THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTERS
March 6, 2007
by Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hi again!
This week I will tell you how build a great mailing list with what you already have. First, let me point out a few interesting statistics for you to think about.
Last week’s stats:
Number of recipients on mailing list: 30
Number of successful deliveries: 29
Number of phone responses: 2
Number of e-mail responses: 2
Percentage overall response: 13.33%
Total cost for campaign: $0.00
From a very small mailing list, four of you responded and I even received one business referral to boot. By comparison, I would have to send out 1,000 post cards at $0.24 each to receive two responses, based on the standard figure of 0.2% response rate for a direct mail campaign. The two responses would have cost me $240 in postage or $120 each, while the four responses and one business referral cost me NOTHING but my time.
Also, the post card would have enough room for a nice picture on the front and possibly a half of a paragraph of content on the back instead of two full articles plus some dressing that was in last week’s newsletter. Let’s not forget the cost of artwork and layout for the post card, where there were no such costs for my newsletter.
I’m not saying that you should dump your existing direct mail campaign, because there are situations where direct mail is more effective than e-marketing. I am saying that you could be throwing away business if you don’t do e-marketing. I hope this week’s information will give you the knowledge you need to capitalize on business that has been getting away from you.
That said... Let’s make you some money!
SEARCH ENGINE PROMOTION THAT WORKS!!!
Drive traffic to your Web site looking to do business with you.
For more information, contact me at: danharley@primeconcepts.net
BUILD AN EXCELLENT MAILING LIST WITH WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
The strategy I have to build an excellent mailing list is so simple that I’m almost ashamed to write an article about it. Before I get into the meat of the explanations, I need to give you some categories to identity what you and your business does.
Your business has at least one of the following:
1) Consumer generated revenue
2) Business-to-Business generated revenue
3) Professional services generated revenue
4) Specialty service or specialty product driven revenue
Your business:
1) Has a custom Web site
2) Has an Apptomix or MenuPromote Web site
3) Doesn’t have a Web site
I will break down the explanations based on the above categories when needed.
The excellent mailing list that I’m talking about is your own existing clients or customers. They’ve already conducted business with you, and already consider you to be an expert in your field at least to some extent. That relationship that you’ve already established is much more valuable than anything you can receive from someone subscribing to your mailing list through a subscription box on a Web site. They are already your customers who will more easily conduct more business or refer business to you than someone you may not know from a subscribed mailing list. Also, you already have their contact information.
If you were forward thinking enough, you would already be collecting e-mail addresses from your customers. If you’re not, then there’s several easy ways to obtain it. If you think I’m walking you into spamming your customers, I will assure you that I’m not and I will explain later how you will use this mailing list without spamming.
Odds are that you already receive e-mails from some of your customers, which makes it easy to collect e-mail addresses. You can simply copy it from a previous E-mail if it isn’t already in your electronic address book. For my Apptomix and MenuPromote clients, you have a mailing list manager built into your Web site and you can add contact information into. For everyone else, you can save the information in your electronic address book, such as in Microsoft Outlook Contacts, or save it in a notepad file.
If you don’t have an E-mail address for some or many of your clients, it’s a matter of simply asking them for it. Consumer businesses can make sure you ask for an E-mail address when preparing invoices or billing statements. Other businesses can directly call your customers for it, which could also be an opportunity for up selling or ask for business referrals.
You could obtain hundreds of e-mail addresses in a very short time with some persistence. However, it may not be necessary obtain all that many. In fact, it would probably be best to focus on your best customers and limit the number of contacts to, let’s say, no more than fifty. You will see why when you begin to use this mailing list from the information I will give you in the next article.
One last thing before I start the next article. Add me to your mailing list. I will not only be your first fan of your e-marketing campaign, I will also critique your campaign from time to time for free to help improve your performance.
IS YOUR WEB SITE DOING NOTHING?
Have a Web promotion strategy that drives business to your Web site!
For more information, contact me at: danharley@primeconcepts.net
I’VE GOT ALL MY BEST CUSTOMERS ON A MAILING LIST. NOW WHAT?
