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We’ve been involved in a number of projects recently talking about email marketing with our clients. As a form of marketing, email can be very effective as it is quick, cheap and completely measurable. However, the often not spoken reality is that many companies do not possess good enough email data and lists. As a result, the campaigns are no way near as successful as they could have been. Today’s blog post is by Menno Spijkstra; and explores the process of how to build your email list for great results.

Do List Building Now to Produce Results

For your online business to grow, you need to do list building and create a database of all your target customers. List building will enable you to further expand your market by sending special offers or promotions to your clients. It is considered to be important in making your online business easier. You have to be creative and resourceful enough to make it work for you. The foremost thing that you must have in mind is your subscribers. Identify who are your target customers who may have a direct interest at your niche market. Their interest to your products or services is very important so that you will get results in the end.

Otherwise, they will just be ignoring your emails if what you offer is not something that they are interested in or not in need of. List building should neither be stagnant nor slow moving; you have to keep on working on it by taking good care of your existing subscribers while adding more people to your list. You have to send emails regularly to your subscribers and make sure that you are giving them valuable services all the time. Experts believe that the bigger your list, the more sales you can generate.

Every email address of people visiting your site is very important and it is quite important that these visitors leave their email addresses with you. List building is very important for every serious online marketer because it is a big contributory factor to ones’ success. It is suggested that you do not use a general opt in form on all your pages. Instead, the opt in form must be on a different list based on where the opt in originated. This can be quite tasking. You need a special list-building manager to split and manage your list according to different projects for different sales pages.

Furthermore, this list manager will help you to identify the appropriate list for your product. In which case, you will avoid sending email offers to the wrong market. Many experts would recommend that you automate your online business so that you can cope with competition and trend. If you are automated, then it is easier for you to work less but get paid more. As the famous saying goes ‘no man is an island’, it also is true in online business. To improve your list, you need to exchange offers with your fellow marketers, too. This way, you will get more people to your list.

By using a simple method in list building, you can make a follow up to the visitor who visited your site. Make sure that your emails will be able to answer possible questions your prospective customer has in his mind. This system is easy to use and employs proven tactics in promoting your projects. Apart from it will be consistent in building your list; your follow-up campaigns can also guarantee an increase in sales. Therefore, having a new page manager, you can be assured that your list will continue to grow with quality subscribers listed in it.

The author of this article Menno Spijkstra is an Internet Marketing specialist who has been successful with several affiliate programs for many years. Menno finally decided to share his knowledge and experience through his website http://www.AffiliateDistrict.com. You can sign up for his free newsletter and join his coaching program.

What do you think? Was this blog post useful? Please comment below or add to the debate. Please do not hesitate to contact Generate UK for more information and ideas about how to grow your opt-in email marketing lists.

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Recently we were approached by a journalist and asked a number of questions that relate to digital marketing, in particular how it can help drive business for small, medium and large enterprises in the UK. It’s always nice to be asked for an opinion on the market and our views on different technologies; as a result we thought it might be useful to post the full interview on the blog.

[1] What would your key advice be to any SME that is taking its first steps with online marketing?

Don’t be afraid to become a Geek! Unlike traditional above the line marketing, online marketing is measurable and provides you with a wealth of stats, information and measurements. So our advice to any client in this situation is to analyse the data as much as possible. Identify trends and customer behaviours, drop what does not work and do more of what does work. For example, if you are using Search Marketing and have a high click through rate but low conversion rate, you know you need to work on making your landing page more compelling. The stats help you to make more informed decisions about your Internet marketing.
No SME should consider using online marketing unless they have access to statistics to analyse.

[2] Search marketing seems to have come of age over the last few years. How can even micro businesses take advantage of this kind of online marketing?

Search marketing is a great way to level the competitive playing field. By bidding on keywords that are relevant to your business, you have the same opportunity as any other business to drive highly targeted and qualified prospects to your site. For any micro business this is great news as it means the road to their prospects is significantly reduced, allowing them to create significant revenue streams quicker than would previously had been possible. The reverse side to Search Marketing is that it can also be an expensive waste of time if not done correctly, which often leads to micro businesses being burned and never using Search Marketing again, which is a shame because as a marketing tool it is awesome if used right. In our opinion, it is vital to the success of any campaign that you research your keyword/keyphrases thoroughly and have landing pages that help to deliver your campaign objectives.

[3] How can SMEs integrate their offline promotional activity and their online marketing?

This question largely depends on the market the SME is in. For example, if you’re an ecommerce store you could drive people to your web site with traditional flyers and brochures, using discount codes or coupons. We would advise consistent branding for both online and offline promotion activity, we would also advise any client to leverage their website traffic by collecting email information, which can be used in the future to send offers, newsletters etc to.

[4] Do you think the future of online marketing is mobile via smartphones? Will it become the mobile Internet that everyone is predicting, or a different kind of commercial platform that SMEs can use for promotion and advertising?

