Are you ‘Flying Blind’?l 

How do you contact your customers? What is the primary form of communication between your company and your customers? Do you blast out emails from Outlook or some email provider and... ‘hope for the best’? Do you ‘carpet bomb’ your entire list and figure someone should reply?! Sure, this is a cheap way of (maybe) reaching your customers, but how do you measure the success of these ‘campaigns’? How can email marketing and CRM really add value to your business?

Structured email marketing campaigns and the use of email marketing tools is the process of segmenting and targeting customers from your company contacts database, targeting them with pre designed newsletters/promotions or announcements, then performing detailed analysis of campaign results. Finally, using the results of the campaign analysis Marketing Managers can develop further campaign effectiveness based on real time business intelligence.

Most, if not all businesses will have a database of client contact details, either in the form of name cards, an excel list, MS Access or some other sort of database. More recently businesses have been opting to use CRM tools such as Salesforce.com, Netsuite or Zoho CRM. A CRM tool will actually allow mass emailing of contacts but may not contain the functionality to track reads, bounces and so on. A CRM tool combined with an effective email marketing strategy and appropriate email marketing tool therefore can offer Marketing Managers a very powerful means of reaching the right customers with the right information at the right time.

If your clients / leads are segmented effectively, eg. by industry, interest, past purchases etc., and your email design designed correctly, email marketing can help you deliver the right content to the right prospect at the right time in the sales lifecycle. This can help you achieve a high response rate and thus is a great form of lead generation.

If you are not sure about the value of CRM and email marketing, then here 10 reasons, why you should invest in these tools right away.

1. Global marketplace: It does not matter who you are or where you need to reach, targeted email campaigns allow you to overcome physical boundaries and distance.

2. Costs: The average cost of designing, implementing, testing and sending an email campaign is up to 78% less for 5000 recipients compared to a paper-based direct mail marketing campaign. With this in mind, companies can reduce time, resources and costs than with carrying out traditional marketing campaigns such as direct mail or print advertising.

3. Engaging your readers: with email you can building interactive features into your message in order to engage your readers and make the whole experience more interesting. You can easily integrate graphics, videos, music, quizzes, games or whatever else you feel will be of interest to your target audience. These interactive features can all be used to get the attention of your prospect and push him/her to follow your intended call to action.

4. Personalisation and integration with a CRM: Email marketing software allows you to set up very personlised emails which pull data from contacts lists which can be developed extensively using a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). For example, names, salutations, interests, past purchases etc. All this data can be inserted into the email body specifically for that one customer. This helps in creating a special, personal bond with prospects and customers.

5. Scheduled and 24/7 marketing: Decent email marketing software allows you to schedule email campaigns to occur when you may well be fast asleep, for example, if you want to target customers in a specific time zone half way around the world to open you email at the right time of the day, with email marketing you are able to reach your audience even when you are out of the office.

6. Highly measurable results: Email marketing software allows Marketing Managers to accurately measure read rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, reader behaviour when they click through to your site, bounces from bad email addresses, and more. This allows you to assess the effectiveness of different email campaigns.

7. Targeted marketing: The web is awash with companies selling prepackaged and custom-built contact lists. These are perfectly legitimate as they are opt in lists, full of people who have opted to receive information such as yours. With this in mind you can reach those people who might require your services, solutions or products without going to people who don’t need them. You can select your targets based on any criteria, such as geography, age, income, expenditure, past purchase history and many other parameters. A CRM is also a great tool for this as it allows you to segment your contacts extremely well and then perform target email campaigns.

8. Opt-in or unsubscribe functions: Decent email marketing software allows you to add opt-in and opt-out options which help you to refine your contact list, give people the chance of leaving if they so wish, and basically keep you list as relevant as possible by populating it with only the contacts who are really interested in your products/services.

9. Fast response time: It takes approximately 1-3 days to receive a response from an email, with most responses coming within 1 day. A direct mail campaign can take up to a minimum of 7 to 12 days to generate any responses. In addition, it is far easier to respond to an email than to a direct mail.

10. KISS: Keep it simple, stupid! Executing an email campaign is easy! While email marketing software can be a complex, with a little training anyone can carry out effective email campaigns sitting at home without any extensive resources.

This form of digital marketing is a high response and opportunistic means for communicating with your customers. If carried out in a structured and analytical way, and especially if combined with other business solutions such as CRM, email marketing can bring numerous benefits to your business.

So, go for it! Start an email marketing campaign today and see your profits grow. Many of the businesses you are competing against are doing so already!

CRM Asia Solutions
info@crmasiasolutions.com
http://www.crmasiasolutions.com