If you think your e-marketing is getting lost in the mass of emails in your clients’ inbox, you’re not alone. Competing for the attention of time-starved business people is a challenge, but there are ways to cut through the clutter. How? Start by getting personal! Transform your email marketing into effective, personalized communications your clients want to receive. These 7 tips will help you develop an e-marketing campaign that will help strengthen business relationships and drive sales:

1. Get Permission!The difference between spam and permission-based email marketing is that the recipient has asked to receive the information, thus giving you permission to send it to them. To get that permission, you need to offer something of value – an informative newsletter or promotional offer, for example – in exchange for the customer agreeing to receive your messages and, often, to provide valuable personal information and preferences.Always include a way for people to unsubscribe in all email campaigns. Be sure to monitor unsubscribes as well as the number of new subscribers, so you can to gauge the effectiveness of different subject matter, offers, etc.
2. Don’t Reinvent the WheelA valuable strategy is to research what others are doing. Subscribe to e-newsletters from respected organizations in your industry and beyond, even competitors, where possible. Make note of the things that make you want to open some, but delete others. You can also use these publications to suggest ideas for subject matter you may want to cover in your own publication.
3. Give Your People What They Want! Start with a subject line that captures immediate interest, and add article headlines that make people want to read more. Then, make sure to customize your messages so they appeal to clients’ needs and interests. You can also ask them what they want to hear about! Are they interested in product news? Special offers? Tips and how-to guides? Once you know what interests them, give it to them consistently and watch your response rates soar. Finally, keep it short and simple – your e-communication should require minimal scrolling to keep readers engaged.
4. How Much is Too Much?While it’s important to stay in front of your customers and prospects, it’s equally important not to be an annoyance. In most cases, emailing once a month strikes a balance between keeping your brand and company name top of mind without irritating your subscribers. Emailing more frequently may turn off recipients and increase your unsubscribe rate.
5. Something for Everyone Once you’ve got a compelling message, you can offer it in a variety of ways to suit different audiences. You might accompany your communication with audio, video and/or animation to create more excitement and visual appeal. That said, it’s always a good idea to have a plain text version for those recipients that prefer it.Look for upcoming issues of 5th Insight for new audio and video components.
6. Testing 1-2-3Test the effectiveness of each email campaign by using different subject lines, different wording, unique offers, a different colour/design etc. Through testing you’ll be able to find the winning combination that works for you.
7. Measure Your Success! Measuring the results of your email marketing efforts allows you to understand what works – and what doesn’t – so you can maximize the effectiveness of each campaign. Select an email marketing software that automatically manages and tracks results so campaign analysis is quick and easy.

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted;
the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”

John Wanamaker, father of modern advertising

If you struggle with the question of whether advertising really benefits your business, you’re not alone. It seems like a good idea, but it doesn’t make the phone ring or make product jump off the shelves for you the way it does for Coke, Rogers, Apple or Telus (and who among us doesn’t love those teeny monkeys?).

So why does it work for the big guys? Simple – it’s all about media weight. Blue chip companies have deep pockets and can afford to place ads literally “everywhere”. They also pursue a mass audience, and television, radio and billboards hit that target. But, if you’re the average business, you can’t afford to do that. You need results in the short term – you can’t wait for your message to sink in and you’re after a specific target audience.

Like a whole lot of other experienced, competent business people, you may tend to think of advertising and marketing as the same. There is a difference between the two, and knowing what each has to offer will help you achieve a much better return on investment:

• Building AwarenessAdvertising is actually a marketing tactic. It’s used to build brand awareness and recognition through media such as television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, the Internet and billboards. Advertising through these mass media can be very effective if your goal is to reach a wide consumer audience. For business-to-business marketing, a targeted approach typically delivers a far greater return on investment. So, you might choose to advertise in a trade magazine where you know that the audience is comprised solely of potential buyers for your product or service. Still, for the most part, your ad will build awareness and recognition. And, when someone suggests adding your business to a Request for Proposal distribution list, the approving manager can say “Sure – I’ve heard of them” instead of, “You want to send it to who?”
• Making the Phone RingMarketing is used to attract and retain customers and maximize their potential. There are two types of marketing; Strategic and Operational. Strategic Marketing is the overall strategy aimed at creating and building competitive advantage. Its focus is on issues such as positioning: will you be the best quality? The lowest price? The most innovative? Operational Marketing executes specific, planned tactics designed to attract and keep customers and to build sales volume within existing customer accounts. The Operational Marketing mix should include a wide variety of tactics such as direct mail, interactive e-marketing campaigns, tradeshows, newsletters, special events, e-publications, and, yes, in the right circumstances, advertising.

In short, advertising is just one of many marketing tactics. When developing your marketing plan, it’s important to include a variety of tactics designed to not only attract and retain customers but build brand awareness. Advertising definitely has a place, but to be effective it must be carefully incorporated as part of the overall marketing mix, not its foundation.

Make the most of your marketing opportunities – contact 5th Business and ask about our Smarter Marketing ® strategies.