Smartphones are an additional channel, another way to reach your target market. I don’t think it is a replacement technology; instead it is something that you would use or cater to as part of your marketing objectives. If you’re building a new website now, you make sure that it can be viewed properly via a smartphone. So to answer the question, I don’t think the future of online marketing is mobile via smartphones exclusively, I think it is just another platform that people need to get used to. This is a great opportunity for innovative advertisers and there may be small niches where exclusive smartphone advertising works, for the majority it will be part of the digital mix.

[5] As consumers have become more Internet savvy how can SMEs position their enterprises to take advantage of this massive commercial channel?

Firstly, they should have an Internet Marketing Strategy. It’s amazing how many companies still do not have such a strategy in place, only by taking the time to understand the potential market available to the SME, will senior stakeholders make the necessary investments in terms of skills and technology. Next they need to identify which technologies will suit their business, for example can they streamline their ordering process by offering ecommerce? Following this they need to look at Web 2.0 technologies such as blogging and social media and understand why they should be taking advantage of these channels in order to increase their revenues, branding, leadership and online conversations.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of companies who are still not considering the Internet as a viable channel for increasing their sales opportunities. This is usually because of fear of the unknown or because of lack of skills, it’s a real shame as if they do not act soon, their competitors definitely will.

[6] No business can ignore the social networking space that has rapidly developed with Web 2.0 technologies. But marketing to this sector has proven very difficult. How or even should SMEs place social networking within their digital marketing? Or is it still too early to commercialise this space?

Web 2.0 and social networking should play a large part all SMEs digital marketing strategy. However, first they need to understand what Web 2.0 and Social Media actually are and what it could mean to their business. This is a major hot topic for us at the moment; we have covered it in the past on the blog. You might find these previous posts useful as a way to answer this question.

10 Reasons why companies do not adopt social media

10 most popular excuses UK businesses use for not having a blog

Business benefits of social media

This post defines (in our opinion) what social media is and how it can help businesses:

How social media can help your business

[7] Email marketing is the digital equivalent of direct mail but with spam still the scourge of the Internet, how can SMEs use this marketing channel effectively?

When we speak about email marketing with clients, we use the term “Enterprise Email Marketing”, this is because we think that email marketing has evolved in the last few years and if done correctly, is a hugely sophisticated form of marketing. The most important piece of advice we can give SMEs about how to use emarketing more effectively is to make yourselves aware of your legal responsibilities, love your data and analyse every single one of your email campaigns.We’ve got more advice about email marketing and using it effectively here:

Generate UK email marketing tips

[8] With masses of press display advertising moving online, the website banner ad seems to be the advertising channel of the day – at least at the moment. What are the key skills that SMEs need to master in order to get good ROI from their banner/display advertising?

Good ROI from banner advertising is dependent on your ad being clicked and the page that is clicked to being strong enough to convert the visitor. We advise our clients to think along the following lines:

Objective – What is it? Traffic, sales, special offer email signups? If you’re paying for a banner ad, what is it that you’re encouraging people to do?
Banner – Is it compelling enough to make people click, is it appropriate to the site it is being shown on, is it in a good position.
Landing Page – Will your landing page convert? Does it include a call to action? Is it easily understood what it is that you want your visitor to do?
Test – Move your banners, try different messages, try different sites, sizes, colours etc
Analyse – Analyse the data, which banners were more affective? Which sites were better for you? Most click throughs?
Repeat – If something works well, do it again.

[9] Viral advertising has seen some of the most successful online advertising of recent years. But as with social networking promotions, viral seems to need a special understanding of the target market to be successful. How can SMEs exploit viral marketing in their enterprises?

Yes viral advertising requires an understanding of the target market; however we would argue that this is the same for any marketing venture to be successful. Some of the greatest viral campaigns have been incredibly simple and no one would have predicted how successful they would be. There is no special ingredient or secret sauce to make something go “viral”, it happens because it is something engaging that is released to the right audience at the right time. You could argue that the skill is in knowing where to release your content and to which audience, which again would come back to knowing your target market. Once you go viral, hold on to your coat tails as it will be a roller coaster ride for a few days.

[10] Successful online marketing is all well and good, but how can SMEs effectively track their campaigns to analyze if they are giving the expected ROI?

There are many great tools out there that will help SMEs track campaigns and analyse their visitor data. Most email marketing systems come built in with their own tracking tools, which allow the user to measure open rates, click through rates etc. The same is available for your web site via technology such as Google Analytics.
In order to measure ROI, one must first understand a campaign objective and what it is that the SME is trying to achieve. We would argue that having access to the metrics and the data is the number one reason for taking part in online marketing.

[11] As the publishing phenomenon of the last few years, the blog has taken the Internet by storm. How can SMEs use the power of the business blog as a marketing channel?

