Email Marketing Tips

LiveWire Campaign automatically inserts the latest address and contact details we have on record for your account into new email campaigns as they are created.

These details are initially populated from the details you entered when registering on the system.

These details can be edited at any time, and the revised details will then be used for all future campaigns you create:

• Log in to LiveWire Campaign
• Click the Account Settings link at the top right corner of the screen
  
• Click the Edit your Profile button
  
• Enter your revised address and contact details
• Click Save Changes button

All campaigns you subsequently create will contain your revised details.

1. Create a few alternative generic email accounts (newsletter@yourdomain.com) specifically for your email marketing, this will mean campaign replies do not get mixed with personal and business emails.
2. Log on to your account and verify another email address in the ‘Manager’ section. This will allow you to use separate sending and reply addresses.
3. Create your campaigns by making one template using the ‘Designer’ and then duplicating this template and edit the content for each campaign. This will give all your emails a consistent branding and format.
4. Change the status of your email templates to ‘Sent’ from the ‘View and edit email details’ pop-up in the Designer section. This will keep your template available but it will not appear in the ‘Manager’ active campaigns list.
5. When sending a campaign, rename the Batch name with the prefix Test or Live this will make it easy to pick Live campaigns from your sent list in the Analyser. 

You don’t need elaborate charts or high-priced consultants to develop effective marketing. But you do need a plan. A marketing plan gives you a roadmap that can drive action and point the way. This is true for e-marketing as it is for any other form of marketing. A marketing plan can help you:

• Identify which customers are your best prospects.
• Evaluate company data against your industry or market.
• Track results so you learn what works.

Without a plan, you may be moving fast, but you may not be moving in the right direction. Here are five steps to creating a strategic and practical marketing plan:
Step 1
 Position Your Product Many business owners blur the lines between promotion, advertising, and public relations. Those are the channels of a message or campaign, not marketing itself. The four Ps of marketing are:

• Product - Having the right product or service for your market.
• Price - Selling your product or service for an amount that makes your target customer feel it’s a good deal.
• Promotion: Creating appropriate perceptions across multiple channels, including, print — direct mail, flyers, brochures, and postcards, TV or radio spots, newspaper or magazine ads, online and more.
• Place - Distributing your product to locations where your target customers can readily find it.
• Profit - Putting the right product or service at the right price in front of the right customer will ensure that you walk the path of success. Keep in mind that a high volume of sales isn’t the key. Profit is. The goal of marketing is to generate the interest or recognition that will lead to the sales that will boost profits. That’s the reason to create a strategy. You want to craft persuasive messages for the customers you target. You also want messages that promise only what you actually deliver.

Step 2
Brainstorm to define appropriate marketing for your company, set up some brainstorming meetings with advisors you trust, such as family, friends, staff, or other professionals. Meetings can be casual lunches or formal offsite meetings. Just stay away from ringing phones and don’t expect to get everything done in one meeting. At these sessions, explore answers to these questions:

• Who are you selling to?
• What do those customers need?
• What distinguishes your product or service from the competition?
• Which marketing tactics will make your products noticeable?
• When and how often should marketing efforts be used?
• Where do you want your company to be in a year?

You might consider taping these sessions and distilling the best ideas and suggestions. Start putting notes on paper. Describe the location and size of your marketplace, how sales and distribution will work, your target customer (age, income, locations, and purchase patterns) and how your products rate against competitors.
 Step 3
Listen to Customers Next, you need to know how customers react to your quality and price, service and delivery, image and brand—everything, in short, that influences their purchasing decision. To discover what customers think, just ask them. Survey some of your current customers as well as customers you want to reach. Make personal calls or send them surveys via e-mail or postcards. Include an incentive to boost participation, such as a discount or a free sample. Based on what you learn, prepare a SWOT analysis that deconstructs your business in fresh ways:

• Strengths - What makes your business thrive?
• Weaknesses - What are your vulnerabilities?
• Opportunities - What market conditions or segments can lead to growth?
• Threats - How are competitors snapping at your heels?

Step 4
Draft the Plan, now that you have an overview of customers and market conditions, you can flesh out your plan. This plan needn’t be a formal document, but should at least consist of a written outline to share with staff or outside consultants and to refer to later. The plan should cover:

• A summary of your market position and goals.
• A definition of what you expect to accomplish in a specific time period (e.g.: “We will sell 200 x’s by the fourth quarter.”)
• A list of target markets, including segmentation and niche areas
• An appropriate strategy for each segment or market.
• Expenses and resources, and how they will be allocated.
• Marketing channels. This is where you choose the types of marketing materials and distribution vehicles that you will use to attract target customers, including flyers, postcards, email marketing, newsletters, Web site and more.
• Competitive strategies. How will you respond to your competitors, for example, if a competitor lowers his price?

Step 5
Track Results Include benchmarks in your plan. Use these benchmarks to take stock of whether your marketing efforts are paying off or if you should rethink your approach. Calculate the category and cost of marketing communications and compare with set specific sales forecasts. Plans are great, but if you don’t also designate responsibility, set deadlines and hold people accountable, marketing efforts can’t succeed.
Use the Campaign Analyzer to track the results of your e-mail Marketing.
Finally, don’t rest on your laurels. Markets change all the time and you must be ready. Make sure to review the plan to see if you must revisit any goals.

Send too many email campaigns and your recipients are likely to suffer from ‘email fatigue’ and start deleting your communications without opening, or worse still, reporting your mails as SPAM. There are many, many articles on the web advising against contacting your list too frequently but not contacting your subscribers often enough can lead to the same end result. If you go for long periods of time without sending any messages, and then bombard your list for a specific event or a new product launch, you may once again trigger unsubscribes or spam reports. 

Try not to let more than a month go by without contacting subscribers, either with regular content relevant to the list or with administrative requests, such as an invitation to fill out or update your preferences. 

Contacting subscribers on or around a regular date each month, so that they come to expect your communications, will also help.

E-mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways of finding new clients and building a stronger relationship with current customers, but only if performed well.

Get personal – personally addressed e-mails with, if possible, personalised content is going to have more chance of establishing trust and a relationship. The alternative could unfortunately resemble spam.

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. Of course be persuasive and use your copy to entice the prospect but keep in mind the above guidelines.

Copy – a few rules that you should follow:

• Be concise – reading lengthy copy on the screen is hard on the eyes and your prospective clients’ patience
• Use short sentences, paragraphs and bullets points to ease reading
• Use the correct spelling and punctuation
• Avoid the over use of capitals
• Avoid jargon

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. Not only proof yourself; give it to others not working on the campaign so that there is a fresh pair of eyes to read over it.

Test your e-mail before you send it – do a dry run to yourself and a sample group, as it will be infuriating to find a glaring error once you press send on that all-important e-mail shot. Even if there are no mistakes, a test run can still help refine and improve the message.

Be prepared to handle inquires – it sounds obvious doesn’t it? However, many e-mail marketers do not factor this in. All departments that are likely to handle inquiries should be briefed in good time and be able to deal with inquiries efficiently.

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.