Internet marketing includes the concept of
email marketing as well as search engine positioning.
Effective use of email can add value to almost all kinds of
businesses. I recently came across a success story by Garrett French
in Webpronews (http://www.webpronews.com/)
that described a businessman leaving his
position in an established company to purchase a chain of dry
cleaners. As a new entrepreneur, he was interested in using his
talents to improve the marketing of the business, and turned to
the internet.
"His theory was that dry cleaning offered an
ideal opportunity to capture and leverage customer data. Dry cleaners
know the address, phone number and buying patterns of their customers.
Armed with this data, he turned to email as a medium to communicate
with his customers. Through in-store sign up sheets, he quickly
gathered over 2,000 email addresses.
On a weekly basis, he would send coupons, articles about textile care
and most importantly would include personal content like pictures of
his family, restaurant reviews and coverage of his philanthropic
efforts in the community.
The results were overwhelming - 15% coupon redemption rates, improved
customer loyalty and lots of reply emails from his customers. These
customers began to feel like they knew (the writer) on a personal
level."
This success story shows how email marketing
can be employed by small businesses to great benefit.
Note the several important principles that this
business used in its email marketing approach:
Mail was sent only to people who had "given
their permission" by providing their email address. The article
didn't mention it, but it is also important to provide a means for the
recipient to remove his or her name from the mailing list.
Communication was regular, in this case,
weekly. Subscribers learn to expect the mail on a regular schedule and
that adds to its impact.
The email provided information of value to
the recipients. In the article, the author pointed out that dry
cleaners know the buying patterns of their customers. With this
information, the email messages can be targeted to items of interest
to the mailing list.
The email had a personal tone. People get
tired of constant bombardment with ads. This email included
information about the writer that made the recipient feel that there
was a personal contact.
Use these principles in your own email marketing
campaign to reach out to your customers and make them a part of
your "business family". Loyalty is what major businesses spend
millions of dollars to create through their branding strategies.
Small business owners can use email marketing to accomplish the
same goal at much less cost.
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