Email Marketing Tips

We have made some changes to the contacts section that will allow you to delete groups of contacts from the contact group screen.
 
Previously you could remove a contacts membership from a “Contact Group”. You could also delete the “Contact Group” itself. However you could not delete the “Contact Group” and all members in that “Contact Group.” You can now do this in a single action.

To delete all members within a contact group:-

• Go to the Contacts Tab
• Select a “Contact Group”
• Select “View Contacts” which will show you a list of all contacts with membership to that group
• Use the “Delete Group & these Contacts” button

NOTE:Please remember this deletion is permanent!  

These changes were made to LiveWire Campaign on the 12th May 2008.

The answer is categorically yes and I can prove it!

Two years ago I was badly let down by the garage I was purchasing my new car from. Not only did they tell my that my car was actually months away from delivery only days away from the promised delivery date but they also tried to ’steal’ my deposit when I subsequently canceled the order. I was not a happy bunny. Fortunately my bank stepped in. I’d paid the deposit on credit card and my bank returned the money immediately when I called ‘breach of contract’ on the motor dealer. A lesson to be learned there!

A day or two later I received an email from a leasing company listing the months special offers and one particular vehicle caught my eye. Suffice it to say it was delivered a week or so later and it was a timely email campaign that prompted the purchase. I’m still enjoying driving the car though I’m now looking forward to renewing my contract with the same leasing company in July.
More recently my old jet washer finally gave up the ghost and began to emit little more than a dribble. Email marketing came to the rescue again. Just last week I received a special offer in my inbox of a £175 power washer for only £60. I jumped at the chance and ordered one.

Last weekend I cleaned my car with it. A power washer purchase prompted by email marketing used to clean a car purchased from a timely email campaign. Proving, if proof were needed, that email marketing is still alive and well and the secret is still just sending the right message at the right time.

We have just presented our first online marketing workshop for enterprise4all in Preston, UK. As usual email marketing was one of the hot topics that the attendants wanted to know most about.

E-mail marketing is still one of the most cost-effective ways of finding new clients and building a stronger relationship with current customers, but competition is fierce, the economic climate is looking decidedly inclement and your e-marketing messages have to work harder than ever to cut through the smog.

We worked one on one with each of the attendees and showed how email marketing fits into the big picture. It’s still amazing to find large organisations getting their e-marketing communications badly wrong. Some were still batch sending many thousands of emails from Outlook and had no idea if any one at all was reading them!

The fact is, even with all the SPAM and all the bad communication out there, email marketing still works. Often it’s just a matter of keeping your audience engaged for long enough until you manage to send the right message at the right time and make a sale.

Here is a short list of some of the points we highlighted at the workshop. They are the basic fundamentals of a successful campaign. We’ve talked about them many times before but they are worth repeating:

• Get personal – personally addressed e-mails with, if possible, personalised content is going to have more chance of establishing trust and a relationship
• Write a meaningful subject line and opening – write a succinct, transparent and descriptive overview of the offering you wish to promote. The reader should be able to work out within a few seconds if it is of interest and whether they wish to learn more
• Copy – Be concise and use short sentences, paragraphs and bullets points to ease reading
• Be sure to proof the copy – silly little mistakes stick out like a sore thumb and spoil all that effort you invested to make the perfect e-mail campaign.
• Test your e-mail before you send it – do a dry run to yourself and a sample group
• Answer all replies with 24 hours – e-mails are a quick and easy channel of communication and interested parties will want quick answers. Do not disappoint on the first and probably only time you will have to make a favourable impression