Free, Live Webinar – Top 10 Vital Factors for Email Marketing Success: How to Generate Results in a Tough Economy

Date: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Time: 2:00 PM EDT | 11:00 AM PDT

Email continues to be a powerful staple even in the current recession-effected marketing world. It’s still the foundation of any successful online marketing effort. Without effective email marketing, a company’s entire online marketing strategy can crumble like a house of cards. Read more

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How do you know what to say if you don’t know who you are talking to?

Image by Intersection Consulting via Flickr

It’s amazing how may people put finger to keyboard without considering the above. There is no point in engaging with your audience unless you have a clear picture of who your target audience is and what you want to say to them. Are you selling, informing, seeking donations or funding, engaging with policy makers, staff or supporters?

Defining your target audience

The starting point for a successful email e-newsletter is to identify your target market or audience. Think about the people you interact with every day. What services do they require, what additional services could you offer them that they are not aware of? What are their needs and requirements? Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and ask what’s in it for me? What’s in it for me if I subscribe to your e-newsletter? What’s in it for me if I read your e-newsletter? Segment your audience so you can communicate more targeted and relevant information to them.

What are you offering?

Avoid offering all things to all people as this leads to a situation where you offer nothing to anyone. Firstly focus on the areas of your business or organisation that you are an expert in and are already generating revenue or creating awareness. Look at areas where you can up skill to offer services that match the current environment.

Visualise your audience – Decide on the key messages you want to deliver and how you are going to communicate the messages to your e-newsletter readers.

Identify your target market

Review your client list. Build a profile of your target market or audience and the services you will be providing. When you have identified the services you offer or message you want to communicate and who you are going to target them at, you can use this information to match the content of your email e-newsletter to the services you provide.

By segmenting and knowing your target market you can ensure that you only send targeted and relevant information to your e-newsletter readers.

Ultan Bannon

email me or phone 086 1550 568

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31st MII Conference

The Marketing Institute of Ireland Annual Conference is coming up on 3rd November. Sponsored by The Irish Independent and Newstalk106.  Speaker Line Up includes – Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev, Martin Thomas, Jerry Kennelly, Anne Sawbridge,  Steve Shapiro and Patou Nuytemans  click here for more details.

Content is King

Content is King!

 “My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy”
William Shakespeare

With the advent of social media, email marketing doesn’t have the appeal that it used to. However email marketing works and so long as you implement permission based email campaigns with targeted and relevent content it will pay you dividends over the medium to long-term. One of the key issues facing small business and not for profits in crafting their email newsletter is writing content.

Have you sat in front of your computer screen wondering how the hell you agreed to take on the editorial responsibility of publishing a newsletter? Do you suffer from writers block?

Take of your sales and marketing hat and put on your editorial hat is my first piece of advice. Content should be 80% editorial and 20% sales and marketing.  Put yourself in the shoes of your readers and ask yourself what’s in it for them if they read my newsletter. Visualise your readers, divide them into segments – customers, funders, donors, policymakers and other stakeholders. Ensure that you have content in your newsletter that is relevant to  each segment.

When your sourcing content choose the topics you are going to cover, set up a daily google alert for the topic. By the time it comes to publishing your newsletter you will have a vast resource of up-to-date content to create and write your article.

Useful Article – Best Practices: Creating Compelling Content for Email Newsletters

Ultan Bannon 

Email Marketing Awards Gallery 2010

Marketing Sherpa’s annual email awards gallery has all the winning campaign details and creative samples. Well worth a look to see how it should be done. The gallery has 23 campaigns that should inspire your next email campaign.  Winners from the B2B and B2C space include Alaska Airlines, Electrolux, Microsoft, Dell, and The Orange County Register.Click here

First impressions count

First Impressions Count

First impressions count and the subject line of your email is critical to getting your email opened. The 2009 subject line Hall of Shame has just been published with many big brands on the list. Make sure your business or not for profit is not on it! Read more.

Quick tips for a successful e-newsletter

Clickz is a great source of tips and useful information on the latest trends in email marketing. As it’s the start of the year and plans are being completed for the year ahead it’s worth reviewing your e-Newsletter and make sure your following best practice. Click here for an excellent article Quick Tips for Successful E-mail Newsletters.

Have a great week,

Ultan Bannon
Monday 25th January, 2010