We’ve made a few blog posts about this very topic. What are the benefits of blogging?

What now? Do you have any comments about this interview? Would you have answered any of the questions differently? Please feel free to add your comments below or contact us.

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This blog post is about Enterprise Email Marketing and the 9 steps that you need to understand in order to really begin to improve your email campaigns. The basic premise is that everyone already knows about email marketing and how to do it, so therefore there is nothing left to learn.

Not surprisingly, we believe that there is a lot to learn. We also believe that for the 9 steps of Enterprise Email Marketing to add value to your campaigns, you need to learn and understand email marketing processes.

The 9 Steps

1.       The Data. This success of your email campaign largely depends on the quality of your data. You should also have a strategy for your existing data and look at how you will add to your data.  Think about the format of your data and how easy it is to manipulate so that it can be used for your campaigns.

2.       Objective. If we work on the basis that you have great data, then the email objective should be not to waste that data. This means that you should take the time to plan your email campaigns as you would any other marketing activity. Before you move on from this step, establish whether your email falls into one of the following categories: awareness, sales, leadership, information or events.

3.       Roles. This is about understanding the roles of your team. Specifically, who is writing the content, who is responsible for the campaign objectives, who edits, who sends and who tests. In a large team environment, it is very important to have this part of the process documented so that ownership is never an issue.

4.       Process. The process is a collection of the two previous steps. It is usually documented and becomes a way to check progress. It is also about the process of testing your email campaign; during your objective stage you may well have come up with a number of good ideas. Email allows you to test different ideas, plan for this during your process and you will begin to see which campaigns and ideas work best.

5.       Template. The template is always an emotive stage and you may find that you are restricted in what you can do. In our experience, the simpler the template the better. Remember that this is an email, which most often will open in a program like Outlook.

6.       Delivery. The great thing about email is that you can plan ahead and schedule your emails. You should really take advantage of this. If you are an experienced user, then consider the use of triggers to take your email campaigns to the next level.

7.       Compose/Send. We advise that if you’re sending a branded newsletter then you should be consistent and send roughly at the same time each month. Before you send any email, test it. Send it to as many as ten different people and check to see how it is presented.

8.       Analyse the data. In our opinion, analysing an email campaign is as almost important as your data. Take advantage of the fact that email marketing provides you with real time information about your click through rates, unsubscribe rates and your most popular content. Having information like this at your fingertips means that you should always strive to improve your campaigns based upon tangible data.

9.       Build, grow and repeat. Continue to grow your data lists, analyse your campaigns and repeat. Learn from what was good and what was bad and do not be afraid to tweak your campaigns.

What to do next? We’d love to hear from you, post your comments and feedback below. If you would like to speak to Generate UK, please feel free to contact us on 0845 388 9185 or via our contact page.

Special Offer: If you have read this post and would like to learn more about how Enterprise Email Marketing can help your business, contact us immediately for details of how we can help you. Quote the title of this blog for a 20% discount on all services, software or support.

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When planning your next email marketing campaign stop and have a think about who the recipient is going to be and tailor the message to suit?

Now, I don’t just mean their age, profession or gender, I mean try to understand their personal profile, their interests, their knowledge base, likes and dislikes.

You’re probably asking yourself how I would know this by simply looking at an Excel sheet with a bunch of names and email addresses.

This is where data management comes into effect.

Using the data that you collate or purchase, it is vital that you categorise it into specific areas. Then following on from your e-communication campaigns you must sub categorise. To be able to task this successfully you must clearly understand and analyse the metrics allowing you to produce even better targeted future e-marketing campaigns. The moral issue, .invest in a good CRM system to hold and pro-actively manage your data as well as an effective email marketing solution to understand the metrics of each campaign.

What if it’s a cold list?

If it is a cold list of for example ˜Product Marketing Managers” have a look at a typical role and job function, this may be found on recruitment websites, and there might even be a profile of a typical PMM from various web sources such as www.about.com, or if it’s a consumer market have a look at websites such as www.tgisurveys.com, www.nrs.co.uk and www.statistics.gov.uk , you’ll be amazed at what information you can access for free.

Once you have a good understanding of your target market you now have to think about what’s going to float their boat! What’s going to engage them and make them take action to your communication? What’s the communication path i.e. are you going to ask them to click through to more information or fill in their personal details? What is the key message you want them to absorb? Will a creative communication work better than a plain text? What will the subject line be?

All these areas must be considered, my biggest tips are to make it simple, overcomplicating a message or communication path can be dangerous, if you ask too much of people they will simply switch off. Make it personal, personal communications always work better! If you feel that you are being communicated with on a one to one basis you are far more likely to take action than if the communication screams out mass mail!

Good luck with your next campaign, be targeted and be personal!

PS. It’s just a thought, but don’t forget to test your message and subject line first!