In many minds, e-mail marketing equates to what is kindly called unsolicited commercial e-mail.
But e-mail marketing is different than spam.
If done right – and that’s critical – e-mail marketing messages benefit both the business that sends them and the person who receives them. To ensure this, send to only the people who opt in to your newsletter, via a sign-up list on your Web site or a third-party list in which the recipients have agreed to have their e-mail address included.
If your business comes across as trustworthy and honest, customers will see your newsletter, promotion, or new product announcement as an effort to alert them to something good, something that will provide value to them. They will appreciate your effort to reach out to them.
That’s why e-mail marketing, even though some of you may have lingering doubts, is so powerful. The marketing world dubs it a “tool” that generates loyalty and customer retention, but the value of e-mail marketing is really that it helps build and strengthen the relationship between you and your customers. And, as we all know, if you don’t work at relationships, they die.
So don’t be uneasy about exploring e-mail marketing. Office Live Small Business now offers an E-Mail Marketing service that can help you get started.
And if you need some solid strategies for making it work well, read these articles by marketing expert Joanna Krotz:
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