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Are you finding that traditional press advertising is increasingly ineffective and yet the press continue to charge huge page rates for a dying art? Have you seen a huge increase in internet enquiries over the last 5 years? Do you agree that email and internet enquiries are often one and the same thing?
Email - the cheapest route to market
Take your last month's sales
How many of those customers gave you their email address?
Do you market by email?
Do you have a cost effective marketing solution for this season and beyond?
Could you use a few simple pointers to effective email marketing?
Starting Out with email marketing in mind............
When you first start e-mail marketing, it's normal to have a small list. It takes time and a concerted effort to get in the habit of asking for e-mail addresses. I have been e-mail marketing for years and I'm still not taking advantage of all the opportunities I get to increase my data-base; so don't dispair - you have to start somehwere! These are some of my thoughts.................
I could add a "Join My E-mail List" sign-up box on my website. E-mail marketing service providers make it easy for us to do this or a simple in-house solution can soon be built by your web designer. Your website is usually the first place people look when they want information about your business. I don't miss the chance to start building a relationship with them when they visit my websites. My situation however is different to yours - my sites are data-collection engines anyway; so a high percentage of visitors already leave phone and email details. Dealer sites are quite the opposite - they tend to offer information and not ask for information; this is your opportunity area.
You could, like me - ask your prospects for their e-mail addresses and permission to use them. Whether it's over the phone or in person, tell customers about your e-mail communications and ask if you can add them to your list.
You have another advantage over me - you can put out a sign-up book in a prominent place in every department. You can train all your employees who interact with customers, get them used to asking as well. Make it the norm, even when selling a part - to collect email addresses. Use your operating system to measure success in doing this - Kerridge does great daily reports on new prospect entries together with a missing information report.
Beyond the Basics Later on, I would offer incentives for signing up. I'm banking on the prospect of a freebie or a chance to win a prize to be just what's needed for people to "take the plunge" and sign up for my e-mail list. Not expensive giveaways - maybe sharing ideas or a paper or guide on something topical; like I'm doing here - you could do a retail article on developments in alternate fuel technologies; cleaner diesels, run-flat tyres, etc, etc.
How about you run a "Forward to a Friend Contest." In my e-mail newsletters, I frequently mention my "affilliates" section where people who are not active in the employment market but who want to stay in touch, can register without any obligation. Let your contacts know that if they use the "Forward to a Friend" link to send this month's newsletter to at least one new recipient, they'll be entered into a draw for a prize. An e-mail marketing service provider can let you see which subscribers forward your e-mail to a friend or your web designer can build it in for you.
Maybe try to partner with a related business or organization . If you can think of a business or organization that's related to your business but who isn't a competitor, you could work together to promote each other's e-mail communications to your customers. If you can find a suitable partner company for this you could highlight your partner as a guest writer in newsletters and ask that they do the same for you. At the end of each article, you could invite readers to join the author's e-mail list. Non competing partners could be big car accessory stores - Halfords for instance? They could be Caravan retailers or sat-nav retailers or newspapers?
You could include a "Join My E-mail List" link in all online content. The articles on my website are another opportunity to add people to an email list. just including a link that takes readers to a sign-up page. Maybe something such as - "Like this article? Get more like it in your inbox. Subscribe today for our monthly e-newsletter." You might include a "Join My E-mail List" link at the bottom of your e-mail signature. This is great advertisement and it's free.
You could promote e-mail communications in all printed materials (including business cards). It's easy to forget about e-mail on a printed piece. Whether it's a brochure or a direct mail postcard, You could and should add a line asking the receiver to sign up for your free newsletter. Business cards are a great place for a quick email promotion too.
Well, those are a few ideas you might consider in the coming months - any ideas that catch your imagination for your business? Please let me know what you think :-)
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Executive Positions
