Increase Sales and Customer Loyalty with Email Newsletters
Bonus benefit: email letters can gather a trove of customer data
Blogs are a sexy topic in online marketing. But for many business owners, an email newsletter is a more practical medium. Blogs require frequent updates and return on investment is hard to quantify.
By contrast, a smart e-letter can generate leads, drive customers to your business or website, motivate existing customers to buy more, expand your customer base and enhance your image in the market. And, because an email service can pinpoint what readers are paying attention to, you can measure results.
An e-mail newsletter can be elaborate, with multiple stories, industry news or surveys. Or it can be chatty and homey. But most businesses go for a slicker product to establish the company and/or its owner as an industry thought leader. Credibility is the key, says Todd Smart, founder of BeTuitive Inc., a custom publishing service.
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Indeed, a sophisticated newsletter can make a small company look like a player. “Newsletters can definitely level the playing field,” notes Joe Colopy, CEO of Bronto Software, an e-newsletter service based in Durham, N.C. If a well-researched, polished publication is beyond your in-house abilities, there are options. In almost every city you will find marketing communications companies (and freelancers) who can write and lay out a publication.
There are also national outfits that handle all the mechanics of mailing and measurement. Some also specialize in certain industries. IMN Inc., an e-mail newsletter service based in Waltham, Mass., has a system that lets computer/technology dealers send newsletters to their customers. The IMN “platform” also lets resellers build newsletters, using content from large suppliers, such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Another IMN program, called Loyalty Driver, is being used by 100 auto dealers, according to Brian Epro, director of automotive services at IMN. The Loyalty Driver newsletter includes lifestyle articles and special offers and is completely customizable. The interface to the newsletter only requires the level of PC know-how required to use Microsoft Office, says Epro.
The key benefit of services such as IMN’s is getting useful reports on which articles and offers recipients look at and information about how far they drill down. If readers click on information about a particular model, for example, they can be tagged for follow-up calls. Dealers can also gather data about where customers are in the buying cycle when readers answer questions after clicking on the “Learn More” link. “We see the sales cycle accelerate very quickly,” says Epro. And, he says, if a lead comes from the dealer’s Web site, rather than from an online buying service or from the manufacturer, the dealer is three to four times more likely to close a sale.
An email newsletter can also be used to target customers of a certain service within a larger client pool. Swapdrive Inc., which sells data backup services, uses The Rocket Science Group’s Mailchimp email newsletter service to distribute between 10,000 and 15,000 emails a month. Swapdrive has its own Backup.com service and also resells its service to Iomega for Istorage users. Brent Young, Swapdrive’s director of business development, targets monthly emails to users from both groups. While it’s possible for a reasonably proficient techie to program and mail an enewsletter, most small companies are better off using a service. A service can ensure delivery and is better equipped to navigate the increasingly tricky privacy issues, including the CAN SPAM legislation, which requires publishers of commercial eletters to have opt-out features.
The services also provide the critical measurements of successful delivery, open rates, and rate of conversion (a measure of what stories were clicked on after the newsletter was opened) and can even identify buying trends over time. Companies that cater to small and mid-sized emailers include The Rocket Science Group, Bronto Software, VerticalResponse, and IMN Inc. Most of the services will let you take a test drive of their offerings for free.
Pricing is generally based on the number of email addresses. Mailchimp, which is owned by the Rocket Science Group, charges $15 for 500; price per address drops as quantities rise. VerticalResponse, for example, charges $15 for up to 1,000 emails, $10.00 per thousand for 2,500 to 50,000 emails and $7.50 per thousand for 100,000 to 500,000. Bronto Software charges start at $100 per month but it uses a model based on the size of the client’s opt-in email list. $100 per month is for a 1,000 contacts and it includes a dedicated account manager. IMN, Inc., charges begin at $200 per month.
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