Feb/090
Email Marketing - Do it Yourself vs. Managed Services
Here at Primary Target, we talk to people every day who currently use a ‘do-it-yourself’ email marketing tool to create and deliver their email campaigns.
Some are satisfied with the service, but most have similar complaints.
- It becomes tedious and frustrating working with cookie-cutter templates.
- They’re view/click rates are less than desirable.
- They don’t know what they can do to improve it’s effectiveness.
Like I said above, some are content with the ‘do-it-yourself’ approach, however many people are looking for a more seamless, professional solution that will help increase their ROI from email marketing.
A managed email marketing service does just that. Professional email marketers, such as the ones here at Primary Target, know what it takes to develop and deploy effective email communications. Not only will it save you the tedious work of creating them yourself, they will return stronger view/click rates and make your campaigns more profitable.
Why is that? Email marketing professionals know what it takes to reach inboxes rather than junk folders. They know how to properly use the content of your campaigns to capture the readers, creating more interest and increasing readership.
A managed email marketing service also usually offers more in-depth analytics, to truly track how your campaigns are performing. Being able to properly use the analytics, a managed email marketing provider can make necessary tweaks to future campaigns to ensure the interest of readers is kept.
In a nutshell, the more people who read your campaigns, the more profitable they will become. Professional email marketers can ensure higher read rates, by using tried, tested and proven methods.
At Primary Target, our average client who switched from a ‘do-it-youself’ tool to our managed email marketing service, receives 3x higher view and click rates… Not to mention the time and frustration saved by having us handle everything for them.
Feb/090
Enduring the Storm Without Standing Still
Tough economic times means tighter pockets for everyone, especially businesses.
But which elements suffer when businesses tighten their pockets? Is their workforce? Their marketing budgets? Both?
Your workforce is what develops and delivers yours products and services, however the marketing efforts drive the need for the workforce. Having the ability to find the medium is what seperates the top 5% of business,es from the remaining 95% of day-to-day strugglers.
Let’s talk about marketing budgets. Assuming you have a marketing plan, let’s put that aside for just one minute. Why? Because your marketing plan was probably developed when your thought process was wrapped around the sole purpose of trying to get a bigger piece of the pie.
In a slumping economy, innovative businesses take a different approach… Retention.
So many businesses lack in the loyalty and retention arena, because they simply do not have an effective plan in place.
Did you know that it costs 5 times more marketing dollars to acquire a new customer, as it does to retain a past one?
That statistic alone is staggering enough, that I won’t even follow it with another. Focusing your efforts on retention and loyalty is truly the key to success for 2009.
What can you do to build customer loyalty and increase retention?
This can pretty much be summed up in two words… Email Marketing. Why? Because email marketing is not only the most affordable manner of targeted marketing, it’s also the most profitable. Returning an average of .75 per spent, it offeres and ROI more than double that of traditional print advertising.
Developing and deploying effective email marketing campaigns will help you keep your past customers in the loop, and your company and products fresh in their minds.
We can assure you that email marketing will benefit your business. Visit our email marketing blog to learn a little more.
So, today’s lesson in a nutshell… Retention. Loyalty. Email Marketing.
Feb/090
Why You Must Use Email Marketing
Okay, so the title is a little strong… But it is true. If you you’re not currently using email marketing, you should be.
I’ve heard just about every excuse out there on why some businesses aren’t using email marketing.
It usually comes down to the word ‘SPAM’…. People, if you never listen to another word I say, listen to this.
Email marketing is not SPAM. When someone asks you to send them email, that is not SPAM. Develop in-house email lists and start using email marketing. Small lists, big lists, it doesn’t matter, just start.
Email marketing can help you more than you know. Here’s a few quick scenarios.
Increase traffic to your company website
Email marketing is the perfect way to start generating quality traffic to your website. By keeping your customers and/or prospects informed, you encourage them to visit your website. These are your bread and butter leads.
Improve brand awareness
Whether you believe it or not, brand awareness is the pinnacle of marketing today. Developing a strong, consistent brand and delivering that theme to your customers on a consistent basis is what builds a strong business foundation. Here’s an example: Kleenex - Instead of saying tissue, most of us say Kleenex, when the fact of the matter is, Kleenex is rarely the actual brand of tissue you’re about to use. Strong branding did that to us… Another powerful example: Band-Aid.
Relationship & loyalty building
Using email marketing in the form of email newsletters will help your customers feel like party of the family. Believe it or not, we all want to be kept in the loop. It’s true… At Primary Target, we’ve made a point of mentioning upcoming staff members birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions. Would you believe that we’ve actually received emails, phone calls and even gift baskets on these special occasions… from our email subscribers?
These were just a few ways on how email marketing can benefit your business. We didn’t even touch on ROI. The above scenarios focused mainly on relationship and awareness benefits. These are make email marketing so powerful. No other form of advertising can offer you these elements at such an affordable price.
Feb/090
An Overview on Email Marketing
At Primary Target, we are often approached by people wondering what all the fuss is about with email marketing. The first word they usually utter is ‘SPAM’. Without knowing the true meaning of the word, it turns many marketers away from this powerful form of relationship-building communication.
According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing is expected to have generated an ROI of 57.06 for every dollar spent on it this year. Compare this to the mere 22.56 for print advertising (newspaper,mazazines etc), and you will clearly notice that email marketing proves to be a powerful marketing tool.
With that being said, there is far more to email marketing than simply sending bulk messages to your contact lists. Email marketing is a strategic, relationship-driven process that should be done carefully, yet frequently.
Through the use of email newsletters and promotional emails, you’re able to develop stronger relationships with clients and prospects at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising mediums.
Managed email marketing services, such as ours here at Primary Target can offer you effective email communications, developed and delivered by experienced industry professionals.
In closing, if you haven’t given much thought to email marketing, make it a priority in 2009.