By Dan Harley Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
If you followed what I told you in the previous article, you will soon have a valuable mailing list of your best customers and may also be thinking that I’m about to show you how piss them off and have them run to your competitors by sending them spam. Actually, you’re going to do the exact opposite. You’re going to thank them for being your best customer, and you can do this for free thanks to the Internet. This is another piece of advice so simple that I’m almost ashamed I’m writing an article about. You’re going to send an electronic greeting card.
There are hundreds if not thousands of electronic greeting card services on the Internet with most of them offering at least some of their cards for free. Apptomix and MenuPromote clients, you don’t have to worry about finding an electronic greeting card service, because you have that service built into your Web site. For those of you who don’t use Apptomix or MenuPromote, following is a list of services for you to choose from:
http://www.yahoo.americangreetings.com
These services will keep you from spamming, because you are restricted to sending one greeting at a time with some of the services limiting a total amount for a day. This is also why I suggest limiting your mailing list to a manageable number of your best customers. To make things easier, you can prepare your greeting card content in a word processor or notepad and paste it into the greeting card system when needed. The task could still be tedious after a couple dozen cut-and-pastes, but you’re saving $0.29/greeting and your greeting is delivered immediately to your customers.
Your customer can receive a thank you e-card, which is far more appreciated than spam. Odds are that you haven’t shown such appreciation enough with your customers, because of the time and cost of doing the same through regular mail. You can imagine how your customers will feel knowing that you are so thoughtful. Actually, you don’t have to imagine, because most of the e-greeting services have provisions to track receipt of the greetings. What’s touching to me is when someone is thoughtful enough to send a greeting back to me.
The hard part of this is being persistent. Don’t stop at sending just one e-greeting, but send e-greetings regularly. Twice a month and holidays is usually sufficient to let your customers know you’re there and not overwhelm them with your gratitude. Most all the e-greeting services have ample selection of free cards to rotate through and their paid services are usually pretty cheap if you desire more of a selection. American Greetings through Yahoo! Charges only $14 for a one-year subscription.
Statistically, you could receive one or more responses for every twenty e-greetings you send. You’re also able to track receipt, which you could use to determine an opportunity for a follow-up call. If at the least, your customers will feel appreciated with your thoughtfulness. I know that means more than a pot of gold for a few of you. By the way… Check your e-mail for something special from me.
Next week I will show you how to continue building your mailing list and convert it into a full fledge subscription list that will eventually be used for your own e-newsletter. Talk to you next week!
OPPORTUNITY OF THE WEEK!
If you read anything in this newsletter, you will want to read this segment. I will have an offer of some kind published here weekly. It could be discounts on my services. It could be coupons for free dinners. It could be opportunities to earn cold hard cash.
This week’s opportunity is FREE SERVICE…
My PrimeSubmission service can submit a Web site to over 90,000 locations throughout the Internet. Major search engines, industry specific search engines, foreign search engines and others are included in the submission. Some of my clients use this service as their only means of promoting their Web site and generate thousands of visitors from it. There’s no guarantee that results will be the same for your Web site, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to try.
There are two opportunities:
Refer a Subscriber
Each person you refer as a subscriber to my mailing list will earn you one (1) free PrimeSubmission session. There is no limit to how many you refer. The subscriber will be contacted to verify the desire to be on the mailing list.
Business Referrals
If you know a business in need of a Web site, I will give you six months of PrimeSubmission services (one submission/month) for free. There is no limit to how many you refer. The business referral will need to be interested enough to start their project by April 1st.
NOTE: Both opportunities expire on March 13th, 2007. Any referrals will be honored until midnight of that day. Contact me if you need more details and simply reply to this e-mail with your subscriber or business referral information.
ADDITION AND REMOVAL INSTRUCTION
This is a private mailing list and will never be used outside of our organization.
If you desire not to be on this mailing list, reply with REMOVE in the subject line and you will be removed promptly.
If you continue to receive this newsletter, contact Dan Harley (danharley@primeconcepts.net) to be removed manually. .
END
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