Entries from May 2008 ↓

Building a great website is one thing, but driving traffic to your site is another thing entirely. Without a volume of people regularly visiting your website, your site becomes ineffective and you won’t see much of a return on the time and money you have invested into your online presence.

There are many ways to drive traffic to your website - search engines, online advertising, print advertising, viral marketing, etc. But there is one often overlooked low-cost method that is especially effective at driving interested individuals to your site on a regular basis: marketing e-mails.

A marketing e-mail is an e-mail mailed out to your e-mail mailing list on a regular basis. Such e-mails contain information that is of value to the people on your list and include content that promotes your brand or your goods and services. It is different from SPAM in that the people on your list have requested to be on your list. They have subscribed to your mailing list because you have something of value to send them. This is called an “opt-in” mailing list, and it is totally acceptable to send regular mailings to such a list.

One example of a marketing e-mail is a “Fact of the Week” e-mail containing some interesting tid-bit related to your industry. This is e-mailed out once a week and includes mention of something you have for sale that ties in to the interesting fact for that week. For example, if you own a jewelry store, you could send out an interesting fact about legends regarding emeralds, and then mention that all your emerald jewelry is on sale that week.

Another example is a weekly e-mail that is sent out with tips on how to use a product or service that your customers have recently purchased from you. For example, your customers that have bought digital cameras from you can receive weekly e-mails explaining various features of digital cameras and how to best make use of these features to improve photography. Such an e-mail can include mention of camera accessories available for purchase that relate to each weekly tip.

If you have a business that sells to other businesses who in turn resell your services to their customers, you can send out regular e-mails containing tips to help them increase their sales. E-mails that offer genuine and easy-to-follow help are much appreciated by the people on your mailing list, and they build loyalty for your company. Additionally, any increase in sales for your agents leads to an increase in sales for your own company, so everybody wins.

In addition to offering your customers something of value, marketing e-mails also drive traffic to your website. Usually only part of an article is used in the e-mail - just enough to get the reader interested. Then the reader is directed to your website to read the rest of the article (which they can access with a quick click on a link in the e-mail). After they are done reading the article on your website, they will hopefully be interested enough to browse around your site and find other things of interest to them. And if your website is designed well, this can lead to increased online sales or more leads generated.

Another benefit of marketing e-mails is that they regularly remind your customers that you are there and that you have goods and/or services that they need and want (see our article about the “Three Times Rule” for more information). Sending out regular mailings can have a significant effect on your income, and e-mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective methods of achieving this. This can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

So if you have a well-designed website that just isn’t producing the results you expected, take a look at how much regular traffic you are getting (contact your Account Manager for a free report of your traffic statistics). If your traffic is not at an adequate volume to produce the results you want, consider starting an e-mail marketing campaign to bolster your website’s effectiveness. Your Account Manager can work with you to create a successful marketing campaign.

Businesses are constantly looking for the fastest, most direct, most effective and least costly means of reaching their target customers and convincing them to do business with them. Often in their attempts to reach their target customers they may try things like newspaper advertising, radio advertising, and direct mail. And often they are disappointed with the results. So why is it that some companies seem to be successful at using mass media for advertising while others are not?

A large part of the secret to success in advertising is what we call the “Three Times Rule.” In order for advertising to be successful, you need to repeatedly reach your potential customers with the same message over and over — at least three times, and preferably more.

What this means is that instead of taking out one large full-page newspaper ad and running it once, you are better off buying three smaller ads and running the same ad three times in a row. If you are running radio ads, you are better off running shorter more frequent ads rather than longer ads less frequently. In direct mail, you can cut your mailing list to one-third its size and do three mailings to the same list instead of just one large mailing.

The basic theory behind the “Three Times Rule” is that the world around us is so cluttered with advertising that you have to keep repeating your message over and over before it makes an impression on your target audience. If someone notices your ad once, they probably won’t remember it because they will be bombarded with hundreds of other ads before they take any action regarding yours. But if they keep seeing your same ad over and over it starts to make an impression on them and they start to remember it. Then when it comes time to make a purchase, the ads that have hit them most often will be at the top of their minds, and you have a much better chance of getting an interested customer.

This is one reason why e-mail marketing is so effective.  You can keep sending your message to your customers repeatedly on a weekly or monthly basis for very little cost.  You can keep reminding them that you are there and that you have goods and services that they want.  If you include information in your e-mails that your customers find useful or entertaining, they will continue reading your e-mails and repeatedly getting your message.   This translates into more business for you.

THE PROBLEM

As the volume of spam being sent out into the Internet has increased, so have efforts to combat it. Most of us benefit from these spam prevention measures, but there are also occasional incidental problems that can occur resulting from barriers put up to block the transmission of spam.

One of the common problems about which our clients contact us regarding their e-mail service is an inability to send outgoing e-mail. In most cases this is caused by the client’s local Internet Service Provider (ISP) blocking their outgoing e-mail as a spam prevention measure.

SOLUTION: CONTACT YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER

If you are having difficulties with your outgoing mail, there are several things you can do to get around any block imposed by your ISP. The first is to contact your ISP and ask them to help you set up your outgoing e-mail using their outgoing mail server (also called an SMTP server). They should be able to walk you through the set up and fix any problems you have with sending out e-mail. If you use your ISP’s outgoing mail server, please note that it is completely separate from our system, and we are able to offer only limited assistance regarding your outgoing mail since we do not have access to your ISP’s server configuration. Using your ISP’s outgoing mail server is, however, the recommended set-up because it offers the most direct route to the Internet.

ALTERNATE SOLUTION: USE OUR SERVER

If your ISP is unable or unwilling to help you set up your outgoing e-mail through their server, you have another option. We have set up our own outgoing mail (SMTP) server that you can use. By using the following settings you can usually bypass any blocks your local ISP is imposing on your outgoing e-mail.

Use the following settings for your outgoing (SMTP) mail server:

Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: mail.[your_domain].com
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Port: 465
Selected: “Server requires a secure connection (SSL)”

In Outlook Express, the Mail Server setting is on the “Servers” tab of the Account Settings window, and the other two settings are on the “Advanced” tab. Other e-mail software will have similar settings that you should be able to easily find and change.

If you have any trouble getting this set up, please feel free to contact your account manager for assistance.

We have started this blog as a service to our clients to help share ideas regarding web sites, marketing and other topics of interest.

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Thank you.