22 Jan 08 Hello “Customer” Isn’t Effective In Email Marketing

Email marketing can be one of the most effective ways of improving your business, but there’s one simple step you can take to improve how your email campaign is received.

Whenever possible, address your customer by their name.

Simple, right? Unfortunately, it’s not obvious to quite a few online marketers. Everyone has received basic spam email marketing messages in their inbox, and most of the time it’s either a generic message, or a message that addresses someone by name…just not yours. This is why using your customer’s name can make you stand out from everyone else.

When you say “Listen to this, Bob!” instead of just “Listen to this!”, you’re going to get more “buy-in” at the very beginning of your message, because one of the most powerful words you can say to someone during a sales process is that person’s name.

When collecting your potential customer’s email address during the opt-in process, look at the feasibility of also collecting at least their first name, if not their full name. This can be used to customize your email marketing message for each recipient, which can lead to a much higher conversion rate than a generic message. Also, including the subscriber’s name will also assist your message in getting past spam filters, since true spam won’t have access to the recipient’s name.

Most good list managers (such as Atomic List Manager) will allow you to customize your list with names, making this process much easier.

However you do it, using your customer’s name in your email marketing strategy will improve your conversion ratio from your campaign…give it a try!

Popularity: 6%

Tags: Email Marketing, email marketing personalization

21 Jan 08 The Most Important Part Of Your Sales Message

The internet provides some of the most exciting sales and marketing opportunities in the world today. However, even this long after the advent of internet sales, there are still those that spend quite a lot of time on their product or service and forget one of the simplest rules of sales when it comes time to sell it. When putting together your marketing message (any kind of sales, whether it be online or off), this rule always applies.

You have to ask for the sale.

It doesn’t matter how well-written your sales message is, how wonderful your product or service is, or how your price point compares to competing products or services, those that clearly ask for the sale and make it easy for the customer to say yes will always see a higher conversion rate than those that don’t. It’s called the “call to action”, and it can make or break you.

• “Order before midnight tonight!”
• “Supplies are limited, order today!”
• “Click here to download your package.”
• “Visit our website at (your website here) and place your order now!”

These are all examples of calls to action, and your sales message needs a call to action to be effective, and you should make it as simple as possible for the customer to take that action. If you’re marketing on the internet, give your customers an easy, straightforward, internet-based way to make their purchase from the email or webpage your call to action is located on, whether it be an order form, a link to a purchase page, or an email address “for more information or to place your order”.

There are people that want to buy your product or service…they’re just waiting to be asked to, so make sure you do ask.

Popularity: 6%

Tags: , call to action, Marketing, Sales