Talk To Me: Newsletters and Relationship Marketing
Did you know that one of the most cost-effective methods of marketing is sitting on your desk, just waiting for you? E-mail marketing and E-mail newsletters are one of the most important tools that you can use to generate return visits to your Web site and phone calls to your business.
How effective are newsletters at connecting with people? Statistics derived from over 3 million permission-based newsletters and provided by Eureka, an E-marketing E-zine, indicate that an average of...
- 51% of recipients open E-newsletters
- 9.8% of readers click through to your Web site
- 1.4% of site visitors subscribe to newsletters
These numbers are greatly influenced by your topics, subject line, incentives, and how your newsletter is structured. Some newsletters see as many as 89% of subscribers opening their newsletters, while some are as low as 14%.
One of the biggest factors that can help determine your success rate is how personalized your E-mail is. Even something as simple as "Dear Joan" at the top of the newsletter as opposed to "Dear Subscriber" can make a tremendous difference.
Sometimes the difference between a wildly successful newsletter and one that is merely mediocre can be just as simple. According to an article in 1 to 1 Magazine, Gymboree, a provider of children's apparel, used to send E-mails only about closeouts. The response rates were lackluster. Gymboree then split their E-mails into two groups: shoppers for girls' merchandise and shoppers for boys' merchandise. Responses went up 40 percent.
If you're doing sales via your Web site, such results can correlate directly to the bottom line. Dakin Farm is a small family-owned specialty foods company in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. Sam Cutting IV, president of Dakin Farm, says his company, with a small E-mail marketing budget, generated revenue of $185,000 from their E-mail newsletter during 2004.
Results such as those are likely to get better in the years ahead. It is estimated that spending on e-mail marketing in the U.S. will jump from $2.1 billion in 2003 to $6.1 billion in 2008, according to Jupiter Research.
Newsletters are a means to help build a relationship between you and your audience. Building a solid relationship of any kind takes time and effort, so consider carefully before deciding to commit yourself to a newsletter. You should plan thoroughly, just as you would to develop any successful marketing initiative.
One important consideration is the software that you use. Outlook or other E-mail clients may work if your list is small, but once you've reached a hundred subscribers or so, the failings become obvious. Use software that will let your subscribers automatically subscribe and unsubscribe, that will let you see who opens each E-mail and who clicks on which links, and that makes it easy for you to design, build and send your mailings.
Here is a list of the most popular software in use, according to a survey by Web Marketing Today, and listed by percentage of respondents using each.
As Sam Cutting says, "Everyone with a direct response Web site should build an E-mail list and send offers."
I agree.
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