Kick Starting Your Old Email Program
In the past 2 months, we’ve been contacted by numerous potential clients who have wanted us to handle their email marketing or consult for it at least. While this story could end right here the same concept came up in each conversion with the potential clients.
We had one potential explain to us how email marketing was becoming to large of a cost and the return on investing just wasn’t in his sights or the near future as we joked a bit on the phone.
They started hearing the rumors that email marketing “was dead”. So, even though their own open rates had not declined, and their own click-through rates had remained steady, and, in two cases, the web traffic that was attributed to email marketing had actually increased, they still decided to put their efforts into other marketing tactics.
Long story short they wanted to get back into email marketing, well if they could afford to at least….
Three things always come up when a business wants to get back into email marketing because they stopped for whatever reason.
1. Funds, how much and how long before they dry up…
2. Haven’t sent an email to the old subscribers in awhile… how long is too long?
3. What was the old plan, lets stay away from that plan.
Here are some easy tips for rekindling your email marketing program.
First and foremost if you haven’t sent an email / newsletter to your past subscribers as long as it hasn’t been 6 months you should still be ok, if it’s been longer we hope you have good records and good contacts no one likes mailing old data period. Sometimes your own subscribers haven’t even realized you left…
Just send out a welcome letter saying something to the affect of “We apologize for our absence” or “Hope you’ve missed us as much as we’ve missed you”. Should be enough and it gets you right back into the scope of things.
If it’s been awhile, let you subscribers know what you offer and why they are getting that email. Do a quick re-introduction to your services so they’ll remember who the heck your company was. Remind them of why they were getting them in the 1st place and best of all time for a good deal or some good news to start with, no one likes to get an email that is just plain Jane and boring.
Email marketing is still working and working quite well. If your business is not turning a good return on investment over time perhaps it’s your email marketing plan not email itself that is the issue. We didn’t say it, it’s just the way it is….
The fact is, email marketing is still an exceptional tool for small business marketing. It’s inexpensive, it’s easy to track and measure, and it’s still very effective. If you’ve fallen victim to the false rumors that email marketing is a dying channel, you should definitely consider reinstating your email marketing program.
