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Sunday
October 26, 2008

10 Steps to Creating Successful Email Campaigns

Filed under: Marketing

Love it or hate it, email is now one of the most prolific and accepted forms of business communication. It is also a great way to drive prospects, looking to buy to your LogoMall site.

If you’ve been debating on sending emails to your customers that are beyond simple messages from Outlook or Entourage, but are wondering how to get started, you’re not alone! Based on a class I have been teaching at ASI Show events, here are my 10 first steps to creating a successful email campaign.

Step 1 – Visit www.campaigner.com or www.constantcontact.com and set up free trials of these easy to learn programs. Spend 30 minutes playing with the program and familiarizing yourself with the tools. They are great for design, analytics, managing lists and SPAM.

Step 2 – Update and fill out your contact database. Be sure you have all first name, company name, and email address fields filled out correctly! Export your database as a .CSV file.

Step 3 – Follow the instructions on the site to upload your list to the email company of your choice (see Step 1)

Step 4 – Develop three compelling reasons to email your customers that will drive leads. For example, you could make a special offer on golf products and link to the Golf Gear niche catalog on your LogoMall site.

Step 5 – Pick the best of the three reasons in Step 4 and develop two different subject lines for your email. Make sure the subject line is personalized by first name.

Step 6 – Draft the copy for your email using these rules:
a). Make sure the copy of your email is compelling - giving the recipient a great reason to click through to your LogoMall site. Make sure the reader clearly gets ‘what’s in it for me’ when they do.
b). Put all of the important information in the first couple of paragraphs that will be ‘above the fold’ – this will ensure your reader doesn’t have to scroll to find vital information or links to click on.
c). When possible, personalize your copy with first names and/or company names. The email software will do that for you – check with their support if you have any trouble.

Step 7 – Using the email company software, or an HTML Web professional, design an email using the following rules:
a). Brand it with the colors and style from your LogoMall site
b). Use relevant photos and place clickable offers on and around the images.
c). When possible send the recipient to a featured products page on your LogoMall site that is relevant to the email vs. your LogoMall home page.
d). Check with your LogoMall Internet coordinator if you have questions about your colors and photos etc…

Step 8 – Upload your email, set a distribution date and time, split your list in half by the subject lines, take a deep breath and blast them out

Step 9 – Track your results. Note click throughs that called or requested information from your LogoMall site. These are your ‘hard leads’. Those that clicked through but did not request more information are solid ’soft leads’ that you may want to follow-up with in the coming days.

Step 10 – Evaluate, learn, and repeat!

If you have any questions or feedback on my top 10 list please let me know. You can reach me at dmennig@asicentral.com.

Warm regards,
Don Mennig
Executive Director of Marketing, ASI

Don Mennig, is a 15 year marketing communications veteran and the Executive Director of Marketing at ASI. Before joining ASI, Don ran his own advertising agency and directed the marketing functions for several high technology firms. He has produced branding and advertising campaigns for companies such as Agilent, McDonalds and Unisys and has helped over 50 small businesses gain traction and find success in both B2B and B2C endeavors.

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