Page 12 - Marketing Blog Posts, Articles and Updates

An article in BRW magazine last year (Dec 1-7 p35 “Start spreading the newsletter”) highlighted some research out of the US indicating that, for every $1 a company spends on marketing emails, the return is $40.56, “better than almost any other form of marketing”. Despite this fact, email marketing is still lurking in the shadow of social media as the old fashioned way of doing things on the web. Social media will, in all probability, eventually replace email as the way people communicate, in business and personal life. But in the meantime – and this probably means over the next 5 years – email is still far and away the best way to market a business or a product online. But, very few businesses actually use email marketing, at least in Australia, where 73% of Australian businesses do not use email marketing and 87% do not write online newsletters or blogs*. The main objections to using email marketing are: It's all social media now There's no denying the rise and rise of social media. To decide which marketing channels are the most appropriate, you need to have a clear idea of your target market or more precisely, your 'perfect client', and then find out where they are and how they make buying decisions. If they are active in social media, then social media should be part of your marketing. If they use email to communicate, then email should be part of your marketing. A combination of both is often ideal. Nobody likes receiving spammy emails Unless you are the perfect client you are marketing to, do not assume that your customers will react to emails in the same way you do. With any email list, around 3% just do not like getting commercial emails and will unsubscribe the first time you send to them. That leaves the remaining 97% who are happy to hear from you! We don't have enough news to spread All businesses have information and skills that others are prepared to pay for – otherwise they wouldn't be in business. It follows that all businesses are able to provide some form of advice and information in their field of specialisation that will be of interest to their customers. It's often just a question of digging this out and explaining it in language that is accessible by customers. At KND we have a short memory jogger to help us decide what to include in our monthly newsletter, which we have included below**. I wouldn't know how to measure the effectiveness of a newsletter Most email marketing systems will report open rates and click-through rates and this is a good guide to how effective your email marketing is. The ultimate test is of course: are you making more sales? If you sell product directly from email marketing it is relatively easy to measure. If however you sell higher priced products or provide a service, email marketing works more as a means of staying top-of-mind and enhancing your profile and credibility in your field. Monitoring open rates and the corresponding traffic to your site will give you a clear picture as to whether your content is interesting, however your bottom line is the only real telltale for your ROI. We don't have the time or people to put a newsletter together What can we say? Give us a call at KND and we'll be able to help you out! Memory Jogger *source MYOB Business Monitor **courtesy of NewsBusiness: • what's happening • new products • new services • new clients • recent jobs • events/conferences • media coverage • new team members/promotions • quirky/funny stories • company info eg mergers/acquisitions/results/moves • comment on industry/general news topics • advice

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