking when they send e-mail saying “hello bowerman” as their idea of personalizing it. It boggles the mind.

3) Keep It Simple – If you’re sending unsolicited e-mail, dispense with fancy graphics (save that for the Web site and, even then, go easy) and go with straight text. It’s amazing to me to watch the dumb, self-destructive things that e-mail marketers do to lose the battle for my attention span. If I open up an e-mail that has snazzy graphics right in the text window, my first thought is, “Sales Job Coming! Hold onto your wallets!” and it gets deleted immediately.

Slick graphics are fine IF you’re sending only to those who’ve “opted-in” to receive regular correspondence (i.e., monthly newsletter weekly tips, etc.). If that’s the case, identify yourself in the subject line like I do on this ezine: YOUR WELL-FED E-PUB: FEBRUARY 2005 ISSUE. If people are expecting it, it just makes sense to use a consistent, recognizable subject line.

4) Cross-Market – An e-mail marketing campaign by itself will only be so effective; ditto a direct-mail campaign alone. Ideally, you should follow-up every e-mail or postcard with a call. The initial electronic or snail mail contact justifies the follow-up, while reinforcing it with a multiple impression. As a fellow Atlanta FLCW observed recently, “I don’t know why people don’t do more cold-calling. It’s really not that scary. And the fact is, a postcard or e-mail by itself is just too easy to ignore.”

5) Keep It Brief - Remember your audience. They’re just like you. They get too much e-mail and have too little time in their day. Make it worth their while and easy for them to get through it. Keep your message brief, (ideally) link them to a Web site, and let them know you’ll be following up by phone (and DO it).

Copyright 2005 Peter Bowerman. All rights reserved.

Peter Bowerman is the author of The Well-Fed Writer (2000), an award-winning Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and its companion volume, The Well-Fed Writer: Back For Seconds. A commercial freelancer, business coach and seminar leader in Atlanta, Georgia, his client list includes Coca-Cola, BellSouth, IBM, UPS, Cingular Wireless, American Express, Mercedes-Benz, Junior Achievement and others. Visit www.wellfedwriter.comfor more info and to subscribe to his critically acclaimed free monthly ezine on commercial writing, THE WELL-FED E-PUB.