The Importance of Email - Part 1

By Kenneth Carr
Posted Monday, November 22, 2004

Email. How do you use it? In our six-part series we will discuss the following:

-The importance of keeping in contact.
-When a “Dear John” letter is a good thing!
-Subject Lines.
-What is your goal?
-Keep it simple.
-Make it easy to reply.

The Importance of Keeping in Contact.

While this may seem to be stating the obvious, you may be amazed by how many marketers either don’t know how to stay in touch, or just don’t care. While I can’t imagine any decent person responsible for marketing to not care, I’ll deal with only the first item – not knowing how.

In talking with others involved in marketing, I get these types of questions. Will my prospects and customers want to hear from me via email? If they do, how often should I contact them? When I do contact them, what should I say? Let’s address each of these questions in light of staying in contact via email.

1 – Will my prospects and customers want to hear from me via email? The answer is an absolute YES, if you have something worthwhile to tell them! If a customer has just made a purchase, then a simple and sincere thank you is very appropriate. Customers do like to know that they are appreciated, especially when they open their wallets.

2 - How often should I contact them? What should I say? A great time to send an email is about one to two weeks after a product purchase. Ask your customer if they are satisfied with your product or service, and offer them any additional support they may need. This is an opportunity for your customer service department to out-shine your competitors.

When you send emails, you also want to consider back-end sales. That is, presenting another sales opportunity for a different product. As we both know, it is easier to sell to an existing customer than trying to get a new one. Since you have already paid the price to acquire this customer, make them offers for other products that they can’t refuse. Be sure not to overdo it though. Time your emails and offers properly and you can get up to a 50% response rate from your existing customers.

So keep in contact with your customers and prospects. Use auto responders (go to (http://www.aweber.com/?101433) for more info) to manage your email replies in a timely manner, and to ensure follow-up is completed. This way you can send one set of emails to customers and another to prospects.

In our next issue we will talk about why you want to send out “Dear John” letters!

About the Author
Kenneth Carr is the author of “Marketing Today – Results Tomorrow” He has over 19 years of marketing and IT experience & has helped both small businesses and Fortune 1000 businesses with their web presence. Visit his site at (http://www.internetmarketingamerica.com) or email him at mailto:ken@internetmarketingamerica.com to see how he can assist you.